Bill Compton and I had planned a trip to the BNSF Needles Subdivision so he picked me up early in the morning and we drove north on California 57 to California 60 east to Main Street in Riverside, which we took north to Slover and then to our first stop on Pepper Avenue in West Colton.
GMTX MP14B 7000, Ultra-Low Emission Locomotive built by Motive Power Industries, ex. Mid-Michigan Railroad 1367 2005, exx. Southern Ontario Railway 1367, nee Canadian National SW1200RS 1367 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1960.
GMTX NW2 721, nee Elgin, Joliet and Eastern 435 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1949. From here we took Interstate 10 east to Interstate 215 then went north to Highland Boulevard and made our way to Cajon Boulevard, where we stopped for a BNSF baretable train.
BNSF 7350 at Ono. We took Cajon Boulevard to Devore Road, entering Interstate 15 and took that Kenwood Avenue then old US 66 back to Interstate 15 in the hopes of finding a train. We took that road to Interstate 40 east, exiting on Daggett Road and found a surprise.
Union Pacific 8617 East at Daggett.
United States Army GP10 4621, ex. Illinois Central Gulf 8173, nee Illinois Central GP9 9173 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1956, along with Union Pacific 8507 and Union Pacific 2483.
Two last views of United States Army 4621, after which we drove old US 66 to Newberry Springs and made our way to a grade crossing there.
BNSF 4135 West. We crossed Interstate 40 to Old US 66, which we took to Pisgah and were stopped for a train.
BNSF 8180 East with CREX (Citirail) ES44AC 1207. We stayed on the old road to Ludlow then returned to Old US 66 once more but had to come back to the grade crossing for another westbound train.
BNSF 4552 West just east of Ludlow. Wwe continued east but had to return to my favorite spot on Ash Hill for another westbound train.
BNSF 4591 West was passed by BNSF light engines 6839 and 5050 east of Ash Hill. We proceeded to MP 672 east of Siberia for a pair of trains.
BNSF 7128 West with Norfolk Southern 7581 and Canadian Pacific 9510 at MP 672.
Dust clouds down in the Amboy Valley.
BNSF 7096 West. From here we went to Bagdad.
BNSF 7399 West. It was starting to get dark so we went east on old US 66 through Amboy then took the detour route on Kelbaker Road back to Interstate 40 to Needles. We checked into the Motel 6 then had dinner at Carl's Junior before we relaxed then called it a night.
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