Three equal-size radiator fans say a 40-series. The tiny overhang at the rear of the cab roof (usually unnoticeable, but prominent here) says a Dash 2, and I believe the "beaded" blower duct does as well. This is a standard Phse I GP40-2.
Thanks. Tell you what, you're pretty good at this, my compliments. Without a "Diseasel" Spotter's Guide handy I'm totally at a loss in recognizing diesels. And even with one as a reference I can't I.D. them as accurately as you can. Best regards Ed
So after spending a few days in Cerocahui, it's back to the train for our final ride. Here we are back at the Bahuichivo station, waiting for our train. The people you see on the platform just spent a couple of nights at the same place that we did (even though we 're not traveling together). That car loaded with logs behind the station is symbolic of the only industry in these parts. And, unfortunately, that's being rapidly used up. And here comes our train, the northbound Primera Express. That's GP40-2 #3011. A closer shot of the locomotive, unfortunately with the sun behind it. And a bit up the route we come to "La Laja" bridge. It's much better looking than it appears in this shot, but it's the best I could squeeze off between the foliage. Regards Ed
Here's one of us crossing "La Laja" bridge. I would have loved to have had the opportunity to leisurely set up my camera on the other side, pick out a good vantage point, and have the train do a 'run by'. Unfortunately that wasn't in the cards this day. Coming into San Rafael we find the southbound Primera Express waiting for us. That's GP40-2 #3000. As usual, the crews exchange between the two trains. I believe that the engine crew stays the same, but most staff switch to the other train and work the second half of their shift heading back towards their home base. Leaving San Rafael I spent a rare moment in my seat. Paco seems much more animated than when we last saw him. Maybe he's happy because there are so few other people in the car. More likely he's thinking to himself "This stupid train trip is about over!!". Regards Ed
Just a bit up the line from San Rafael we come back to Divisadero. Readers who have followed the whole thread up to hear already realize that all passenger trains make a 20 minute stop here to allow passengers to detrain and run to the viewpoint looking out over Urique Canyon. You also get to grab something to eat from the local vendors, or buy that souvenir for the folks back home. We'd already done all that so I had free time to walk around and grab a couple of photos. Here's one of our locomotive. Not much better light-wise that the shot I took a couple of hours ago, but at least you get the side view here. Fran was happy to jump down and grab a shot of me hanging out the door of our coach. They sound the horn after 15 minutes, but they really wait until 20 minutes to leave. Here a few of the staff members from the cars are waiting on the passengers to take their photos and head back to the cars. Yes, that is an armed guard with a rifle standing there. He goes with the train. Finally we have most people back on board (no, they don't wait beyond the scheduled stop time), and we start moving northeast out of Divisadero. Next up, we meet a southbound freight. Regards Ed
As I think I mentioned before, there's not a lot of freight on this line. A couple of FXE employees told me maybe one or two freights a day in each direction. So I figure we were lucky to meet a southbound freight this day. Here, GP40-2 #3025 heads up the train which is waiting for us in the siding at Pitorreal. Note that the paint job on this one isn't as good as what we've seen on the locomotives assigned to the passenger trains. I was too busy snapping the photos to note the engine numbers on the other two locomotives. And a couple of teh first cars. I jumped over to the other vestibule windown just in time to catch this work train waiting on the other siding. More action than I had expected to catch at a little spot like Pitorreal. That's GP38-2 #2019 hauling some cars for track maintenance, including a backhoe on flatcar. And that's all for today's episode. Regards Ed
Ed, Wonderful photos! Im not good being in high places, so some made me dizzy, too. I never realized mexico was so beautiful. Thanks for posting this thread.
Maybe we can talk about a 2009 RRAdventure together Definite possibility. Between your video camera and my stills we'd have the subject well covered!!
Wonderful photos! Thanks. But it's not too hard to shoot decent photos with a subject and background like this. I never realized Mexico was so beautiful. Like the U.S. and Canada, there are some really great places. Unfortunately, outside of the Copper Canyon, none of them are accessible by train. While the valleys where you are may not be as deep as some of these in the Copper Canyon area, West Virginia has great places to see and photograph trains too. Thanks for posting this thread. Au contraire. Thanks for reading! Regards Ed (who worked one year on a project in West Virginia years ago)
Okay, that's about it for shots taken while hanging out the vestibule. I squeezed off a few more before arriving back at San Juanito (where we had left our car) but nothing worth posting in the thread. We picked up the car and headed to Creel, where we were going to spend two nights. But that wasn't the end of the railfanning. The next day we had no firm plans for sightseeing around Creel, so we drove the relatively short distance back down to Divisadero and figured we'd try to time it so that we could see at least one or two of the passenger trains come through there. That would give me a chance to view something head on for a change. We got there with plenty of time to spare, which gave us a better chance to walk around the trail system they have along the canyon rim, and to enjoy the view from the overlooks they have set up there. Fran took advantage of the time to spend more time looking at all the arts and crafts offered for sale by the locals. Finally the southbound first class train arrived. Lots of obstructions around, but I was able to get a decent shot of it. By the way, that red corrugated roof in the foreground is over the main foodstall area where you can buy local style fast food. I'm pretty sure we've seen GP40-2 #3011 before, as they use the same 4 locomotives to power the 2 first class and 2 second class trains each day. By the way, to the right of the picture is the main area for food, souvenirs, and the canyon overlook. Since the train makes a long stop here, I had time to walk up ahead and get a good long view of the train. You can see the crowd of boarding passengers near the back of the train. As usual during high traffic periods, the train has a dining car and a bar car up front, followed by five coaches. And this view of the same train. Regards Ed
Here's a closer shot of some of the boarding passengers. No checked baggage, you have to schlep it on yourself. There's always a good crowd of passengers either boarding or getting off the train here in Divisadero. It's a very popular stop. Here a Rarámuri girl stands by her table of souvenirs waiting for the next train to arrive. The main area of vendors is is a large market area behind me, so this girl has somehow managed to get a prime location as the first table anyone sees coming off the train. The baskets are the most typical local ware. About 45 minutes (+/-) after the first class train pulled out, here comes the southbound second class train. You can see that it is a bit shorter than the first class train. It has only one food service (snack bar) car, plus four coaches. And glides to a stop in front of the mercado. Regards Ed
Creel does not sound Spanish, what's the story on the name? Something like Bernardo O'Higgins being one of the "liberators" of South America?
I'll give you the short version, which still misses out on some details. First, Creel was named after Enrique Creel, who (among other things) was governor of the state of Chihuahua from 1907-1911, during construction of the original Kansas City, Mexico & Orient RR. (The FC Chihuahua al Pacifico, or "Chepe", is the ultimate successor to that road.) The family had been in Mexico for some time. I expect that his father (or grandfather) had immigrated to Mexico. Enrique was born in Chihuahua back in 1854, and his mother was Mexican. The family was allied with the Terrazas clan, the richest and most powerful family in Chihuahua prior to the Revolution. Regards Ed
Well, here we have the usual bustle of activity during the stop at Divisadero. The passengers have all jumped down and run to the scenic overlook, souvenir stands, or (this being the second class train without dining car) the food stands. This leaves the doors free for the mob of boarding passengers. But you will note that one couple has taken a moment to grab a shot in front of the train. Here's a decent grade level shot of the train with GP40-2 #3012 up front. Notice the two different number boards. And a closer look at one of the second class (Clase Economica) cars and their paint job. This happens to be the snack bar car at the head end. Remember that these used to be the first class cars. Those are a/c units on top (for the benefit of those folks who haven't followed the whole thread.) Okay, everybody's back on board, and the train can start to pull ahead. But it's not really going anywhere yet. I was talking to the engineer during the stop and he told me that the northbound first class train was due in shortly. Nest up, "The Meet". Regards Ed
I was pretty happy to have caught the two southbound trains, both pretty close to their scheduled time in Divisadero. But I was about to get an extra treat. The engineer of the southbound second class train said that the northbound first class train was close, so he needed to wait here for the meet. A brakeman from the train went up the line to the end of the passing siding and lined the switch for the siding. The train pulled away from the station area a bit, but didn't go anywhere. Pretty soon here came the northbound first class train. Here we can see the first class train pulling into the passing track. Pulling up alongside the southbound train and towards the platform area. That's GP40-2 #3000 heading up the train. And the tail end of the train is just about to clear the switch. I was really happy to have seen all three trains in one session at Divisadero. The first two were pretty well according to plan (doesn't happen all the time). But the meet location varies according to how the trains are running. They have radio communication (between them and with the dispatcher) and decide where to have their meet based on how they are running. They have a number of passing siding choices. Just pure dumb luck that today's meet happened here. Regards Ed
I think the waiting second class train must have sent one of their brakemen ahead to stand by the switch. Because as soon as the arriving first class train cleared the switch, the waiting train notched it up. I was surprised just how fast a GP40-2 can accelerate, especially when it's only hauling four lightly loaded cars. Here it does a poor imitation of an Alco as it smokes it up a bit. And it quickly accelerates around the curve and heads out of sight. Once the downhill train had left, I had time to walk up ahead and get a long shot of the waiting first class train. Regards Ed
So we figured it was time to head out of Dodge (or, in this case, Divisadero). It occured to me that if we left pronto, we could not only drive back to Creel, but chase the uphill first class train while we were at it. The only problem is that the tracks are mostly out of sight of the road, so coming to a crossing you weren't really sure if the train had already passed that point of not. We tried our first shot at a likely looking stretch of track that ran alongside the road. I had justr climbed up through teh scrub brush to get into a better shot when he came hauling around the curve. No time to get in a better location. But by the next crossing I figured I had a bit of a lead on him, due to teh fact that he had to make some extra loops to gain elevation. We had time to park the car and wait. Sure enough, here he comes again. And one more shot as he comes right to the crossing. You figure that by now the crew of #3000 recognizes me as a railfan? Regards Ed
Jumping back in the car, we headed down the road towards the next crossing. Not fast enough, I guess. We were just approaching the crossing when I heard the horn. That's okay. Anyway, we continued the chase, and came to an area where the road roughly paralleled the tracks. Unfortunately, lots of scrub brush in the way, and no way to compose anything decent. Heas moving pretty good at this point. Fran grabs a shot out the car window. By now we were getting pretty close to Creel. I did manage to make it into town before the train, and parked near the station. I was ready when he got there. You can see a bunch of people waiting on the platform. Takes a few minutes to board all those people and their baggage. I took advantage of the fact that he was stopped to get a decent shot. Regards Ed
