railroad photography and blog by joe perry

(Continued from: Our Best Trip Ever - Part 11 - On the Cut-Off)

Day 6 - Part 2

Onward to Seligman

Having had a great time exploring the “back country” of BNSF’s Seligman Subdivision, and truthfully a little dogged out from the rough roads, I was content to head towards Selgiman for the night. We had spent some time there on previous trips but we only used Seligman as a base for operations and we never really spent time photographing the area. I knew there were some nice spots with a lot of potential so we left Crookton and drove the few miles west to Seligman to get a spot for the night.

Seligman/Route 66 KOA
801 E Highway 66, Seligman, AZ 86337

Despite the fact that our Lance camper is fully equipped, it is nice to get the opportunity to use a full-size shower and our experience has been that the KOA Campgrounds, typically, have great facilities such as showers, a laundromat, a convenience store, propane, a dump station, and full hook-ups — and friendly staff.

Our campground of choice in Seligman is the Seligman/Route 66 KOA. It is right next to tracks on Route 66. The campground only has a somewhat marginal view of the trains as they pass by with no real photographic appeal. Nonetheless, you can keep an eye on traffic and race out to photograph a train if you see something worthy go by.

The proximity of the tracks, and the frequency of train traffic, has given cause to the campground to adopt the phrase “The Night of a Thousand Trains.” It is not a terrific spot for those of you who are light sleepers. For us, we love it.

Once we secured a site we headed into “town,” and I use that term loosely, to replenish some groceries and fuel. As we made our way along Route 66 I looked for a spot to set-up to catch the setting sun. I didn’t find a “killer” spot so once our errands were complete I decided to go back east to hill that overlooks Seligman itself. It turns out that this was a great spot. We stayed there for a few hours until the sun had set.

Here are a few of the photos that I took atop the hill:

BNSF 7645 East 1 - BNSF 7645 (GE ES44DC), BNSF 7896 (GE ES44DC), BNSF 7667 (GE ES44DC), and BNSF 7796 (GE ES44DC) are up front of this eastbound intermodal climbing the grade through Railroad Canyon having just left the crew change point of Seligman, Arizona with a new crew.
[4/22/2011 - Seligman Subdivision] © Copyright 2011, Joe Perry, ChasingSteel.com.

The Climb Out 1
[4/22/2011 - Seligman Subdivision] © Copyright 2011, Joe Perry, ChasingSteel.com.

The Climb Out 2 - BNSF 7252 (GE ES44DC) is the “leader” on this eastbound intermodal train fighting the grade as it climbs out of Seligman, Arizona, with BNSF 6663 (GE ES44C4), BNSF 7303 (GE ES44DC), and BNSF 7672 (GE ES44DC) assisting in the effort.
[4/22/2011 - Seligman Subdivision] © Copyright 2011, Joe Perry, ChasingSteel.com.

The Climb Out 3
[4/22/2011 - Seligman Subdivision] © Copyright 2011, Joe Perry, ChasingSteel.com.

The Climb Out 3 - B&W
[4/22/2011 - Seligman Subdivision] © Copyright 2011, Joe Perry, ChasingSteel.com.

After the sun had set we headed back to the KOA and grabbed some dinner followed by a luxurious hot shower. It had been a fantastic day with BNSF’s Seligman Sub. Tomorrow would find us heading west along Route 66.