With nothing but time here are a pair of desert views from our photo location.
Desert view looking south.
Desert view looking north. We spotted Santa Fe 3751 coming westbound towards us but here also came an eastbound BNSF stack train. Would it clear in time for our pictures?
BNSF 7467 East at Ludlow.
Santa Fe 3751 came through Ludlow. From here we headed west in chase of Santa Fe 3751.
Pacing Santa Fe 3751 between Hector and Newberry Springs.
Santa Fe 3751 meeting an eastbound BNSF freight at track speed. The steam train received an order to flag the Mountain View Road grade crossing in Newberry Springs and Bill and I set up just west of there.
Santa Fe 3751 and train.
Santa Fe 3751 at Yucca Road at Barstow. Due to the lateness of the excursion train, Randy Jackson detrained in Barstow and we would take him to Fullerton to catch Pacific Surfliner 591 to LAUPT and then the Flyaway Shuttle for his 10:50 PM flight to Boston, then into Rutland for a rare mileage trip there. We had time for one more good light picture so we took old Highway 66 south to Holcomb Ranch Road, went under the BNSF mainline to Lards Road and went up the hill to our last location of the day.
BNSF 7809 East just west of Hodge.
Santa Fe 3751 and train. That ended the chase so we headed to Fullerton, getting Randy there at 8:20 PM and we bought him a ticket out of the Metrolink ticket machine as one was able to buy Amtrak tickets from this machine, and he made Pacific Surfliner 591. The next morning I received a call from him to let me know that he was in Boston and thanked Bill and I for helping him get there. Bill drove me home and a very tired Chris called it a night. It had been a great chase of Santa Fe 3751 west across the Mojave Desert.
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