Here is the westbound train headed up the hill out of Wickenburg, AZ on Nov. 18, 1995. With one unit down and another only partly loading, the other units are working as hard as they can with this train.
Arizona & California Railroad
The Arizona & California Railroad runs from Cadiz, CA down to Parker, AZ and then across to Wickenburg (with trackage rights to Phoenix) on an ex Santa Fe branch with a fleet of well maintained GP30's, 35's and 40's. They also used to have 5 GP20's that were returned from lease a year ago.
Would you like prints of most any of these slides? Go to Desert-Rails.com for details!
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Here is a special passenger train headed west at Wenden on Nov. 9, 1991. |
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Here is the Cactus Blossom Special at Hope on April 4, 1993. It is just entering the cut made from a tunnel that was daylighted years ago. |
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After running to Salome and running around its train, the Cactus Blossom Special is again at Hope, this time westbound on April 4, 1993. This was one of the best wildflower seasons in years for the Arizona desert. |
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Here is the westbound train headed up the hill out of Wickenburg, AZ on Nov. 18, 1995. With one unit down and another only partly loading, the other units are working as hard as they can with this train. |
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Here is the same train as above on level track at Hope, Arizona. This is where a tunnel was daylighted years ago. |
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After a crew change and switching, the train is heading across the Colorado River into California late in the afternoon of Nov. 18, 1995. |
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This is the Appekuny Mountain, which was on the Arizona Central for a while painted in Espee Daylight colors, and then was used by the A&C. This car has now left the A&C. Shown here at Parker, AZ on Nov. 18, 1995. |
| Here are the results from a pleasant Sunday spent burning Kodachrome around the Parker area. All photos taken on March 7, 2004. Enjoy! | |
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Around 8 am the crew started work and here they are bringing out the train's power in Parker. |
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3 big SD's are on the train - all re-engined with 16 cylinder prime movers and rated at 3000 hp. 2 of them are ex SD45-2's and the other is an ex SD45. The road has one other SD45 carbody unit, also with 3000 hp. |
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Just west of Parker the train accelerates up the hill out of the Colorado River valley at Earp, California. |
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A going away shot of the westbound train a few miles east of Rice, California. |
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A pacing shot....note the locals seem to like piling up rocks to spell out certain names, ideas, etc! |
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And more weirdness in the desert! Here is the "Shoe Tree" adorned with all sorts of old shoes, shirts and other strange items, including a couple of partly burnt tires (offerings to the Mother Ship?? !! ). |
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At Rice the train does a little switching and picks up a GP38-2 unit that was used on the Blythe branch. |
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We went a few miles up the Cadiz Road and then waited a few hours for the train to make its trip to Cadiz and return. Here the 4 units are working hard with a heavy eastbound near Sablon, California. |
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I had both cameras going, and this shot is taken with a 35mm lens, quite a jump from the 200mm lens on the photo above. |
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Back at Rice, they do some more switching, and I got a few roster shots while they did their work. |
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The Gp38-2 with nice afternoon lighting. |
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Here they are underway once again eastbound towards Parker. |
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The train has just crossed into Arizona across the Colorado River at Parker. |
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And just a few minutes before sunset, we got this westbound BNSF "re-positioning train" a few miles east of Parker. A great Sunday indeed eh ;). |
This Web Page and all Photos on it copyright ©1998-2004 by Ted Ellis. All Rights Reserved.