Just got back from a 2-day blitz to CA which included one day of business (Monday) and one day of Tehachapi railfanning (Sunday) with the following schedule:
1 am ET - go to bed
4 am ET - rise for 6 am flight to LAX
9:30 am PT - depart LAX rental lot for Mojave
11:00 am PT - arrive Mojave, spend the day on the hill, see 9 train in 10 hours, punctuated by a 5-hour gap in late afternoon with only one train. The final tally: 7 BNSF, all but one a manifest, 2 short UP stack trains. No complaints, it's great just being there.
9:00 pm PT - depart Caliente for Mojave - see 3 more trains on the drive back over the hill, in the dark.
9:30 pm PT - return to LA arrive 11:00 pm PT (2:00 am ET). A 22 hour day on 3 hours sleep. :
Here are a few shots. The Caliente Post Office, one of the structures I need to scratch-build:
The torrential Caliente Creek, which drains a 100 square mile watershed:
Favorite consist of the day: an 8-unit set with a warbonnet trailing:
...which turned out to be a GP39-2:
Favorite photo from the day: a UP stacker playing hide & seek with the live oaks below Tunnel 9:
Came back on the redeye this morning to find a new SD70Ace in my mail from Chuck.
