My traveling companions from last year’s desert adventure are back in the desert this week. Checking in with Robert today they we out around Mojave looking at the UP and chasing the Trona. What fun. Hopefully I can get back down there again soon to relive moments like this at Ludlow. What a beautiful place.
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I really wanted to post a link showing off Mike’s (“Mad Dog”) work from our desert trip but I’m having trouble finding anything. Ahhh, Mike, did you forget something? So instead of praising him for the great photos which I saw him set up for I will have to jump directly the incriminating photos with too long captions. If you want to see some of his photos drop him an email, text, or a phone call to encourage him.
“Mad Dog” Shoots Goffs, CA
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Mike, the trains are over here!
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The women here really aren’t what you are looking for
Relaxing in the desert
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This house sale thing is hard work
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“You know maybe Brian’s right I should transfer to the Yellow railroad”
I promise I’ll return to the regular programming now…
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After 5 days in the desert we didn’t let the horse run free but instead we drove from the Needles sub down to UP’s Yuma sub. The rains we’d experienced the day before certainly had left their mark on the land but in their wake the sky was clear and we were ready to take advantage of the light. Of course grabbing a photo or two of the remaining ponds, like this one at Wister, was imperative.
Desert Pond
At the south end of the Rogoza siding is a United States Border Patrol inspection station. Here the westbound trains are inspected for riders in any open or unsecured cars as well as in distributed power units. Westbounds slow so that the border patrol can inspect both sides then they will stop the train to walk through the DPUs. These guys seem to mean business so attempting to ride northwest from Yuma appears to be a quick trip back south of the border if you aren’t authorized to be in the U.S.
South of the sensitive area of Rogoza is the much more pleasant location of Wister where the Chocolate mountains form a backdrop for an eastbound auto rack train.
Wister and Chocolate
The Yuma sub from Thermal east to near Yuma is still single track and looks much like it did when the Southern Pacific ran it. The signals, pole line, and bridges all say SP despite the fact the sign age and trains shout UP. It’s clear from radio conversations that terms like “east siding switch Bertram” have deeper meaning to the employees than the UP designation of “CP SP648″. As long as the economy remains slow the last vestiges of the SP will hold out but once the economy picks up and the 2nd track goes in, they will be gone.
East Siding Switch Bertram
This is the sunset route. Clear, sunny days with fabulous sunsets are what it’s about. As the sun began to set behind the San Bernardino mountains west of the Salton Sea, a westbound manifest entered the Mortmar siding. With just a car length to spare this westbound crept into the 84 hundred and 83 foot siding for several minutes clearing just as his meet arrived at the west switch. Good planning or just luck?
The Sunset Route
This post brings to an end my review of my trip through the desert. I’m hoping everyone enjoyed my views of Southern California and Arizona. In the future expect to see a few more photos from this trip as I have others that didn’t necessarily fit into the story but I think are compelling. Oh, for those of you that caught the references in the post titles, the horse did have a name. Nitro, Dodge, Nitro.
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….at least for a few days. As I mentioned in previous posts it can rain in the desert just like it does in the Northwest. On the fourth day of our journey we awoke in Kingman, AZ to a steady drizzle. Certainly not enough to get really wet but enough to know it was raining.
We first drove east to Walapai, Hackberry, Valentine, and the west end of Crozier Canyon. Just west of Hackberry we found a nice spot that really shows off the grade that takes the railroad over the northern shoulder of the Peacock Mountains. Normally the hills in the background would be quite visible but not today.
Hackberry Hill
As the day wore on the rain increased. After a few wet hours in Kingman Canyon we made our way west to get ahead of a slew of westbounds and hopefully get out of the rain. No luck on getting out of the rain. We landed at Saltus to catch the Cadiz local which, as typical, had some interesting power. First though an eastbound had to blow through the wet desert. Mmm the smell of creosote bush in the rain is wonderful!
Rain In The Desert
The Cadiz followed the stacker up to Saltus where it stopped to line into the back track. Out hopped the conductor and brakeman fully dressed in rain gear looking like switchmen in the yard here in Vancouver. How many times do you see that in the Mojave?
Pickup In The Rain I
Pickup In The Rain II
Ok, enough of the rain. The purpose of the trip was to be out of the rain not in it. On to the Salton Sea!
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The desert never has any clouds…right? After this trip I wouldn’t say never. Thanks to an advancing storm front we experienced some pretty interesting clouds as the storm moved ashore. The nice thing about the weather changing in the desert is the fact you can see the sky from horizon to horizon. So when the clouds start to roll in they become part of the landscape. On four days of our desert journey we were treated to fabulous skies and I tried to take advantage.
Just north of Mojave is a signal bridge that I’ve seen photographed numerous times. As we approached to photograph it on the second day I couldn’t help but notice the sky and how interesting it was. While the crew used long lenses and framed the nose of the train with the signal bridge, I hiked .3 of a mile up the access road and used a wide angle lens to bring in the cirrus and con-trails. Add in the UP 1995 this was certainly a great start to the second day of the trip.
Mojave Bridge
After spending the morning of the third day at Lavic, Ludlow, and Bolo, we landed at Goffs for one train each way. I set up for the photo below of a westbound passing under the signal bridge at East Goffs. Just like at Mojave I couldn’t resist the cirrus that were preceding the storm coming ashore. Of course just after I set up we could hear an eastbound climbing up from Fenner. Great, my shot was going to be blocked. Contrary to usual railfan luck the eastbound cleared and gave me long enough to change lenses and reset for the westbound. I love the desert!
Goffs Bridge
Near the end of the third day it became quite apparent that the weather was changing. There was moisture in the air and being from the Northwest I could tell it was going to rain. In fact by the time the sun dropped behind the clouds at Ibis the streams of rain could be seen falling from the sky over the Dead Mountains. A perfect backdrop for another stack train.
Ibis Storm Clouds
The fourth day it rained. Not monsoon rain, Northwest rain. How far did I travel to photograph trains in the rain? Well, the nice the about California and Arizona is that when the weather changes, it changes. Thanks to 3G coverage in the desert we could tell the rain ended somewhere west of Pisgah. Driving west we came out of the rain between Ludlow and Pisgah and into fabulous clouds trailing the rain storm. Add in a Z train speeding through Newberry Springs and the combination looks great!
Out of the Rain
Once we hit a lull on Monday we decided it was time to head south to Palm Springs. On arrival at the Salton Sea we found the desert a big mess thanks the thunderstorm from the night before. All the washes that crossed the road were wet and filled with debris. At one point we ran across a CDOT front end loader scraping the debris off the road attempting to get things back to normal. The next challenge was to find a train to photograph with one of these washes. Between Rogoza and Wister we found a great sample along with super desert sky.
Desert Wash
How did I shoot these photos? All 5 were taken with my Canon 10-22mm EF-S lens at focal lengths from 10mm all the way to 22mm. On some a circular polarizer was used and on some it was not. In Lightroom I added clarity to the sky areas to help the clouds pop out and used Photoshop CS3 to correct the perspective. I can’t say enough about the 10-22 and what it will capture.
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