I had the pleasure of hooking up with some fellow TrainBoarders, Shaun and Mike (Family Lines System) last weekend for some all-day train chasing. We were railfanning the BNSF around Flagstaff, AZ. After some local rains early in the week, we had a beautiful day to shoot photos. We made about five major stops, and bagged over 20 trains in about 8 hours. There would have been more, but MOW was in the area, and had a ballast groomer at Bellemont. First stop was the Arizona Divide, highest rail point in the state. The location is just to the west of Flagstaff. BNSF 5269 is eastbound: This is a great location just for the scenery. From here it's pretty much downhill to the Colorado River or Winslow. This stack train is cresting the divide on its way east: UP 4646 is westbound: I'll post a few more sets of pictures. Hopefully Shaun or Mike will kick in with some pictures or comments!
On the other end of Bellemont, we found a ballast grooming operation that was slowing traffic. This short work train made a lot of racket, and was moving about walking speed. Fun to watch! A different view: While we were there, they lifted the trackside boom, and let a train through. BNSF 7744 blasts by:
I don't have any pics to post from this trip since I was the "wheel man", as well as taking on the duty of monitoring the scanner and making sure each train was documented on the log sheet we were running on the laptop computer. As always, it was a great day for train chasing along the Seligman Sub and was a lot of fun to meet a fellow trainboarder (Steve/Campp) to go along with us. Looking forward to doing it again! Shaun also got some good pics and should have a few more up shortly. Mike
Next we moved to Walnut Canyon Road, about the best spot in the area. Great visibility, lighting, easy to reach, signals are visible. I picked CSX 7 out of a passing consist: Pushers 4329 and 5080 on another Eastbound:
For me, the grade crossing at Cosnino is Mecca. This is a really good location for some great shots. Warbonnet 852 is on the point. She's looking kind of grungy, but she's on the point: What could be better than a Warbonnet? This is the only cub scout I saw all day: Trains are working really hard coming up this hill. A junk freight crawled by, giving us a good show, and moved on. On the other track a hotter stack train is passing. With the elevation here, I can zoom out to catch the overtake:
Here comes BNSF 7755, downhill in a hurry: Another view of the endless parade of containers: What a great time we had. Thanks to Shaun and Mike, hope to do it again! I'll put up some other shots in my blog in a day or so, click on the "My Blog" in my signature.
Thanks guys! great shots, and I imagine it was a lot of fun for the group. Funny, just last night I watched Pentrex's Arizona Divide (Santa Fe) and Railway Productions BNSF over the Arizona Divide. I'd love to get out there someday and tool around. Maybe when my kids are older we can do that.
Glad ya had a good time up there Steve, know we sure did. Was truly a pleasure to have such knowledgable tour guide on our annual trip up the hill. Hit some new spots this year, and even tho Maint. was in the Way, still saw a nice amount of trains. If any of you are ever considering take the trip up the hill, get ahold of Steve and try to get him to go with ya, will be an very able guide, and is very well versed in the local history. Thanks again Steve, hope to see ya next year for our annual trip to the area. BTW, did you get the pic of the engineer up in the window at Cosnino?
Ummm, yeah. mg: . Would have been the best loco shot of the day, except for that. I almost used that picture in the "Details" contest, but thought it was too tacky. :embarassed: Thanks Shaun and Mike, it was a blast! William, PM me and I'll get you started.
From Sedona, just take AZ 89A up to I-17 then takeI-17 to I-40 , then take I-40 either E. or W from Flagstaff. Just depends on where you want to go as far as our photo spots. The divide and Bellmont are West of Flag., and Walnut Canyon and Cosnino Rd are East.
Although this thread is four years old, I just ran across this video I shot that day in 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ3zw8iHS1g
