Despite being on vacation for nearly two weeks during the Christmas holiday, I had yet to venture trackside at any capacity. My time was filled shopping for Christmas gifts, preparing the house for the holidays and entertaining our guests. Eventually Christmas came and went, followed closely by New Years, and, at last, my time had come. It was time to chase some steel before I had to return to work and I began to consider possible destinations…
A Moment Alone - One of My Favorite Photos
The BNSF 4311 West Became Everyone's Bad Day
The radio crackled as an assertive and calm voice made a call for help, “Fort Worth Mechanical, this is BNSF forty-three eleven West.” (We later learned that the voice belonged to the BNSF engineer of a westbound manifest train. His name is Leonard.)
In short order the reply came in loud and clear, “Fort Worth Mechanical, go ahead BNSF forty-three eleven West.” (Fort Worth Mechanical is BNSF’s Mechanical Department which is based in Fort Worth, Texas and is a help-desk of sorts for the operating crews out on the rails.)
Leonard then proceeded to describe the predicament that he, his conductor, and their manifest train were in, some thirty-five miles west of the crew change point at Needles, California, “I keep getting a wheel-slip alarm on one of the units. If I go over 5 miles-per-hour then the alarm goes off.”
Sunrise East of Cadiz, CA
When out chasing along BNSF’s Needles Subdivision, as a matter of survival, well at least comfort, I prefer to shoot photos when the sun in lower in the sky, say about within 15 degrees of the horizon or so, that occurs at sunrise and sunset. In part to oversome the harsher summer light but also because it is much cooler…
Sepia is for Summer
The Memorial Day Weekend Mega Tour - Part 4
Northwest Railfans Do Well in Southern California
I enjoy viewing the railfan and rail photographers’ sites that abound on the internet. I enjoy seeing other parts of the country that I rarely, if at all, get to visit and to “see” the style that each photographer has. It is also a tremendous source of inspiration and education for me which is one of the reasons why I created ChasingSteel.com myself in hopes of doing the same for others…
Two Days at Lavic, Trains Galore
Finally, The Needles Subdivision Again!
Well the holidays finally came and went. As is typically the case for larger family gatherings, we were the hosts for the holiday activities again this year. As such, the requisite holiday shopping and decorations coupled with preparing the home for the eventual army of family members consumed the entire first week of my year-ending two week vacation.
Now that the holidays were over and all the “joy” was behind us, my wife and I set out on one of our adventures to seek the peace and quiet of heavy tonnage and 25,000+ horsepower rumbling by at nearly 70 MPH amidst vast open desert landscapes and arduous grades that only the BNSF’s Needles Subdivision could provide. (OK, I guess the UP’s Yuma Subdivision technically qualifies as well but it just doesn’t have the traffic density that I prefer).
The first night out we found a quiet patch of hillside upon which we planted our rig, and called it “home,” near Cadiz, CA. The light was already gone at this point so photography was out of the question but we did enjoy witnessing the exchanging of cars between the BNSF and the Arizona & California Railroad which takes place at Cadiz six nights (at least in the winter months) a week.
Day two was all about finding “the spot.” The spot is the place that I think would be good to camp at and just take photos morning to night for a day or two. (As I am getting up in age my health seems to go down the other way so I am not as mobile when I railfan as I once was. Go figure!) I planned on the area near Ibis, CA for this trip. As we drove around the area of Ibis, CA and looked for a good location that had the right lighting and was publicly accessible, I just wasn’t feeling it. We continued on down the road.
Ultimately, we found a cool site that I liked at the southern end of the Dead Mountains range with the railroad name of Java, CA. At this location the railroad line curves away from Needles and heads towards Klinefelter, CA. The dogs seemed to enjoy the area as well. We parked our rig and shot photos throughout the day and most of the next day.
BNSF 796 (GE DASH9-44CW), BNSF 8715 (EMD GP60), BNSF 4915 (GE DASH9-44CW), BNSF 4461 (GE DASH9-44CW), and BNSF 4198 (GE DASH9-44CW) lean into a sharp curve near Klinefelter, CA with an eastbound manifest in tow.Day three found us leaving the hamlet of Java and headed back west. I had always wanted to fully explore the area around Klondike, CA (Ash Hill) and today I was going to make sure I did. Near East Ash Hill, CA we found a easily-accessed public plot of land with considerable photographic potential and great winter lighting. We took more photos.
Due to unforeseen issues at the Rancho de Perry, we had to cut our trip short and head home. We stopped for the sunset, which was AMAZING, near Lavic, CA and then headed home with good memories and some good shots.
I uploaded some of the photos to my portfolio. Let me know what you think of the effort.