Mrs TS-USA and I just
celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary and by way of a present to
ourselves we spent 5 days based in Flagstaff, Arizona. From where we
toured many of the Arizonan "holes in the ground". Meteor Crater,
Walnut Canyon, Oak Creek Canyon (better known as the location of
Sedona) and of course, the biggest of all the holes in the ground. The
Grand Canyon. Stunning places to visit but there were no trains there
except for the Grand Canyon, more of that later. Flagstaff, where we
stayed is a real railroad town. Situated on the main BNSF
transcontinental main line, it sees approximately 100 trains a day.
That's an average of one every 15 minutes or so. I was pretty confident
of being able to see some trains while I was away. Our hotel was even
close to the railway line. A warning to light sleepers this can be a
bit of a problem... My wife and I developed an arrangement to get some
trainspotting in for me. When we left for our days touring we'd stop at
Starbucks, grab a coffee and Chai latte and go and drink them in the
car park of the beautiful depot seen below.
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So with the scene set
lets get down to some train talk. The first morning we went down there
there was a C44 parked in the sidings with a few cars behind it. This
had been there the night before when we arrived in the rain. I'm
guessing that the crew had been working the industries in town on
Friday and
their shift had ended. So the train waited there all weekend for the
crew to return on Monday.
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The biggest problem
with Flagstaff for grabbing pictures of the trains is the fact that the
line thought the depot is pretty much East-West so shooting westbounds
in the morning and eastbounds in the evening is difficult you end up
with back lit shots that you can barely make anything out. However on
the Monday morning I was helped out by some dark clouds in this
passing shower just behind C44 No. 4053.
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At the rear end of
this long container train was a couple of C44's on DPU that caught the
attention of this father and daughter train watching.
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Only a few minutes behind that
long container train was another one headed by ES44 No. 7419 with
another railfan/photographer wanting to get a picture.
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Returning from our
days trip we strolled around Flagstaff in the late afternoon and as we
returned to the car walking along the lineside I captured this SD70MAC
leading three other locomotives on a train of no more than a dozen cars
a clear case of overpowering if I ever saw one.
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Tuesday saw us head
up to the Grand Canyon on the Grand Canyon Railway behind their F40 No.
239 (pictured below waiting to leave Grand Canyon for its return to
Williams). The ride from Williams to the Canyon takes some 2 hours and
the crew of the train go to great lengths to keep you entertained with
singers and guides as well as a robbery on the return journey.
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Wednesday before we
headed down to Sedona we spent some time in the depot car park as usual
and was treated to a couple of eastbound container trains the first one
lead out by C44 No. 683
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I'm particularly pleased though
with this shot of C44 No 5445 leading out 2 more C44's and an ES44 on
yet more eastbound containers
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Thursday was another long day as
we headed out to discover the Grand Canyon by ourselves and on our way
down to Starbucks as we approached the level crossing just down the
road from the hotel the crossing lights went off. I quickly reached
behind me in to my camera bag and grabbed this shot of more GE power on
this eastern container train.
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With that we headed
up to the Grand Canyon and a leisurely drive through many of the scenic
view points until we found Grand Canyon Railways' F40 again waiting to
leave for Williams and the return trip home.
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Friday was our last
day and we spent a last hour in the Depot car park with coffees
before we drove back to Phoenix to get our plane. I
grabbed a couple of nice shots of C44 No. 5131 at the depot. In the
first one the tree covered hillside above Flagstaff makes a nice
backdrop. I was also trying to get the Lowell observatory high on the
hillside into the shot as well but just missed.
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Then I took a stroll
up the line to take a closer look at this B40-8W No. 508. Looking
rather untidy covered in graffiti but also exhibiting the ever more
common changed out aircon unit in Warbonnet livery as shown in the
lower picture.
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There we go then,
that's 5 days in Flagstaff. The holiday was a lot of fun. But Flagstaff
is not really a highly recommended trainspotting location because of
the lack of variety. You will notice that most of the pictures are of
container trains. That's pretty much all there is. No coal trains, no
auto racks, no grain. Nothing. I did see a military train in Williams
but I'm not allowed to photograph those for reasons of national
security. So if you like to see container trains hauled by GE
power, then Flagstaff is heaven for you. Otherwise you will probably be
a little bored. Still, that isn't stopping us from going back next year.
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