February 21st as I headed west on I40 through Arizona I unexpectedly accomplished one of my railfan bucket list items. Passing through Holbrook I looked down the tracks and spotted two green and white locomotives in the distance. While I have photographed the pristine Alco’s of the Arkansas & Missouri on multiple occasions, this was my first time to catch the more elusive Apache Railroad. Alco Century 420 number 81 (ex-Louisville & Nashville 1305) and Century 424 number 99 (ex-Canadian Pacific 4233) were finishing up switching the BNSF interchange before heading back to Snowflake 38 miles to the south.





As the crew was finishing up their air test I drove to the south side of the Little Colorado River bridge to catch them leaving town.


I had not done my homework on the Apache before this trip but I did remember the line became inaccessible a short time after leaving Holbrook. I took the highway south about two miles to the next road that branched off to the west and got lucky when I found the last prime photo spot at a grade crossing. The wind was gusting around 40 mph so I had to really brace myself for this final sequence as the train climbed the grade southbound out of Holbrook invisible in the river valley behind the train.




If I had passed through Holbrook thirty minutes later I would have missed them altogether. After this high, ninety miles further west in Flagstaff I found the weather to be radically different.

Twenty-four inches on the ground with another sixteen inches to come before the storm was over!
One Comment
Nice Ken. Can’t go wrong with ALCO’s. Didn’t even know they were still operating. I thought the mill at Snowflake was closed.