I woke up to another wet morning and waited for Bill Compton to pick me up at my house at 6:00 AM. We drove California Highway 57 to California Highway 60 to Interstate 15, which we took over a very foggy Cajon Pass. Once up on the high desert, it cleared up to high clouds and we exited the freeway at Main Street in Barstow to get a picture of our train.
The Kelso Flyer at rest at the Barstow Amtrak station. We filled the car with petrol and drove to Afton Canyon via Daggett where we were stopped by a BNSF stack train then bought some oil for Bill's car at Yermo and drove on Interstate 15 out to Afton Road, where we drove into Afton Canyon. The road in was flooded at our first crossing, so we turned around and made our way to the very west end.
Bill's car at Afton Canyon.
Our two photo locations here. Chris Parker called to let us know they we delayed again due to Amtrak 509 not starting and said they would be coming out to Kelso long-hood forward. We saw an eastbound train at Dunn that stopped.
Our first train was Union Pacific 5046 West with Norfolk Southern 7516 in its consist. We waited for the Amtrak train and finally saw the Kelso Flyer approaching.
The Kelso Flyer entering Afton Canyon.
Amtrak running Norfolk and Western-style with the long hood forward. Bill and I then decided to hike into Afton Canyon so we parked by the Mojave River bridge 2 and forded the stream to get up to the tracks. We hiked on the road passing a signal on the way to Mojave River Bridge 3. A little more fording took us through the cut to our photo location and here we would wait for the Kelso Flyer to return from Kelso.
The beauty of Afton Canyon.
Union Pacific 4934 West on a bare table train.
More beauty of Afton Canyon.
Union Pacific 7422 East with DPU 6567 on this general merchandise train.
More of the beauty of Afton Canyon. As we waited, dark clouds floated overhead and we started seeing lightning and hearing thunder and both hoped that the train would arrive before the storm.
The westbound Kelso Flyer in Afton Canyon. We walked very fast via the bridges to get back to the car.
At Afton, we had a green signal so walked as fast as we could, getting off Bridge 2, where the rain started but we returned to the car without getting very wet. We drove out of the canyon as a westbound stack train was coming out then returned to Interstate 15 and took that to the exit for Minneola Road, then drove to the grade crossing where we waited for that stack train to arrive.
Union Pacific 4779 West on that stack train. We took Yermo Road to Daggett-Yermo Road, which we took south to Interstate 40, taking that west back to Interstate 15 then drove over a very foggy Cajon Pass and exited at Cleghorn Road and pulled up with a red-over-green signal, where we met six gentlemen from England.
BNSF 7366 West came down through Cajon on a dark foggy afternoon. We then drove home via Interstate 15 to Interstate 210 then California Highway 57 back to Santa Ana. It had been a great first trip to Afton Canyon.
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