Starting Downhill at Morenci
The excessive heat this weekend in the midwest has me thinking back to similar but slightly worse temperatures I experienced on a trip to the Southwest last September, and so I dug out some photos from those adventures that hadn't seen the light of day here yet.
It was actually a pretty nice morning in the higher elevations of eastern Arizona this particular day when we visited Freeport McMoRan's Morenci Mine operation. The FMI's railroad operation has completed a pick up and a brake test at their small yard on the south side of Morenci. With a rather filthy 5-pack and FMI 49 with it's neat nose headlight in the lead, and is now starting to ease down the very steep grades to Clifton to interchange their first cut of the day with the Arizona and Eastern railroad. It's not often one shoots locomotives without ditch lights these days it seems.
Often railfans (understandably as it's a nice vista) start a downhill chase with the classic shot just a little further around the corner near the substation. But the drone camera let me try out this view I rather liked for the way it shows off the yard, the local vegetation, and still has the massive tailings piles dominating the background, along with a glimpse of the houses and the trailer village of the company town that is home for many of the Morceni Mine's workforce. The steepness of the track grade of this rugged industrial operation is also pretty apparently if you realize that the yard tracks above the engines have to be relatively flat, and the mainline has already dropped many feet in less than a train length! If you look close towards the end of the first cut of black tank cars, you can see the runaway switch at the top of the grade.
Starting Downhill at Morenci
The excessive heat this weekend in the midwest has me thinking back to similar but slightly worse temperatures I experienced on a trip to the Southwest last September, and so I dug out some photos from those adventures that hadn't seen the light of day here yet.
It was actually a pretty nice morning in the higher elevations of eastern Arizona this particular day when we visited Freeport McMoRan's Morenci Mine operation. The FMI's railroad operation has completed a pick up and a brake test at their small yard on the south side of Morenci. With a rather filthy 5-pack and FMI 49 with it's neat nose headlight in the lead, and is now starting to ease down the very steep grades to Clifton to interchange their first cut of the day with the Arizona and Eastern railroad. It's not often one shoots locomotives without ditch lights these days it seems.
Often railfans (understandably as it's a nice vista) start a downhill chase with the classic shot just a little further around the corner near the substation. But the drone camera let me try out this view I rather liked for the way it shows off the yard, the local vegetation, and still has the massive tailings piles dominating the background, along with a glimpse of the houses and the trailer village of the company town that is home for many of the Morceni Mine's workforce. The steepness of the track grade of this rugged industrial operation is also pretty apparently if you realize that the yard tracks above the engines have to be relatively flat, and the mainline has already dropped many feet in less than a train length! If you look close towards the end of the first cut of black tank cars, you can see the runaway switch at the top of the grade.