With a new National Railway Historical Society President, the organization's leadership decided to go back to many of the old ways of doing NRHS conventions, looking at another direction for the next several conventions. After four years of Bart Jennings handling convention operations, he felt that it was time for others to step up to assist with all of the work that it takes to coordinate such events. So after four of the greatest conventions in history, in four states that had never held a convention (Iowa, Alaska, Arkansas and Vermont), we will have to wait to see what will be done.
The NRHS chose Denver for the 2016 convention, which could have been a dream convention. However, when details were announced and published in Railpace, it was just these trips:
7/19 Tue NRHS Royal Gorge
7/20 Wed NRHS Denver Light and Commuter Rail
7/21 Thu NRHS Georgetown Loop & Colorado Railroad Museum double-headed steam
7/22 Fri NRHS Meeting Day {no trips}
7/23 Sat NRHS Leadville Trip to Climax
Other than a few new miles into Climax and the new light and commuter rail Denver has added since my last trip there, it would mostly be old mileage that I have already ridden. The good news was that by doing an extended trip, I could see many new things and ride several tourist trains so I knew I could make a good trip out of this with my usual good planning. I signed up with Eizabeth to be bus and car host on some of the trips.
So now we would see what happens. This year it looks like it will be me along with Robin Bowers, Elizabeth Alkire and Chris Parker. Robin would do the entire trip with me and it would be brand new for him. Chris Parker would fly into Denver on July 12 and leave the morning that the convention started. Elizabeth would fly in on July 16 and would leave the morning after the convention. But you know I will make it a dream trip like I always do so I came up with a plan and had to change it three times before getting it to work.
The Trip Starts! 7/1/2016I got up, packed the car and left my house at 8:10 AM and took surface streets to Robin Bowers' apartment to pick him up. We loaded his luggage and were off, taking the car pool lane on the San Diego Freeway to the Newport Freeway, to the Santa Ana Freeway then the Orange Freeway to the Pomona Freeway. We had to escape it to get onto Interstate 15 which we took to Interstate 40 east. We made a rest stop after Newberry Springs then our next stop was in Needles for petrol and lunch at Carl's Junior. We crossed into Arizona then spotted the first of three trains on the way to Kingman, taking US 66 through Kingman Canyon and caught up to the third train.
My first train of the day was BNSF 7021 East. We moved futher east in Kingman Canyon.
BNSF 7061 East in Kingman Canyon. From here we drove into Kingman.
The first stop was Santa Fe 4-8-4 3759 built by Baldwin Locomotive Company in 1928.
Our next stop was the Santa Fe Kingman station built in 1907. From here we took old US 66 out of town.
We passed two westbound BNSF freights as we caught up and passed BNSF 7061 East.
BNSF 6743 West near Hackberry.
BNSF 7021 East near Hackberry.
Life is one hard highway!
The clouds were fun to watch on our drive east today. We took US 66 east to Seligman then US 40 east to Ash Fork where we headed north to the Crookton Cutoff at MP 396 and set up for pictures.
BNSF 7524 East at MP 396. A few minutes later we heard a horn from the east and rumbling from the west. Two more trains were coming.
The westbound scene.
BNSF 7343 West at MP 386. Now the eastbound train came into view.
BNSF 7649 East met BNSF 7343 West at MP 386. We then headed back to Ash Fork.
The Santa Fe Ash Fork station.
The sky at Ash Fork. From here we drove to Williams.
Grand Canyon 2-8-2 539 built by Alco-Brooks in 1917 as Northern Pacific 1762. It was acquired by the Spokane, Portland & Seattle in 1944 where it became 539. It was displayed in Battle Ground, Washington then acquired by the Grand Canyon Railway in 2007 but was just on display and never operated here. In 2020, it was moved to the Port of Kalama, Washington for preservation.
The Williams Santa Fe station built in 1908.
A Williams scene. We stopped at McDonald's for dinner then drove to Maine.
BNSF 7021 East just beat us there. From here we drove into Flagstaff and the Pioneer Museum.
Southwest Lumber Mills Incorporated 2-6-6-2 12 built by Baldwin in 1929 as Hammond Lumber Company 6 in Mill City, Oregon. In 1931, the company re-numbered the locomotive 12 when it moved to a mill in Samoa, California. After twenty-two years with the company, 12 was then sold in 1951 to the Arcata & Mad River Railroad in Blue Lake, California. In 1956, it moved to Southwest Lumber Mills in Flagstaff. For a time, Southwest ran 12 with a large tank car as an auxiliary tender. After adding a normal rectangular tender, the original fuel bunker was removed but the tanks retained. In 1959, when Southwest Lumber Mills became Southwest Forest Industries, 12's two saddle tanks were removed. Southwest Forest Industries donated the steam engine to Coconino County in 1960 and it initially went on display in Coconino County Park in Flagstaff. In 1994, it was moved to its current location at the Pioneer Museum.
A lumber car.
Santa Fe caboose 999455 built by the railroad in 1942.
Four more views of Southwest Lumber Mills Incorporated 2-6-6-2 12. From here we headed back into town.
The Santa Fe freight house built in 1899.
The Santa Fe Flagstaff station built in 1926 and used by Amtrak's Southwest Chief.
Southwest Lumber Mills Incorporated 2-8-0 25 built by Baldwin in 1911 for Arizona Lumber & Timber Company. In 1941, it was leased to Saginaw & Manistee Lumber Company as their 25 and ten years later, re-numbered 2. In 1953, it was the subject of a corporate sale to Southwest Lumber Mills, Inc. 2 and in 1959, the company's named change to Southwest Forest Industries, Inc. 25.
Southwest Forest Industries log car 139 built by Bettendorf.
One last view of the Santa Fe freighthouse before we drove to the Snow Peak Inn for the night.
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