An Afternoon in the Mojave Desert

It's been a long time since my last post. I've been more involved with my flickr account. However, last Thrusday (July 15, 2010) I noticed the build up of thunder clouds in the east while I was at my daughter swim lessons and decided that there could be some great opportunities to capture some storm action. I took off and made my way up through Cajon Pass where I made a stop to look for a different view of a place I used to spend so much time. I made my way up to the off road vehicle staging area above Summit and found a very nice view of the pass. This first image shows the pass with the clouds forming. The temperatures at this location were in the low to mid-90s.

I hung out there for a while and captured a few images of the vegetation that surprisingly still green.











A BNSF mixed freight made its way up the pass leading to this different perspective of train traffic.









After the train passed by, it was time to continue the journey into the Mojave Desert. My route took me along the surface streets leading to Hesperia and into Victorville. I jumped on I-15 and headed toward Barstow. The storms along the highway were beginning to dump scattered rain showers in the distance, so I pulled over at a couple different locations to photograph the action.
















I continued past Barstow and got of the interstate just past the Marine Corps Logistic base east of Barstow and made my way toward Daggett. The lights of a westbound train appeared in the distance, so I pulled over to set up for a few images with the approaching storms to add some drama. The train came to a stop, which meant I had time to wait. The train got its light to continue to Barstow, and it was time to get some images.

This first image seems to give a better perspective to the size of the storms in relation to the train.









The train approaches my location and passes me by with the storm clouds making their way over Dagget.









Continuing along Santa Fe St., I came to a set of signals by the grade crossing for Hidden Springs Rd. and decided to get a few images from this location.











The storms were growing and I got a few more images along National Trails Highway (historic Route 66). This black and white image shows the storm clouds over I-40.











At one of my favorite spots led to a image of the mother road under stormy skies.











I continued along Route 66 past Newberry Springs but decided that it might be a good idea to make my way toward home given the time and what appeared to be less storm activity eastward. I jumped back on I-40.











I decided to get off at National Trails Highway at Newberry Springs to get some images of the storm clouds over the hill in the area.









Making my way back toward Daggett after capturing my images at Newberry Springs, some irrigation lines that were in an alfalfa field(?) caught my attention.




















Continuing on along Santa Fe St., I came to the signals where the train I photographed earlier had stopped. They were lit and seemed to be begging for a picture. :-)











Continuing on after capturing the images of the signals brought me back on to historic Route 66 where I decided to set up for a train shot since the signals seemed to indicate something would be coming along soon. I was not disappointed. Two eastbound trains came out of Barstow.

































After stopping for gas in Barstow, I got on I-15 and continued my trek home. The storm activity was quite active along the way which prompted me to get off at Hodge Rd. to find a somewhat remote looking location to photograph the activity.





Retracing my route through Victorville and Hesperia led me back to Cajon Summit where I was greeted with this beautiful sunset and, as luck would have it, a train heading down the tracks.










It was a fun day with the excitement of the thunder storms. There were a lot of lightning strikes and claps of thunder to enjoy. I only wish I could have captured a lightning bolt or two in my images.

Thanks for stopping by and looking. I hope you enjoyed the report.

Ken

Some Free Time in Cajon Pass

Well, it's been a while since I last posted. I had a busy summer at both of my colleges and did not really have much to share. I am now on a three week break before the fall semester starts at both of my colleges. I made a few trips up to Cajon Pass this week, and I'm sure I'll be back before the break is over. I thought I'd share a few images from my wanderings around the the pass.

Monday morning (8/4/08), I went up to the pass and spent a few hours watching the trains and capturing images. I arrived in the pass around 6:30 a.m. It was pretty gray and overcast at first. The first train I was able to capture was a Union Pacific (UP) mixed freight train heading down the Palmdale Cutoff. I set up for the train near Mormon Rocks and came up with these two images. UP 5384 leading the train across the dry wash as it makes its way south.















As I was scrambling down the embankment, I saw the DPUs (Distributed Power Units) at the end of the train and came up with this grab shot.















After getting back to my car, I made my way up State Highway 138 to see what was happening at Summit. A BNSF manifest started down the pass. I captured a few images of it and saw another train come around the curve above Summit. It was Amtrak's Southwest Chief (train #3). It started to overtake the manifest. Here is an image of it as it rounds the curve above Silverwood.















I got in my car and made my way down to Cleghorn Rd. to set up for a shot of this train as it came down the track from Sullivan's Curve.















After the Southwest Chief cleared, I waited for the BNSF manifest to appear on track 3. Just as the train came into view, a BNSF truck made a dash across the tracks in order to avoid waiting for the train.















BNSF 7712 passed by my location.















It was back to Summit to see what was coming next. Another train started down track 2, so I made my way back to Cleghorn Rd. to capture this image of this colorful set of locomotives led by BNSF 4712.














After capturing images of BNSF 4712, I decided to take a drive along the UP tracks to Sullivan's Curve after a quick stop at one of the fast food establishments in the area. I wanted to catch something coming around the curve with the new track laid in place. An eastbound BNSF baretabel came up and around the curve. Shortly afterward, a southbound UP train came into view and allowed me to capture this image.















I really liked the sky at the time and the way the clouds were sprawled out over the rock formation. Now if I only had a train in the image.















Another train was making its way up the tracks, so I decided to take a drive and explore for a different photo location. I drove along the Palmdale Cutoff where it is high above the BNSF mains at Martinez east of Summit. I used my 200mm lens to capture this image of BNSF 7550 working its way through the S-curves.















I started back toward the street. As I made my way down the road known as Powerline Road, I saw another train heading upBNSF track 3. I made my way to Summit and had just enough time to get into position for shots the train as it rounded the curve above Silverwood. The train was slowing down when I heard a horn in the opposite direction. BNSF 512 was leading a manifest, and a container train was heading down the same track and crossing over to track 2. the result was this image of the head ends of both trains meeting.





















I turned around as BNSF 512 creeped up as the train in front of it cleared.





















I made may way down to Cleghorn Rd. and set up for images of BNSF 5345 coming down from Sullivan's Curve. I decided to use the wide angle for this train.















It was time to head home to be able to go to my daughter's swimming lessons and support her as she learns to swim.


I made a second trip up to Cajon late Wednesday afternoon. I saw a few trains making their way down the tracks as I drove up I-15. As it turned out, I would only end up capturing one train. BNSF 7672 crosses over the dry wash as it approaches Highway 138.















I also made a trip this afternoon (Thursday, 8/7/08) with my daughter accompanying me, I was able to get a couple images worth sharing. This first image has BNSF 4301 leading a container train down track 1.















It got slow as I drove around looking for vantage points. Finally, there was some action. I had missed a train heading up track 1, but I guessed that the next train would also be coming up from San Bernardio, so I went back over to Sullivan's Curve to wait. I could hear the sound of a train working up the tracks and was in position to capture this image of UP 8469 leading a manifest around Sullivan's Curve on track 1.















It was getting late, so we made our way home to have dinner.

I hope you enjoyed the images and commentary. Thank you for stopping by and viewing my blog.

Ken

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.