Passenger Trains > A Pair of Passenger Specials In the Mojave Desert Today

A pair of daylight passenger specials made their way across the Mojave Desert and through Needles, CA today. The first being a westbound Amtrak PTC test train, symboled 921, the next being a BNSF Officer Special using the equipment that was just up with the SP4449 last week. This clip features two catches of each train.

TRAIN 1: Amtrak 921 heads west through Park Moabi, CA early in the morning as it nears Needles. Per a conversation with the dispatcher, they wanted to use Main 3 through Needles (normal routing for Amtrak to easily reach the depot), which meant they had to wait at East Needles for an eastbound freight to leave. This gave me enough time to beat it to the El Garces Harvey House in Needles for another shot. The sun was in the worst possible position for this, so I went deep into the bowels of the El Garces courtyard and captured the train from there.

TRAIN 2: I went home for a few hours then headed back out to try and catch the Officer Special. I headed west of Needles to near Bannock, CA on the Needles Subdivision and caught the OSBDCLO heading downhill out of Goffs a little after noon. Afterwards, it was back to where I started; Park Moabi, for one last view of the train.

We've had a TON of wind out here lately, and today wasn't supposed to be bad with the wind, but it was still FAR more present than I would've liked.

Thanks for watching!

-Tom



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/18 17:07 by zchcsse.

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Very nice. Thank you.

Wow, super job !

Thanks!

Charles Rice
Saint Louis, MO

Very nice video! Thanks so much for going out and getting these two rare trains! Love teh part at the El Garces -- that worked out great!

I wonder if the Amtrak one was a PTC test train?

Nice video. Saw the BNSF train go by the Flagstaff cam a few hours ago.

WOW ! That was awesome ! Thank you for sharing!!! :):):)

Thanks. Marty