The Memorial Day Weekend Mega Tour - Part 1

I didn’t plan to do what I did. I mean, I did have plans to spend two or three days of the Memorial Day weekend out trackside, camping in my rig and taking in the serenity of the Mojave National Preserve and, of course, trains, but it didn’t work out that way. It turned into “the mega tour.”

I had spent most of the week prior getting everything in order for the trip. I had the truck serviced and a part replaced that had broken on my last trip to Cajon Pass. The truck and camper both got a bath and I sanitized the fresh water tank and throughly cleaned the inside of the camper. Hell, I even used Carpet Fresh.

Finally, the rig was set so I sat down to finalize the route and get a rough idea of what I wanted to see and where I wanted to go. The rough plan was to go chase Union Pacific’s Cima Subdivision from north the area of Afton Canyon to the Nevada border.

I have not spent much time along the Cima Subdivision, in part because it is not the most accessible of subdivisions to chase. A good portion of the route is far from paved roads and runs right through the middle of the Mojave National Preserve. Now that I have a truck capable of making the trek on unpaved and unimproved roads, I felt up to the challenge. This was going to be the trip to really see the Cima Subdivision. My anticipation grew all week as I counted the days until Saturday.

Being a three-day weekend coupled with my route requiring me to take Interstate 15 towards Las Vegas, Nevada, I knew better than to try and leave on Friday night. For the uninitiated, the road to Vegas most weekends, let alone on a three-day weekend, is miserable - certainly no way to start a relaxing trip. Consequently I opted to leave before sunrise Saturday morning.

After far too few hours of sleep it was time for me to depart. I bid my family farwell and set off on an 85 mile detour because I forgot a key element of my navigation/tracking device at my office in downtown LA. Not what I wanted to do but necessary to let folks at home know my position as I made the solo trip.

Having retrieved the missing element I headed east, bound for my first stop which was Daggett, California. Daggett is the jumping off point for the Union Pacific Railroad which uses the BNSF tracks to ascend Cajon Pass and reach its home rails again at Daggett en route to Las Vegas.

I arrived later than I had hope as the sun had already risen but a quick look at the signals showed that the BNSF dispatcher had cleared the route for an eastbound UP train through the interlocking complex at Daggett. It arrived on the scene promptly thereafter and was a doublestack train:

Returning to Home Rails - UP 7416 (GE C45ACCTE), UP 5188 (EMD SD70M), UP 4500 (EMD SD70M) are on the point of this eastbound intermodal consist as it returns to home rails at Daggett, CA after making the run over Cajon Pass on BNSF trackage. [5/29/2010 - Los Angeles Subdivision]

Moments later, an eastbound BNSF stack train came into view and held short of the signal. A wait of a few more minutes provided the answer to the reason why. The dispatcher had apparently planned to run another, higher priority train to run around the BNSF train:

Powered to Go - (Above and below) BNSF 1036 (GE DASH9-44CW), leads 7 more units - BNSF 5469 (GE DASH9-44CW), BNSF 5138 (GE DASH9-44CW), BNSF 4804 (GE DASH9-44CW), BNSF 4742 (GE DASH9-44CW), BNSF 4778 (GE DASH9-44CW), KCS 4009 (EMD SD70ACe), and BNSF 4655 (GE DASH9-44CW), as they overtake another eastbound intermodal at Daggett, CA. [5/29/2010 - Needles Subdivision] 

BNSF was putting on quite a show, as always, but this trip was all about the Cima Subdivision. I packed up my gear as I quelled my desire to head east. I put the truck in drive and turned right on Daggett-Yermo Road bound for Yermo and adventures unknown…

BNSF's New Look

Yesterday, BNSF Railway Company unveiled their new look - a redesigned and extensively upgraded corporate web site at bnsf.com. BNSF describes their recent effort as the culmination of months of work to review all content, photos, and graphics and “lays the foundation for continued improvement.”

Despite not being a “rail shipper” myself nor a BNSF customer directly, I have been to their web site countless times for information that I need in my work as a rail journalist/photographer. In my opinion, the new site has a much “lighter” look and feel, yet the content seems more accessible. 

Here is a view of the new site:

BNSF Railway Company’s new web site.

Several key elements of the new design are readily apparent. The main graphic of the web site has been replaced with a Flash-based (bummer for us iPad/iPhone users!) application that appropriately highlights the key elements and efficiencies of rail transportation and how BNSF is a leading provider of a solid and effective transportation system.

Another new element is the “Virtual Train Tour.” This is another Flash-based application that provides a general overview of the elements that constitute a train and the supporting infrastructure. Since I found the content visually appealing yet light in content, and assuming that BNSF’s target audience are folks less versed in the industry than I, I asked my kids to walk through the tour. (In all fairness they did state that it was a “general overview…”)

The kids (19 and 18 years old) both liked the motion and the interactivity that the application affords and even learned some things about railroads they did not know before. (NOTE TO SELF: Remember to disown the kids!)

However, we both agreed that something was missing that could tie it all together - sound and voice-overs. Perhaps a background sound for the animations would help complete the experience. Also, the videos and photographs did not have any descriptions that associated them to the content. The videos, in particular, while interesting to watch in some respect, warrants some narration or voice-over to tell their story.

Overall, the BNSF has done a good job of addressing and segmenting the various groups of their target audience - current and prospective customers, employees, retirees, and communities. I applaud BNSF’s effort to remain fresh and current and to use technology, not for technology’s sake, but to attain, maintain, and foster a quality experience and relationship in today’s media-rich and accessible environment.

As with any major release of technology like this, the are some bugs and quirks that will need to be addressed. For example, I did have an issue with some of the map features that did not work with the Chrome browser but did work with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Over time it should all come together nicely.

I suggest that you browse the site and see what you can glean from the content and new format. I discovered some nuggets of information that I will be sharing in a later post or two. I am sure that BNSF would love to get your feedback. You can comment here or send them an email. Afterall, it was meant to interact with you as well.

Northwest Railfans Do Well in Southern California

I enjoy viewing the railfan and rail photographers’ sites that abound on the internet.  I enjoy seeing other parts of the country that I rarely, if at all, get to visit and to “see” the style that each photographer has.  It is also a tremendous source of inspiration and education for me which is one of the reasons why I created ChasingSteel.com myself in hopes of doing the same for others.

One site I have followed regularly, is Dogcaught.com and it has recently undergone a face-lift and it looks great. The site’s creator and designer is Aaron Hockley while Steve Eshom and Adron Hall complete the list of contributors.  These bloggers and photographers are based in the northwest and are talented photographers.  

In particular, Steve Eshom recently  posted 2 blog entries about a recent trip the guys took along BNSF’s Needles Subdivision, one of my favorite haunts.  Their trip was cursed, or blessed, with stormy weather at various times which presented some challenging photo requirements.  As you can see from his posts, the result is spectacular.  The guys made the best of it and captured some real gems.

The site is definitely worth a bookmark and Steve’s recap of their Needles trip is relevant to many of us Socal fans and photographers.  Stop by and give them a shout.

dogcaught: a railroad blog