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.”
Railroad, Photography, Road Trip
Despite the start to our morning, today was going to be a great day because we were headed to one of my favorite locations — the Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory, Utah. We got cleaned up and broke camp. We planned on spending the night on public land somewhere near the Golden Spike National Historic Site so we made certain to empty our waste tanks and fill the fresh water tank...
Road Trip, Photography
Once the sun had set on our eclipse viewing adventure, we high-tailed it east to Cedar City, Utah for a much-needed night’s rest. There was no need, nor desire at this point, to return to Beaver Dam State Park back in the mountains. It had been a long and adventure-filled day filled with driving and taking photos. Nearly 13 hours after we left North Las Vegas, we tucked in at the Cedar City Walmart around 9:00 PM…
