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| Crossing the Rio Puerco near McCartys, New Mexico |
I was at work, anticipating getting off a few hours early to board the Sunset Limited in Pomona, California. I received an outside call, and found myself talking to an Amtrak reservation agent. There had been a derailment on the SP near Tuscon, and the Sunset was being re-routed over the Santa Fe. Hmmmmmm! I informed my boss that I had to leave immediately and get into LAUPT. .....oh darn. This is not the way I had expected my All Aboard America great circle trip to begin. I got settled into my Heritage Fleet 10-6 (the thru LA - D.C. car) roomette, and then we sat on the platform, and sat some more. Finally, we got out on to the Second District, about the time the Sunset would have made its station stop at Pomona. After Barstow, I decided to try and get some sleep. The Needles District trackage was surprisingly rough and we bounced all the way to Needles before I finally drifted off. The next day broke, and we were just about exactly 12 hours off of the Southwest Chief schedule, so we were treated to Northern Arizona in daylight. Unfortunately the rare mileage portion of the detour was all made in darkness. We had pulled into Belen at dusk, and spent at least an hour there. I stayed awake until El Paso, and we negotiated some very back alley trackage to get onto the SP near the station. We were now 12 hours late, and again we would cover trackage in Texas, normally transited at night by the Sunset. I called my hotel in New Orleans to advise I would be checking in late.
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| Belen, New Mexico. An SP WB detour, probably an AVLAAT waits for a crew. |
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| Pooches in Belen wait to retrace the route of Santa Fe RDC cars. |
I really enjoy your photos and comments. I wish some had done the same for the Illinois Central. I was raise in Kankakee and all of their trains on the main line when through there. I got to ride the City of New Orleans in the cab from Champaign to Effingham. We shot b&w film and 35 mm b&w for a television class at the University of Illinois. What a ride at 100 mph. I worked for the WP for 4 years and really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Charles for the compliment. I will be posting a shot of the ICG yard at Meridian Miss.
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