Bill Compton and I planned a Cajon Pass trip for Saturday, November 18, 2018. The day before, I passed my 1,553,000.0 rail mile and today I was on Day 8,697 of my sobriety. So I arose at 4:00 AM and had a good breakfast then listened to my new Rachel Flowers CD "Going Somewhere" before Bill picked me up after 5:00 AM. We drove out to West Colton where we checked the departure yard before proceeding to Cajon Pass and caught our first train of the day.
Union Pacific 5892 West. We drove down to Swarthout Canyon Road, crossed the BNSF mainline then parked and hiked across the mainline to the hill that overlooks Blu Cut. Our wait was not long.
Union Pacific 5892 West at Blu Cut. We also had an unknown eastbound and westbound BNSF freights come through, giving us three trains in one picture, pretty cool.
Union Pacific 2529 East was the next train here.
BNSF 6717 East.
Union Pacific 7821 East came through next on the Palmdale Cutoff.
Union Pacific 6554 East.
Amtrak's Southwest Chief, Train 3, running two-and-a-half hours late this morning.
BNSF 6239 East with BNSF C44-9W 786 in the consist.
BNSF 7461 West was the last train here. We then drove to Hill 582 and waited for more trains, which did not take long.
BNSF 6239 East at Hill 582 with BNSF C44-9W 786 in the consist.
A drone came in for a landing.
Union Pacific 4030 West was the next train.
BNSF 6313 East came past our photo location.
BNSF 4540 East with BNSF C44-9W 706 came through next.
BNSF 4205 West had Citirail 1342 in its consist.
The end of BNSF 4540 East near Summit.
The end of BNSF 4205 West.
Union Pacific 8773 West heading to Bakersfield.
BNSF 4139 West came by us.
BNSF 8035 East with Norfolk Southern SD70M-2 2764 and Norfolk Southern ET44AC 3653 in its consist.
BNSF 7709 West with BNSF C44-9W 680 in its consist.
BNSF 8222 East.
BNSF 4067 West with 689 in its consist.
BNSF 8001 East.
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