The next morning Tuesday, July 26th I left Fort Sumner early and drove around 275 miles before I paused for my first photos of the day. I was tracking the progress of eastbound Amtrak Train 4 the Southwest Chief on my phone, and decided to catch it with the mesa north of Coolidge New Mexico in the background. The train was leaving Gallup when I found my location and photographed this thunderstorm over the mesa with Main One in the foreground and the separated Main Two behind me.
About twenty minutes passed and then I could see the tiny shape of Amtrak 4 in the distance to the left. After passing the crossover at Guam it swung into view for my first clear shot with a long telephoto at 1:08 pm.
In another minute the train curved across the landscape much closer to me.
Satisfied with my results here I started back towards I40 but was stopped at the grade crossing by a long westbound on Main Two.
I headed on west passing Gallup and entered Arizona not long after. As I had the extra time this day, I decided to make my first visit ever to Canyon Diablo and its famous bridge. I gassed up at Winslow and a few miles later exited I40 onto the unimproved road that would take me to the west end of the bridge. I was glad I had the extra ground clearance provided by the Explorer Sport model.
It took me roughly 45 minutes to cover the four to five miles from the interstate to a spot close enough to the bridge for me to reasonably launch the drone. It was only a few minutes later that a westbound train came by in this view looking north.
The first bridge here was completed around 1882 and was replaced by a heavier version in 1900. This current double track bridge was completed in 1947. The creek bed is roughly 220 feet above the deck of the 500-foot long bridge bridge.
I swiveled the drone to a westward view of the train now going awaw from the camera. Flagstaff is below the San Francisco Peaks visible on the far left side of the photo. In the distance you can just see an eastbound train about ten miles away snaking towards me.
I landed the drone and changed batteries with plenty of time to spare before the eastbound reached the bridge and flew across at track speed in these views looking north.
Looking west again towards Flagstaff from my elevated view point I could see another eastbound coming my way. I moved closer to the bridge for this next train looking west.
Next up was a westbbound train and I flew the drone to the northwest of the bridge and pointed the drone looking east.
I almost pressed the shutter too late for this fast train and I just barely caught it. With the propect of it taking me almost an hour to get back to I40, I decided this was enough for this visit and packed up. Before what passes as a road here veered away from the tracks I captured one more eastbound train speeding across the flats towards the bridge behind me.
Once I covered the distance back to I40 at between five to ten miles per hour, it felt good to cover the last 35 miles to Flagstaff at 75 mph on the way to a nice room and dinner.
