by Aaron Hockley on March 18, 2010
Dogcaught.com will be unavailable this coming Saturday (March 20th) for a substantial upgrade and re-launch. The site has remained with essentially the same design and functionality for a few years; after this weekend’s refresh you’ll see a new design that will add some features including integration with modern social networking services.
Of course, we’ll continue to bring you railroad photos and related stories as soon as the new site is online. Look for a full description of what’s new to be posted once we’re back!
by Steve Eshom on March 17, 2010
After two days on Tehachapi it was time to move into the Mojave. Despite growing up in the Northwest I have to admit that one of my favorite places outside of here is the segment of the BNSF from Newberry Springs east to Needles. What attracts me? I think its the rawness. Of course the measure of raw is truly in the eye of the beholder. Like this post title says there are plants and birds, and rocks and things all over the desert, they are just on a scale that fits the environment.
Just west of Needles is a grade that at time reaches 1.5% and takes the railroad from around 500 ft of elevation at the depot to just over 2200 ft. at Goffs. Between Java and Klienfelter the railroad enters a small canyon and parallels the Piute Wash for a time. In this canyon the mighty transcon looks more like something you’d see in the Cascades than something you’d see in the desert. Perfect!
Snaking away from the Colorado River
In the Northwest photographing from a river bed can’t be done without waders or boots. In the desert, no waders are necessary! This trip I wanted to spend more time in washes since they are so dominant in the desert.
Hacienda Wash east of Klienfelter
Robert has done quite a bit of reconnaissance on previous trips which came in handy on this visit. One of the spots he learned about is Bolo hill. Bolo lies between Amboy and Cadiz and provides arguably one of the most interesting deserts views available. From the east side of the summit curve Cadiz is visible along with the track nearly 10 miles to the east where it makes a northward turn towards Danby, Essex, and Fenner. From the west side the view includes Saltus, Amboy, Bagdad, and Siberia.
In the photo below two trains are visible. Following the track behind the stack train a headlight will appear about where the track disappears. This headlight is a second train 12 miles to the west at Bagdad. Not far above the headlight is a silver object and which is the signal bridge at East Siberia, 20 miles to the west. Does it get much better than that in the Mojave?
Bolo Hill
by Steve Eshom on March 15, 2010
On the first days of our desert adventure we visited Tehachapi. Tehachapi is one of my favorite locations because everywhere you look the railroad is interesting. If I lived nearby like our friend Darren, I’d love it because there is so much to see and photograph. I’d love to be able to spend the time to wait for the right light for some of the unusual locations on the pass.
We were quite fortunate to find the grass green below the loop so we spent some time chasing the variable light and the green grass. The results were spectacular! In the photo above from Bealville the hills in the background demonstrate how the light was quite hit and miss. 30 seconds before I snapped this photo the entire south switch area was shadowed. Then wham, out comes the sun!
I really had to keep my eye on things as the light changed so quickly. The next photo is the same train passing the NSS Cliff and within a few seconds the light would again change but fortunately everything held up and the train and hills were lit just right.
Sandcut is the site of many a fabulous sunset photographs and despite that this is my first visit to this location in 4 tries. Sadly timing of the the train traffic didn’t support a perfect sunset photo. Instead I had to settle for this photo of the H-EVEBAR leaving Bakersfield and heading for the hill under a sky that saw sunset about 20 minutes before.
I’m ready for Tehachapi again soon!
by Steve Eshom on March 11, 2010
Last night I returned from 7 days in the deserts of southern California and Arizona with my friends Robert Scott and Mike “Mad Dog” Sawyer. Our trip took us to popular locations like Tehachapi, Ludlow, and Kingman as well as some less publicized locations like Rogoza, Hackberry, and Lavic. The weather on the trip covered all 4 seasons with fresh snow appearing on the Tehachapi and San Bernardino mountains, spring thunderstorms popping over Barstow, and enough sun to get a bit of a sun burn at Klienfelter. The most shocking weather though was not any of what I just listed but rather the constant rain that fell on the desert for one entire day. Yep, rain. It was the kind of rain we normally get in Vancouver, the kind that gets you real wet but doesn’t amount to all that much in the rain gauge. Despite the rain I’m ready to go back!
There was plenty of train action everywhere we traveled. Robert’s record keeping shows that we photographed 15-20 trains everyday. As typical with the transcon there are always a few trains that end up not being recorded on compact flash during relocation drives. Hey, its the transcon so there’s always another one along soon!! The Sunset route was just about as busy but since train speeds are a bit slower and meets are frequent in the single track sections so getting around a train for a photo isn’t too hard.
Over the next few weeks I’ll continue to post some of my favorites from the adventure. While I’m catching up here’s a favorite from Newberry Springs east of Barstow. The thunderstorm in the back ground dumped hail on Barstow and made a muddy mess of the washes along the Salton Sea. Despite its destructive potential, the storm made a great backdrop for an eastbound stack train launching out of Barstow at track speed.
