San Timoteo Canyon Steel

A couple of weeks ago I was able to venture out and chase steel for a few hours. After careful consideration, I opted to head towards Union Pacific’s Yuma Subdivision. In particular, I headed for the western edge of the subdivision which traverses the San Timoteo Canyon and constitutes the western slope of the formidable Beaumont Hill. While the traffic levels aren’t as high as one might find on the BNSF’s Cajon Subdivision, the area is extremely accessible and offers some great scenery and sweeping curves.

I arrived shortly after sunrise and picked a spot that seemed promising. I waited for a bit and then I heard a hotbox detector announcement on the radio that indicated a westbound would be passing my location shortly. Sure enough, I heard the horn blowing for the road crossings east of me.

Once the train arrived on scene I snapped the following images:

UP 9667 West at El Casco, CA 1 - UP 9667 (GE C44-9W) leads a trio of EMD SD70Ms; 3901, 3893, and 4965, on the point of an early morning doublestack consist with 200+ COFC/TOFC loads at El Casco, CA. [1/16/2011 - Yuma Subdivision] © Copyright 2011, Joe Perry

UP 9667 West at El Casco, CA 2 - UP 9667 (GE C44-9W) leads a trio of EMD SD70Ms; 3901, 3893, and 4965, on the point of an early morning doublestack consist with 200+ COFC/TOFC loads at El Casco, CA. [1/16/2011 - Yuma Subdivision] © Copyright 2011, Joe Perry About ten minutes later an eastbound could be heard approaching through the trees west of my location. After a five minute wait the train appeared and I took these two shots:

UP 7812 East 1 - UP 7812 (GE ES44AC) and UP 4909 (EMD SD70M) provide the head-end power for this eastbound intermodal with UP 8658 (EMD SD70ACe) handling the DPU duty on the rear-end as this eastbound handles the curves of the western Yuma Subdivision at El Casco, CA. [1/16/2011 - Yuma Subdivision] © Copyright 2011, Joe Perry

UP 7812 East 2 - UP 7812 (GE ES44AC) and UP 4909 (EMD SD70M) provide the head-end power for this eastbound intermodal with UP 8658 (EMD SD70ACe) handling the DPU duty on the rear-end as this eastbound handles the curves of the western Yuma Subdivision at El Casco, CA. [1/16/2011 - Yuma Subdivision] © Copyright 2011, Joe Perry

At this point the traffic dried up a bit and I didn’t want to wear out my welcome, since I was parked on the side of the road, so I followed the rails east. I made it all the way to Palm Springs without seeing, or hearing, another train. (Later I learned that a train had experienced an emergency condition that caused the train to stop on the main and tied up traffic. I never learned the caused the stoppage.)

I decided to call it a day and head home. On my trip home  I did catch this empty eastbound vehicle train near Cabazon after the stoppage cleared and it became my favorite photo of the day:

UP 8419 East - UP 8419 (EMD SD70ACe) and UP 3978 (EMD SD70M) are the only units assigned to hustle this empty vehicle train east - seen here near Cabazon, CA. [1/16/2011 - Yuma Subdivision] © Copyright 2011, Joe Perry

The Memorial Day Weekend Mega Tour - Part 5

(Continued from: The Memorial Day Weekend Mega Tour - Part 4)

It felt good to rest. So much so that I rested the entire next day, Sunday, as well. I took that time to reflect on the trials of the Cima Subdivision experience and the triumphs from the Needles Subdivision. I still did not have my fill of chasing steel yet so I sat down with my iPad and made plans for Monday, Memorial Day.

I sought some location that would work best with the rising sun during sunrise. To that end, I used an application that I have for my iPad that graphically plots the sun’s location as an overlay on Goggle’s map application for a given location for any given moment in time.

Considering my lack of sleep thus far over the weekend I wanted some place that I could reach in relative short order so that I could sleep as long as possible. Given all my requirements I settled on a curve location on BNSF’s San Bernardino Subdivision at a place called Prado Dam by the railroad.

The time to rise came quickly and I gathered my gear and set out. I reached the target location in no time at all and drove around looking for the right spot. I finally settled, for various reasons, on a location that passed under Prado Road which leveraged the road’s bridge to gain a good vantage point.  

I set-up my cameras. Looking at track side signals I could see that a westbound was lined through.  It now just a matter of time. As I waited, many locals passed me either walking or jogging. After about 30 minutes it became clear that I was “that weird guy” that just seemed out place. Here I was standing on a bridge next to a camper for no discernible reason. People were crossing the street before approaching my area. But hey, I understand, better safe than sorry. I didn’t take it personally.

Soon I heard the westbound train blow her horn for the grade crossing near the Metrolink’s West Corona station at Auto Center Drive. I instinctively looked at my watch to calculate the time it would take another westbound train to come into view once I heard them blow the crossing so I could make use of that information for future shots.

A few short minutes later a westbound unit train of tank cars, one of my all-time favorite types of trains, came into view under Interstate 91. I was in position and took a series of shots that I am rather proud of because I planned for it and it worked out:

BNSF 7415 West at Sunrise - On Memorial Day 2010, BNSF 7415 (GE ES44DC) is the lead unit on this unit train through Prado Dam, CA, just after sunrise. [5/31/2010 - San Bernardino Subdivision]

BNSF 7415 West at Sunrise 2 - [5/31/2010 - San Bernardino Subdivision]

Unit Train at Prado Dam - [5/31/2010 - San Bernardino Subdivision]

As if to compensate for the strike-out I suffered out on the Cima Sub on Saturday, the BNSF served up another gem for me. Shortly after the unit train cleared the area the westbound Southwest Chief, Amtrak Train #3, graced my viewfinder:  

Southwest Chief at Sunrise - AMTK 42 (GE P42DC) and AMTK 124 (GE P42DC) provide the power for the last 35 miles of the run of the westbound Southwest Chief, Amtrak #3, rounding a curve near Prado Dam, CA at sunrise on Memorial Day 2010. [5/31/2010 - San Bernardino Subdivision]

Once the sun had shifted I decided to move on. I headed east out of Corona bound for Union Pacific’s Yuma Subdivision in San Timoteo Canyon. I really enjoy the chase in the canyon because of the curvature of the tracks and the overall rural feeling that the area has.

Once again though I was bitten by the reduced volume of traffic and only saw two trains the entire 4 hours I spent there. Here is a one of them, a loaded eastbound auto train:

The weekend had come to close as I headed west towards home. As I leisurely motored on, I reflected on the weekend’s activities. Looking at the odometer on my truck’s speedometer I saw that I had covered nearly 675 miles! All total I “chased” 6 subdivisions to one degree or another: 

• BNSF’s Cajon Subdivision
• BNSF’s Needles Subdivision
• Metrolink’s San Gabriel Subdivision
• Union Pacific’s Cima Subdivision
• Union Pacific’s Los Angeles Subdivision
• Union Pacific’s Yuma Subdivision

I had planned to just spent a nice and quite few days camping near the Cima Subdivision. That wasn’t to be. Instead I went on “the mega tour,” and enjoyed the experience, but next time I think that I try to be less mega and more patient.

Perhaps I should call the Union Pacific ahead of time…

**THIS CONCLUDES MY MEGA TOUR BLOG POST**