Sadly the evenings venture resulted in nothing except my first injuries, I forgot to figure that canyons, especially those that traverse north/south, loose the light sooner than the motel on the high plains, so instead of a couple of hours I had 15 minutes, I could of moved on but whilst ascending to my lofty perch up what I thought was an easier route, a shale slope, turned out to be a mistake 4/5th of the way up when adhesion (lack of) defeated ambition. On the bright side the rental has a leather interior off which the blood could be easily washed
Anyway, all cleaned up now so here's the photos from earlier in the day. I wanted to get back to the globally over worked location at the base of the canyon and add it to my bucket list and I can see why it's popular but probably not for the same reasons others do, it's certainly photogenic but you can work several shots and so that's what I did.
The first EB up the Canyon.
And this is why I especially like this spot, it's close, very close and your at the same height as the exhaust stack so very very loud.
In the background a WB stacker rolls down grade, common 'ball' 'squirrel' moment it has to be said when the Canyon is in full swing.
DPU's at full chat up close and personal.
In the top right is Tom, one of three Swiss guys doing virtually the same as me, working Transcon 2 in Cali and Arizona, they did Tehachapi on Monday and saw only one train all day, gladly my tip off from the VR forums made sure I didn't fall into the same trap...not at Tehachapi but Cajon was also pretty much a wash out.
One other sound that I've come to appreciate is the whine from the roller bearings, once you tune in it never leaves you and is actually quite loud and a good indication of speed, as the head end passes it's medium pitch whine but as the grade steepens and more load gets dragged up the hill it drops to a low moan as the DPU's draw near.
A WB rolls by, this one a local to the steel processing plant a couple of miles south of here between the two tracks. I'm not actually sure which is the original single line here, probably the higher line as the grade seems more even, the WB (lower) really drops off a cliff when it leaves Kingman Depot.
Shortly after he passed the white high railer of death rolled by, basically that's all WB wiped off the agenda for a couple of hours, fortunately the EB's just kept on coming and coming
I could keep working each outcrop with different angles.
Finally, setting up for a lower power angle it all dried up and guess what, the white high railer of death came WB, I was polite and waved, surly goit just ignored me but that was it, no point even hanging around. So I popped back into town and did some tourist stuff around the old powerhouse museum and railroad park with the stuffed and mounted 4-8-4 which is near Transcon2.
Sure enough couple of hours later the traffic started to flow and I bagged this EB crawling out of the Canyon head and into Kingman Depot.
In the foreground is the WB tracking dropping off the cliff. The two tracks are roughly side by side through the town centre and depot but split with the EB taking a big wide loop to the south to ease the overall grade and then kind of meet at another cut at the top end of town.
Coming up the cut a EB makes good speed up the grade.
Shooting almost straight into the sun isn't helping but you've little choice here, as it passes the roller bearings are a low moan, behind me about 2/3rds of a mile away is the crest, by the time the DPU's pass the bearings are singing away quite happily. once the majority of the mass is over the crest speed picks up gratifying quickly.
A short while later a WB rolls down the grade.
I don't think this is the original alignment, it's certainly the original track but has been swung to the right to ease the curve, the original alignment is still easily seen from the bridge in the background and runs from the bridge in an almost straight line toward me; it now forms part of the BNSF access ROW.
A little further down and nearer town another WB eases through a rock cut.
Back at the top of the hill, on the bridge seen in the background, a WB eases over the crest and begins the long descent through Kingman and the Canyon.
My motel is near the end of the train about a mile and a bit more away and about the distance of the trees at far left away....can just hear another going by right now...with DPU's
Crossing over and looking downhill we have another 'ball' 'squirrel' moment.
The original alignment can just be seen to the right of the DPU's, I've a better....non train scenery shot.....that shows it better.
Finally the WB from above gets here.
The scar from the original WB alignment is easier seen on the far right.
Tomorrow it's the haul back to Flagstaff with a diversion up Route 66 to Hackberry, Valentine, maybe Crozier Canyon, Yampai summit and Seligman, but, I might for the first time set an alarm and head back to my first spot this morning for a dose of stack chat in the rock cut and some up close angles before breakfast.
MD
, some of the lighting is very difficult to work with, especially head on into the sun, you've not much choice in some locations where the line is in a gully running north/south, other than not taking the picture.
Since your posting on 27 April, I have lost 90% of the photos you have posted. They all come up with the image no. and jpg! Is it me?