Chalender, a location I'd picked from Bing and Google maps but not the crossing, it was either side that interested me. After parking at the crossing a brisk ¾ mile walk to the east brings you to a nice alignment you can work well with.
First up was a WB and even though it's going down hill is doing so at full bore to get a run at the grade to the west of Chalender. If the sun were out this would of been the perfect angle!
A bit further up on the curve.
Again some sun here or on the mountains would of made this photo, on the end you get a nice trailing DPU shot as they blast down the hill.
Several other trains passed, nothing special as I was out of location but did bag this decrepit looking Ex ATSF Dash 9 (note gull wing roof profile)
The train in the background is actually a source of all the woes that followed, it's creeping along at 5mph whilst it's not that steep here it was clearly in trouble, the third unit had shut down, engine doors banging in the wind, no doubt the crew had tried to sort it on the go. At this stage Transcon2 is open for full service, so all the trains bottled up either side are now in a headlong rush to get going. It was WB after WB, some only five or six minutes behind the last, however this slow EB just dragged everything to the rear to a snail pace.
Another WB thunders up the hill to the West of Chalender crossing, I was out of place but grabbed it anyway.
My chosen spot was that grassy knoll by the fir tree, but before I can get there a EB winds down the hill at about 1mph waiting for the signals to clear from the back log ahead.
Out of location and out of sorts I didn't get time to change lenses and bag the trailing UP SD70M or Ex ATSF Dash 9, much gnashing of teeth ensued!
Finally in place I manage to bag the DPU rolling downhill, even though the train has the road it's a flashing amber so he's just keeping speed with that ailing train way up ahead.
Moments after that another EB crawls around the corner and this continued for another five or six trains, so many I gave up keeping track.
However there was no delay on the WB and they just kept coming and coming, train after train, spaced no more than 10 minutes apart.
BNSF 7876 hammers past another EB rolling through at about 5mph.
A nice SD70M DPU gives good service working flat out to push up the grade.
Knowing I had at least five trains ahead of me I decided to decamp and head East, determined to finally get to the summit at Riordan, I did manage to get there but the road was, well lets say not covered by the rental agreement, but I'd walked far enough today and took it easy.
Originally there was a depot here (depot in the US is station) and a wye for turning banking engines, in the West they were put on at Ash Fork which is West of Williams, in the East it was Angel which is just West of Winslow, the wye still exists at both locations apparently; It's something I want to research more when I get back home.
The wye is clearly visible from the aerial images in Bing and Google, but on the ground nothing remains and it's hard to determine where it was, other than looking at the aerial images and standing exactly there. The ground is certainly not level, the turning end or headshunt is much lower than the main lines it joined to so the wye would of been sloped rather than level through out.
The line is virtually straight here so getting good shots of the crest is hard without getting too close to the tracks, but with a little work it can be achieved.
Here one of the back logged trains I saw at Chalender crest the Arizona divide, the crest is just about where the second and third loco is situated, by this stage the back log must have cleared as the EB came thick and fast, charging up the hill at a fair old rate, most had seen me before at Chalender so plenty of horn and waves.
Next up another with five on the front.
This is a bit further West so not quite on the crest, I was set up here to try and get a WB coming over the top, so not the perfect location for EB, again like earlier, all fives units are Elephant style, what I didn't know at this moment was that this was one of BNSF 12k stackers (12,000 feet long) and sure enough a pair of mid train DPU's roared past (I've a photo but little point uploading, there's enough photos already from today) and finaly after what seemed like an absolute age the trailing DPU's rolled by, by this stage in full dynamic mode.
The loco is just over the crest which by eye I worked out as being where those two dips in the track are and is 7,322 feet above sea level. Once again, sun here would of made this, but then sun in the head on shots would of failed, that's the problem with E-W alignments, you either spend all day there or work it in the morning and return in the evening. I've changed my schedule a bit to be back here in a just under a couple of weeks for a few days, but right now, it's lights out and head West young man tomorrow.
As mentioned earlier, I may have to revisit these images and adjust them as cloudy shots are hard to process on a lap top screen.
Enjoy.