We spent the night at a shabby motel in Helper, Utah – it’s good location was the selling argument. On the morning of june 2nd, we only needed a short ride up Price River Canyon to Colton to witness the sunrise. We underestimated the temperature at this altitude though: shorts are not the recommended clothing when it’s -literally- freezing outside! We knew a passenger train … Continue reading Standing the cold
After the unvoluntary chase we agreed to call the evening a success. And still it wasn’t over. The coal train had taken so much time climbing up the hill, that another train was following right behind. Moments like this are a strong contrast to those days where nothing seems to work. I guess you need some of both, although I prefer when things do work … Continue reading Not over yet
The forest in Plombières is a nice place on warm days. Abundant vegetation hid all trains from sight, unfortunately. I heard one train stop though. Strange, but that gave me an opportunity to go back to a place where the path runs next to the tracks. After a while the train continued, reason of the stop unknown. But I got my photo :). Continue reading Thanks for the break
“After rain comes sunshine”, we say in Dutch. I’m guessing it’s a proverb that makes some sense in English too. By the time we got back to the car, the asphalt was dry enough to lie down and make a photo of the level crossing. This trains was the last one we photographed this day. Williams is located close to the Grand Canyon, so we … Continue reading Pause the show
Another classic viewpoint, but I hadn’t seen horses here before. There was some train traffic, but I must admit it was still a bit stressful to get the horses and the train right on the good spot. Whistling, throwing grass, … nothing could make the horses understand what I actually wanted. But it all turned out ok in the end. See, no stress 🙂 Continue reading Feed the horse
And then you decide to go to the western United States to spend a few sunny days. Wrong! Last time we were in Williams, it was cloudy because of a forest fire. This time it as cloudy because it was raining. Ah well, the Kaibab National Forest is a great place to enjoy the rain. It’s very peacefull, except for a train every once and … Continue reading Enjoying the rain
Arid environments and forgetting your drinking water are a bad combination. It gets worse if you also forgot your food. We definitely had to get back to the car now that the sun was standing too high. The perfect time to give our body the necessary fuel. Hint: always bring enough water and food. In the afternoon we picked a spot at a place called … Continue reading What’s to find in Pica, Arizona?
We had seen many photos of Truxton Canyon, and wanted to try the spot as well. When subscribing in the logbook of the private property, we recognized a few names of fellow railfans that are active on sites like railpictures.net. Yes, we were probably on the right track to get to the spot! We left our non-all-terrain vehicle early on the bumpy road and hiked … Continue reading Frustration in Truxton Canyon
Between Needles and Kingman, both Interstate 40 and the BNSF transcontinental line run south and east of the Black Mountains. This mountain range stretches from Lake Mead in the North until the point that is shown here, at a place called Haviland, where a westbound container train runs along the southern part of the range. This zone is also called the Black Mesa. In the … Continue reading Black Mesa
The Dead Mountains provide a view over the Sacramanto Wash, and the wooden trestle over it. The river bed is completely dried up at this time of the year. The roads are treacherous here. That is, if you make a U-turn and get off the asphalt in the sand. We got stuck indeed. Fortunately, a friendly man, who happened to have a chain in his … Continue reading Lots of sand
Railscapes 