Arizona & California Railroad
Arizona & California Railroad
The Arizona & California Railroad runs from Cadiz, CA down to
Parker, AZ and then across to Wickenburg (with trackage rights to Phoenix) on an ex Santa
Fe branch with a fleet of well maintained GP30's, 35's and 40's. They also used to have 5
GP20's that were returned from lease a year ago.
Would you like prints of most any of
these slides? Go to Desert-Rails.com
for details!
ac_spec1.jpg (352499 bytes)
Here is the Cactus Blossom Special at
Hope on April 4, 1993. It is just entering the cut made from a tunnel that was daylighted
years ago.
ac_spec.jpg (306101 bytes)
After running to Salome and running
around its train, the Cactus Blossom Special is again at Hope, this time westbound on
April 4, 1993. This was one of the best wildflower seasons in years for the Arizona
desert.
a&c111895.jpg (230385 bytes)
Here is the westbound
train headed up the hill out of Wickenburg, AZ on Nov. 18, 1995. With one unit down and
another only partly loading, the other units are working as hard as they can with this
train.
a&c_parker.jpg (245826 bytes)
After a crew change and switching, the
train is heading across the Colorado River into California late in the afternoon of Nov.
18, 1995.
a&c_app.jpg (204452 bytes)
This is the Appekuny Mountain, which was
on the Arizona Central for a while painted in Espee Daylight colors, and then was used by
the A&C. This car has now left the A&C. Shown here at Parker, AZ on Nov. 18, 1995.
Here are the results from a pleasant
Sunday spent burning Kodachrome around the Parker area. All photos taken on
March 7, 2004. Enjoy!
Around 8 am the crew started work and here
they are bringing out the train's power in Parker.
3 big SD's are on the train - all
re-engined with 16 cylinder prime movers and rated at 3000 hp. 2 of them are
ex SD45-2's and the other is an ex SD45. The road has one other SD45 carbody
unit, also with 3000 hp.
Just west of Parker the train accelerates
up the hill out of the Colorado River valley at Earp, California.
A going away shot of the westbound train a
few miles east of Rice, California.
A pacing shot....note the locals seem to
like piling up rocks to spell out certain names, ideas, etc!
And more weirdness in the desert! Here is
the "Shoe Tree" adorned with all sorts of old shoes, shirts and other
strange items, including a couple of partly burnt tires (offerings to the
Mother Ship?? !! ).
At Rice the train does a little switching
and picks up a GP38-2 unit that was used on the Blythe branch.
We went a few miles up the Cadiz Road and
then waited a few hours for the train to make its trip to Cadiz and return.
Here the 4 units are working hard with a heavy eastbound near Sablon,
California.
I had both cameras going, and this shot is
taken with a 35mm lens, quite a jump from the 200mm lens on the photo above.
Back at Rice, they do some more switching,
and I got a few roster shots while they did their work.
The Gp38-2 with nice afternoon lighting.
Here they are underway once again
eastbound towards Parker.
The train has just crossed into Arizona
across the Colorado River at Parker.
And just a few minutes before sunset, we
got this westbound BNSF "re-positioning train" a few miles east of Parker. A
great Sunday indeed eh ;).
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