Bill and I awoke at our hotel and after our morning preparations, checked out and drove over to the Barstow station McDonald's where I enjoyed hot cakes and sausage for breakfast on a cold 32 degree morning. After eating, we drove out to Hinkley where we followed the railroad to our first photo spot of the day just east of Lake Harper Road on what was now a 23 degree morning.
The view looking west.
The view looking east. We sat for over two hours and had one false alarm before I heard two distant horns from a train coming our way from the east.
BNSF 5480 West came through our location. After about thirty minutes, we drove west but missed an eastbound train after we turned around so resumed our drive west again and west of Jim Grey, found another eastbound train. This time we made it back to Jim Grey with about three minutes to spare.
BNSF 5386 East with Citirail 1207 and CSX 9045 in the consist. From here we drove west to Boron, Silt and Edwards sidings with no trains to be found but as we drove into Bissel, discovered a photographer's dream cut.
The view looking west.
The view looking east.
Me and my shadow!
We then saw our block signal with a double red and knew we had an eastbound so waited patiently.
BNSF 4049 East with DPU BNSF 3991 at Bissel, after which we headed west.
Just before Sanborn, here are the views of the windmills on the hills to the west. With no more trains, we headed to California Highway 14 and took Sierra Highway through Lancaster and Palmdale then returned home via California 14 to Interstate 5, to California Highway 210 to California Highway 57 to Interstate 5, which took me home to Santa Ana.
I gave Bill one of my calendars and thanked him for a great trip then watched the end of the Los Angeles Kings defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 before the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the New York Islanders 5-1. This ended a great two days of train chasing.
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