Presidents' Day on the Needles Sub.

With winter session having ended and a holiday, I had some time to take a day trip out into the desert along the BNSF Needles Subdivision. I left home around 5:15 a.m. and drove directly to Daggett, just east of Barstow. I got there just after the sun started to rise. The tracks were empty which provided me with a chance to grab a sunrise image looking down the tracks.







The first train that I was able to capture was a westbound led by BNSF 4678. I got this image somewhere between Daggett and Newberry Springs.














The green signal in the distance made me aware of an eastbound approaching, so I was able to swing around and set up for this image of BNSF 7575.













A little further down the road near Newberry Spring, I set up for an image using the stenciled shield on the road.














Just on the other side of Newberry Springs, I set up for another westbound train. BNSF 7688 leads a manifest toward Barstow.














At Ludlow, I tried to be a little creative using a couple wildflowers that were growing trackside.















Speaking of wildflowers, I found a large patch of them between Ash Hill and Klondike. BNSF 5420 heads west toward Ash Hill in the background.











BNSF 5420 approached my location as it heads away from Ash Hill toward Ludlow.














I made my way to Amboy and found BNSF 8234 waiting for a set of helpers to hook up to the back of the train. After getting everything hooked up, the train began to roll.













Just east of Amboy is this tree full of shoes. I had seen it on other trips out this way, but never stopped to photograph it until this trip. There were none in my size, and they seemed a bit over ripe.












The helpers were getting quite a workout because of track work going on near Klondike. The trains had to single track on the steeper of the grades, so the helper set would hook on at Amboy and assist the train to Ash Hill where they would unhook and go back to Amboy to assist another train up the grade. BNSF 822 is the trailing unit of the helper set as they pass by my location at Amboy.






On the journey back toward home, I set up for an image of BNSF 7660 as it climbed the grade leading to east Siberia. This is one of my favorite perspectives on the subdivision. This train didn't need to use the helpers to get up the grade.









I had a fun day and would like to get back out there again since it looks like it's going to be a good year for wildflowers in the desert.