I know some of you are disappointed that this isn't yet another political BS post, but IF I remember the charter correctly, non-political posts ARE allowed on occasion.
Anyway, I recently got back from a couple of days in NM with my old time compadre, Greg Shoemaker. He drove, I was just along for the ride. We departed Lincoln on Saturday 10/18 and returned Thursday 10/23, less than 24 hours ahead of the great blizzard. For those of you who think it is BS, we have over a foot of snow on the ground here in Lincoln, with summer time tree conditions (i.e. all leaves), which has pretty much rendered us a disaster area (looks like a tornado hit here). I have no power at home, and am here at work staying warm. Back to the trip. We shot one UP coal train east of Marysville, KS on Saturday morning, then headed to Matfield Green on the SF, where we shot 2 westbounds, and saw about 10 eastbounds. We decided this was NOT the place to be (due to traffic) and continued west. Sunday morning found us on Curtis Hill. I was last there in Feb of 96, shortly after the double tracking was completed. At that time, you could drive anywhere on the freshly graded ROW. No longer. The whole area has been massively washed out. You now pretty much have to hike to any of the decent shots, as there are NO ROW roads any longer (even with 4WD). We got stuck in a ravine, but Greg's clever use of a jack got us out of there. We shot one EB with a LMX and a twinkie (oh joy) before it went from crystal clear skies to total crap in less than 5 minutes. So we continued westward. Ran back into sun about Amarillo, and continued west along the scenic Hereford Sub (deep sarcasm here). Saw a TON of eastbounds, but few westbounds. By the time we got to Ft. Sumner, we ran across a WB drag waiting for a couple of EBs. We managed a half-assed shot of him just west of town and continued on west. Near dark, we managed a shot at Willard before continuing on into Belen. Interesting side note. As we neared Abo Canyon, we heard some interesting conversations on the radio. Of course federal law prohibits me from telling you about it, but the story ran on the news the next morning, so I can tell you that part. Apparently, some dirtbag was near Becker (east of Belen & west of the canyon) and found himself stuck on the wrong side of the tracks behind a train that was in the siding and blocking the crossing. He became impatient and went to the head end and told the engineer he would put a bullet through his head unless he moved the train. Of course, the crew did NOT move the train. So, this loser decides to drive his pickup across the tracks without a crossing. Bad idea. He gets high centered on the rails, and subsequently nailed by a train on the main. Sadly (IMO), he is not injured, though his truck IS destroyed. So the cops show up and haul this WPOS to jail. FWIW, this guy was NOT a railfan, just some local slimeball, but with this sort of crap going on, is it any wonder crews hate railfans? Back to the trip. Monday morning, we wake up to clouds in Belen; however, it IS sunny to the west, so we head that way. We get to McCartys before running into a flood of EBs, so we head back to the overpass at Laguna, where we are trapped by the fleet. Consequently, I see no need to shoot there again, as I shot about 8 trains off that bridge. During the middle of this, an unfamiliar explorer pulls up alongside the bridge, and I find myself wondering, who the hell is this? Down comes the window, and to my surprise, the fellow inside says "I saw all these *&^%ing clouds and figured YOU had to be around here somewhere". None other than my friends John Lucas and John Benner. :) We shoot a few more EBs and then set up at the town dump for the WB shots, of which we got a couple. With the cloud factory starting up, we decide that heading west is the best thing to do. We end up close to the Divide, and shoot a few WB trains before the day ends. John and John head back home, while Greg and I head to Gallup. Tuesday is forecast to be cloudy and rainy, but in Gallup it is 23F and crystal clear an hour before sunrise. We head to Guam and wait for the sun to come up. Our first train is an autorack, headed by none other than a grungy LMX. Still, the light was pretty cool, so we blast him and then move a mile or so east. We catch yet another autorack here, and continue moving around. Greg was more into the wedgies than I, and we shot a few trains that really didn't meet my standards, but what the hell. We move up towards the divide, and the eastbound fleet shows up about 12:00 on my watch. After we were confident the EB fleet was done, we headed east to meet the WB fleet, which we met between Rio Puerco and Dalies. Of course, we were NOT prepared for this, and managed to miss most of them. We finally got a stack train with BN power and then a bare table train before the sun went down. As ALL motels in Belen were full, we stayed in Los Lunas that night. Wednesday morning was cloudy again in the Belen area, and the radar showed rain to the west and south. I offered that it might be sunny up north, so we headed up I25 to Colorado. Glorietta Pass was beautiful most of the way, save for some areas of dense fog, but as expected, no trains. However, when we got on the CO side of Raton, we ran into a LaJunta to Albuquerque freight, led by an undec C44-9W. Raton is a bit of a bitch to shoot, especially if you've never done it and know nothing about it. The freeway does NOT have parking lanes for the most part, though you can pull off in places, at the risk of being ticked by the highway patrol. We managed to snag the train in about three different places, but the best shot was the lame wedgie just north of Raton, from the overpass. We also shot Amtrak here before heading north again. Colorado was a complete waste of time, as expected, since nothing ran on the Joint Line until very late in the day, when it had clouded up. We went to Caboose Hobbies and wasted a couple of hours there instead. We decided Cheyenne would be the place to be that evening, so we wound up there after nearly running out of gas (Greg has one of those fine quality Chrysler products with a defective fuel gauge, among other maladies). Thursday morning, we head to Archer and shoot a couple of UP eastbounds before it hazes over and we continue east. Upon arriving in North Platte mid-day, we find quite a quagmire of trains, most of which are NOT moving. After wasting some film on a few interesting freight cars, we head home, a full 24 hours before the big storm. A few things I noticed while on this trip: The fleets on the Santa Fe appear to be much later than they were a couple of years ago. Was a time when the EB fleet would hit Abo Canyon in mid-morning and the WB fleet would hit it in mid-afternoon, making it the ideal place to be. No longer. The EB fleet seemed to be several hours later, say around Gallup at 10:30 to 11:00 local time. The WB fleet didn't materialize during daylight in western NM, so I would expect one would need to be no further west than Abo to shoot them. Traffic was quite heavy. Even though Monday and Tuesday are the 2 worst days for traffic, we saw plenty of trains. Trackwork didn't seem to have much effect either, as trains WERE moving. Belen seems to have taken a page from BNs book, and now holds trains out for tracks, just like they do here. Forget about shooting anywhere close to town, as that is just part of the parking lot. In spite of the poor weather last week, we managed to stay out of the clouds for the most part, though it DID require a lot more driving than one would like. Well, I've done quite enough rambling. It's obvious the storm is stressing me out, as I seem to have difficulty concentrating right at the moment. Sorry I wasn't able to offer more snide remarks about how the 'professionals' are ruining our hobby ;) Jim Gilley [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.eesoft.com/rr --> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects
