Day 15: Kingman Railfanning

Woke up and had a long Skype chat with a friend, then since the weather had largely cleared up I headed back up the hill towards Walapai to try something a bit different. On the way up I caught a downhill train so snapped off a few quickies.

I then went up the road a bit, parked the car and went exploring. I found a little bridge that was just high enough to walk under, provided you bent over. Came out on the sunny side of the tracks and before long an EB intermodal was making its way past me. A few minutes later a WB intermodal cruised down the hill, and already the headlight of another train could be seen making its way up the hill.

The approaching train turned out to be a massive EB manifest, complete with a mid train helper and a rear pusher. Even before he'd finished passing me (which admittedly did take a while) another down hill train had come around the corner and was passing the manifest.

After these two had crossed there was a bit of a lull (a whole quarter of an hour!) so I repositioned as the sun had moved again by now. Shortly afterwards another manifest made its way past me, complete with a very varied selection of power: a Dash-9 H2 on the front, a pair of H1 "swoosh" GP35u's, an H1 BNSF Dash-9, a Ferromex Dash-9, and finally a BNSF warbonnet Dash-9. Certainly a different mix of power to the norm.

The uphill manifest working its way up the hill.

Eclectic mix of power and paint schemes / "DISASTER" tank wagon.

Four minutes later a downhill intermodal rolled past me.

Another quarter of an hour break allowed me to go up the hill a bit further and explore around the curve at Antares. Here was where I started trying some different angles, namely, gaining altitude. Looking around there weren't any convenient bluffs or hills, but the ground was undulating and sloped enough that I managed to get some much needed height. Soon enough the next train rounded the corner and I started snapping away.

Isn't the desert amazing?! So incredibly stark, and yet when you look closely (as in magnifying glass close) it is teeming with life. Tiny little plants the size of a little finger nail, or massive ants nests, and of course the tussocks, yuccas, sage brush and so forth.

While I was pleased with viewpoint number one I spied a convenient outcropping a little further on, so climbed some more till this was the view;

29 minutes later a downhill train came around the corner.

I love the way the hills just magically rise out of the plains. As an aside, we're very close to the tail end of the Grand Canyon here, only about 20 miles as the eagle flies. I then climbed some more to get an even better viewpoint.

I waited around a bit longer and 10 minutes later I got an EB from my same vantage point.

…and then out the other side…

A couple of minutes I was treated to one in the opposite direction…

Sun had moved yet again and it was getting a bit cold up the top, so I climbed down to ground level again and started walking back to the car. A few minutes later a WB surprised me…

… and then the BNSF ground to a halt. Nothing. At. All. For 2 hours I sat waiting to get the perfect sunset shot, and yet the lines were completely silent. This wouldn't be any big surprise back in NZ, or on some of the UP lines, but here on the transcon where the BNSF has us expecting a train every 5 minutes, it's a bit of a let down! I even got my fisheye lens out specially for the occasion. I did at least get some nice sunset shots though.

And wouldn't you know it, mere minutes after the sun set the trains started flowing again! Never mind. Take away Pizza Hit for dinner, oh dear. Stopped in at the Walmart where lots of locals were making use of the complimentary mobility scooters to get around, not that they're lazy or anything. The girl at the checkout gave me a funny look and said "you're not from around here are you", to which I explained I'd come all the way from New Zealand and here I was in Kingman, Arizona, a town smaller than Rangiora, which got a laugh. Then of course it turned out she was from Slovenia, so she wins.

Off to bed, next stop Needles, California.