Railfanning in the Southwest

by Dave Freshwater 

Abo Canyon 

After shooting Amtrak #3, I went off to Abo Canyon, which is southeast of Belen. It was mentioned in the Dailes write-up and I think it might be a better spot than Dailes. As you head through the canyon towards Mountainair, NM, there are spots where the tracks parallel the road and others where canyon walls make an interesting backdrop to the trains. There are periodic signal masts along the line. Because I was driving along US 60 and only stopping periodically to do ambush photography of trains, I didn’t figure out if there were any detectors that would be useful. If you travel along US60 long enough paralleling the tracks, you will end up in Vaughn, NM, which is still my favorite spot in this area.

Final Thoughts... 

There were a number of things that I saw that I didn’t get in the pictures. I only saw one train with non-BNSF engines on the BNSF lines. I saw one train with 2 CSX engines. I saw a silver and red BNSF B unit, like a GP-38B, headed up through Abo Canyon to Mountainair (just too dark). I saw a train come through Dailes with 10 engines on it. They weren’t needed for the tonnage; so it must have been a power balance move. I saw a complete train of covered hoppers headed west, maybe positioning for the grain rush.

Before you head to railfan in the Southwest, there are a couple things to remember. Things on the map are further apart than they appear. Many of these little towns close up early; I saw an Interstate gas station close at 10 p.m. And, your cell phone may not work out there, even on a US or Interstate route.

But, pick any spot on the TRANSCON and you are going to see plenty of trains. Every paint scheme used by BN, ATSF, or BNSF is going to show up along the line too. There is a difference in the paint used on the Warpumpkin engines, because the green has faded a lot on some of the engines. And you’ll see many more stack trains than you do around DC.