DSC_0159-ABQ-station
November Vacation, pt 2, Arizona-New Mexico, 8 Nov 2017
Day 2 of our November 2017 vacation dawned in Arizona. We slept through most of the state and finally staggered into the diner a bit before the Gallup, New Mexico stop. I'm not certain what state a few of the photos were taken in, so I guessed.
There is a stretch of track between South Garcia and Rio Puerco, west of Dalies, New Mexico where the 2 mains are separated for a distance. We overtook a manifest and then a stack train there while I was watched New Mexico recede out the back of the train. They were stopped clear of the crossovers at Rio Puerco, where we crossed over to the north track. The next location on the railroad was Dalies, where the line to Albuquerque and Raton Summit branches off from the Transcon via Belen and Amarillo. Raton and Glorietta Passes have 3% grades, so BNSF runs most freight on the more southerly Transcon line which joins the original route near Ellinor, Kansas.
We met a westbound stack train at Dalies as we branched away from the Transcon.
Albuquerque used to have far more extensive ATSF facilities than survive today. The turntable once served a large roundhouse and there are buildings that appear to have been a backshop. Amtrak has a lot of schedule padding on 3 and 4's schedule into Albuquerque and we arrived close to an hour early.
The old ATSF station burned some years ago, but has been replaced with an attractive building shared by Amtrak and Greyhound. The bus line has several routes going north-south and east-west from Albuquerque. If a person wanted to follow the route of the old Rock Island Cherokee from Tucumcari through Amarillo, Oklahoma City and Little Rock to Memphis, Greyhound has a bus that will do so.
We were heading to Santa Fe and had a choice. Stay on the Chief for another hour to Lamy, which is/was the stop nearest Santa Fe on the ATSF/BNSF main line, and pay $40 per person for the Santa Fe-Lamy shuttle or get off in Albuquerque and pay $9 (Anne got the $4 disabled fare) on New Mexico Rail Runner. We opted for Albuquerque.
We stashed our bags at the station and found a pizza place that serves excellent New York style pizza a couple of blocks away. After a lunch of pizza washed down with a couple of pints of beer, we walked back to the station, passing a sign offering kimchi pancakes at another restaurant. Pizza sounded a LOT better! Daughter Elizabeth's response to the phone photo I sent was "Ewwww".
I worked from home from the station after we got back, with time out to photograph the Rail Runner yard and a southbound arrival. A couple of ATSF signals were still around and I incorporated them into some of my photos. Rail Runner and Amtrak make no effort to coordinate their schedules, so we had long layovers in Albuquerque coming and going, which was good for the pizza joint. In fact, there is a southbound Rail Runner train on weekends that arrives from Santa Fe at exactly the same time as the westbound Chief is due to depart, which required us to take an earlier train when we returned. Rail Runner uses MP36 diesels and Bombardier double deck cars.
Eventually the westbound Chief arrived, early and a little while later a northbound Rail Runner train came to take a bunch of commuters home and us to Santa Fe. Darkness fell soon after leaving Albuquerque and I dozed a bit as we headed north and climbed to Santa Fe's 7200' elevation. Rail Runner uses a combination of the Santa Fe Raton Pass line, new construction and a bit of the Lamy-Santa Fe branch. Just using the existing Lamy-Santa Fe branch the whole way to Lamy would have entailed some 15 MPH running, so Rail Runner has some new track in the middle of the I-25 median for a few miles.
We arrived to a beautiful evening in Santa Fe and used the free shuttle service to get to our hotel in the dark. The hotel, Las Palomes, upgraded us to what amounted to a 1 bedroom apartment at the standard room rate and I can highly recommend the place for beautiful rooms and grounds and an excellent full breakfast. It turned out to be a 10 minute walk to the station, when I went railfanning when we were there, but not knowing our way around town yet,we were happy to take the shuttle.
DSC_0159-ABQ-station
November Vacation, pt 2, Arizona-New Mexico, 8 Nov 2017
Day 2 of our November 2017 vacation dawned in Arizona. We slept through most of the state and finally staggered into the diner a bit before the Gallup, New Mexico stop. I'm not certain what state a few of the photos were taken in, so I guessed.
There is a stretch of track between South Garcia and Rio Puerco, west of Dalies, New Mexico where the 2 mains are separated for a distance. We overtook a manifest and then a stack train there while I was watched New Mexico recede out the back of the train. They were stopped clear of the crossovers at Rio Puerco, where we crossed over to the north track. The next location on the railroad was Dalies, where the line to Albuquerque and Raton Summit branches off from the Transcon via Belen and Amarillo. Raton and Glorietta Passes have 3% grades, so BNSF runs most freight on the more southerly Transcon line which joins the original route near Ellinor, Kansas.
We met a westbound stack train at Dalies as we branched away from the Transcon.
Albuquerque used to have far more extensive ATSF facilities than survive today. The turntable once served a large roundhouse and there are buildings that appear to have been a backshop. Amtrak has a lot of schedule padding on 3 and 4's schedule into Albuquerque and we arrived close to an hour early.
The old ATSF station burned some years ago, but has been replaced with an attractive building shared by Amtrak and Greyhound. The bus line has several routes going north-south and east-west from Albuquerque. If a person wanted to follow the route of the old Rock Island Cherokee from Tucumcari through Amarillo, Oklahoma City and Little Rock to Memphis, Greyhound has a bus that will do so.
We were heading to Santa Fe and had a choice. Stay on the Chief for another hour to Lamy, which is/was the stop nearest Santa Fe on the ATSF/BNSF main line, and pay $40 per person for the Santa Fe-Lamy shuttle or get off in Albuquerque and pay $9 (Anne got the $4 disabled fare) on New Mexico Rail Runner. We opted for Albuquerque.
We stashed our bags at the station and found a pizza place that serves excellent New York style pizza a couple of blocks away. After a lunch of pizza washed down with a couple of pints of beer, we walked back to the station, passing a sign offering kimchi pancakes at another restaurant. Pizza sounded a LOT better! Daughter Elizabeth's response to the phone photo I sent was "Ewwww".
I worked from home from the station after we got back, with time out to photograph the Rail Runner yard and a southbound arrival. A couple of ATSF signals were still around and I incorporated them into some of my photos. Rail Runner and Amtrak make no effort to coordinate their schedules, so we had long layovers in Albuquerque coming and going, which was good for the pizza joint. In fact, there is a southbound Rail Runner train on weekends that arrives from Santa Fe at exactly the same time as the westbound Chief is due to depart, which required us to take an earlier train when we returned. Rail Runner uses MP36 diesels and Bombardier double deck cars.
Eventually the westbound Chief arrived, early and a little while later a northbound Rail Runner train came to take a bunch of commuters home and us to Santa Fe. Darkness fell soon after leaving Albuquerque and I dozed a bit as we headed north and climbed to Santa Fe's 7200' elevation. Rail Runner uses a combination of the Santa Fe Raton Pass line, new construction and a bit of the Lamy-Santa Fe branch. Just using the existing Lamy-Santa Fe branch the whole way to Lamy would have entailed some 15 MPH running, so Rail Runner has some new track in the middle of the I-25 median for a few miles.
We arrived to a beautiful evening in Santa Fe and used the free shuttle service to get to our hotel in the dark. The hotel, Las Palomes, upgraded us to what amounted to a 1 bedroom apartment at the standard room rate and I can highly recommend the place for beautiful rooms and grounds and an excellent full breakfast. It turned out to be a 10 minute walk to the station, when I went railfanning when we were there, but not knowing our way around town yet,we were happy to take the shuttle.