On Saturday I had to go to Aguanga where we have a small cable system and fix a channel that was out. Aguanga is only about 40 miles from the Sunset line, so I decided to take a drive and check out the action. As I got to the tracks at Thousand Palms there was a meet between two stack trains. That was a good sign. I stopped at the am/pm to gass up and get supplies and then headed for West Palm Springs. about 15 min later I arrived at Tipton road to wait for the westman. I pulled out my scanner ond turned it on. The train was down to 10mph and was requsting helpers. The helpers were at Thousand Palms (behind the train) and were dispatched west to catch up with him and hook on the rear. Then the conductor told the ds the helpers had to be on the point due to a string of empty spine cars on the rear. A few minuets later here comes the train. It was powered by a SD70m and a Helm SD40-2 in BN green. It was crawling up the hill. just after he passed the helpers came flying by (2 SD70Ms). I tryed to drive up to where they were tying on the helpers but when they double tracked this area they cut off access to the side roads and I didn’t want to roll up on the right of way. So I turned around and went back to Tipton road. About five minuets later a short train doing local work came up the hill. It had 3 SP SD40M-2s (SD45 bodies) on the point. Only the numbers on the cab sides were patched. The next train wouldn’t come by for 45 minuets of so. But things didn’t get dull.
The spot I was at was about 200 yards from the road and in the middle of a bunch of wind swept trees. I wasn’t trying to hide, I was just parked in the shade (it was stinkin hot out). I’m leaning on my truck watching the tracks when this BLM cop crosses the tracks and goes up the street a bit then turns around and comes my way. She drives past me then turns around and pulls up next to me. She asked me if I had business there (I was in my work truck). I told her no I was watching the trains. She told me the area I was in was off limits and aske
Awesome!!! Great that you had (and posted) a positive law enforcement encounter. I’m sure most of us would love to see the pictures you got, and the burning truck sounds interesting. Let us know when/where you post!!!
Actually I don’t have a place to post. I shoot 35mm slides but when I get them developed I’ll have them burn me a cd too. Then if someone wants to post them let me know and I’ll be happy to forward them. It was a cloudy, hazy day so they probably will not be all that great though. I’m just glad to be shooting pix again after my camera being in storeage for so long.[8D]
Amazing that the trains were moving. I came through that area several weeks ago on a Friday and saw, if I remember right, five westbounds sitting between Palm Springs and probably Cabazon or a little to the west.
That’s more railfanning than I usually get in a year. Tremendous day. Thanks for making me green with envy.
It occurs to me that you were the guy who recently moved to SoCal and was asking about railfanning in Mexico, or more specifically on the T&T, no? I recently picked up a copy of John Kirchner’s book “Baja California Railways”. If you haven’t already discovered it you might want to try looking for a copy. Lots of good info on the T&T, the FC Inter California, and the SBC, plus some other minor industrial roads. Kirchner was the guy who also wrote (with John Signor) “The Southern Pacific of Mexico and the West Coast Route”, which is also good, but not exactly your area of interest.
Chad!
Check out http://photo.epson.com – they give you 100MB of free storage space. If nothing else, contact me by e-mail, make sure you get your slides scanned at a high resolution (easier to make 'em look pretty that way), and I might be able to give some of your shots a semi-permanent home.
I don’t think Epson lets you do that. Other photo/image storage services likely do, although I’ve always had good luck with Photo Center, so that’s what I’ve stuck with. The storage space is fairly generous, too.
I was curious Chad, since you haven’t gone all digital yet, as to what kind of slide film you use when photographing trains. I used to love Ektachrome 400 speed but as you know, slides are not as forgiving as print film for under- and overexposures.
And do you find, as I have, that getting those slides developed is turning into a major “hoo-hah” that requires nearly professional attention? If you know someone who still does it by mail let me know; it couldn’t possibly be any slower than Walgreen’s.
Yea, I’m the guy. I’ll keep that in mind next time I go book shopping. I’ve been meaning to pick up another book by John Signor because my uncle was interviewed for one of his books and I understand there is a section about his experiences in it (I can’t remember the name).
I usually shoot Ektachrome 400 or Kodachrome but this roll was Elite 400 because I got a good deal on it at the local photo supply. I am also going to have them (or there people) develop it too as I no longer trust the wal-mart flunkies after they lost a roll of film I had them send in.
Adrian,
I’m not sure what kind of truck it was but I believe it was a Nissan. And I know what you mean as I lost one of the best cars I ever had to a fire last year. It was a 78’ Olds 98 with a big block 403 with headers and flowmaster exhaust. Although I can’t say I didn’t get my moneys worth out of it as I had 400,000 plus miles on it and only paid $2000 for it ten years ago. But it does suck as I know I’ll never find a car in as mint a condition as that one.
All this talk of UPs gridlock. Mabee it’s just luck of the draw but I havn’t seen it lately. In the last month I have run up the San Joaquin valley, up to Las Vegas and railfanned the Sunset and on all those trips I have only seen UP trains parked for meets. This makes me wonder if it’s really that bad on the UP.
Were you on the clock all day?? Also, since I don’t get out to southern Cali & I’m not familar with the area, I was reading your story and was almost expecting Jim Morrison to appear from the desert with a indian.
Chris30,
I’m salaried so there is no clock. I just got to do what I got to do. When I need time off I don’t have any problem getting it. It all works out about even. So I didn’t get paid directly for saturday.
I havn’t seen the indian science I last dropped acid many many years ago. But if it was any hotter I might have seen him off in the distance.[:D]
Actualy it wasn’t that bad. The spot I was at had a good breeze going (this is where all the windmills are). I did get a tad sunburned though.