Must be the recession, but the volume of traffic is down dramatically. Spoke to several security people (don't ask) and all confirmed that since Christmas, traffic has dropped off a cliff. I love those scientific quantifications offered by experts! First a photo of the newly completed (Nov. 2008) third BNSF main line track. It runs adjacent to the "up" track. This was taken at Mormon Rocks: And a few random shots of BNSF freights:
One thing about Cajon, there are ALWAYS interesting items passing through. For example: Interesting load for all those empty spine cars!
You'll be lucky to find many trains anywhere now. Here in Louisville, CSX has furloughed 60 people with officials saying that number will soon double. The yards around here look like ghost towns and sidings are full of storage cars. I hope things get better soon:mhissyfit:
Oh, there's no question traffic was WAYYY down! Instead of a train every 15 minutes, it was hours between trains. We drove out to Barstow and the yard was a total morgue. Not a soul was stirring, and it wasn't the night before Christmas!
Nice photos William! Can't wait to join you on one of those trips. CSX here in Birmingham is laying off, and we have laid off 1/3rd of our workers. This is the worst I have ever seen traffic levels since I started working for the railroad 18yrs ago. We can only hope and pray the economy picks up before too long.
The trucking industry is in similar shape, Have been laid off from my trailer manufactoring job since 12/22, with a possible 2/3 callback date. People are not buying goods right now , so nothing to move by rail or road right now.:thumbs_down:
Thanks for the close up shots especialy the bridge over the dry wash scene. I plan to have a similar scene on my layout.:tb-biggrin:
