I had been somewhat disappointed with the
results of my visit to the Arizona's Apache Railway in
October 2000,
and had been wanting to get back to Snowflake to re-shoot them. I really wanted to shoot them in
better light (and with fewer clouds), and also shoot them heading back south out of Holbrook
in the afternoon. Nearly four years after my first visit, I finally made it back.
I arrived early on
a Tuesday morning, timing my arrival to catch the train just in case the crew made an early departure from
the yard west of Snowflake. They didn't. My wait stretched past noon, when a series of tie
gang machines rumbled past me, clearing up so that the train could finally depart. The train was
out at about 12:30, with FIVE units leading only a dozen cars. Hmmm, they won't need all that
power on the northbound trip... they must have a big pickup in Holbrook today. But they had a
side trip to make first...
The train had only gone a few miles out of the yard when the crew stopped to switch out a few cars from their train and then
head down into the actual town of Snowflake to switch a customer. The side trip took about an
hour and a half; after they returned to their train they headed north toward Holbrook.
The train arrived in Holbrook around 15:30, delivered to the BNSF and made their pickup.
The 60+ car pickup included the "Blue Looper" coal train -- obviously the reason for all the
power on their train out of
Snowflake. After doubling their pickup together and running the air, they departed
Holbrook by 16:45. The sound and sight of the five Alcos lugging the heavy train upgrade south of Holbrook was
phenomenal. Wow, what a show. Unfortunately, the railroad and the highway follow separate
paths between here and Snowflake, with no easy routes to intermediate locations, so the photos
I took near milepost 5 were my last shots of the train. No problem -- I
left the Apache happy that I had gotten much better results than during my visit four years ago.
