My last full day working out of Flagstaff, Arizona on this trip was Wednesday, October 27th 2022. Sunrise found me passing Kingman about seventy miles west of Flagstaff just as a westbound was passing through town.
After I finished my work for the day, before heading back to Flagstaff I decided to spend some time at Crozier Canyon near Valentine, Arizona. I came in on the east end through the public lands adjoining the BNSF Southern Transcon near the Truxton Flyover. Before long I captured this westbound train heading downgrade into the canyon just west of the Flyover with Laughing Jack Butte rising in the background.
I had enough time to drive west as far as was practical on the dirt roads paralleling the tracks. I heard an eastbound train nearby on the radio and launched the drone to see what I could compose. The higher I flew, the more of the “S” curve in Crozier Canyon became visible, so I would up at the 400-foot drone altitude limit for this view looking west towards the southern end of the Music Mountains. This is my favorite photo from the whole trip even though the afternoon light was not favorable.
I flew back closer to my launch point and recorded the rest of the train climbing up the grade to Truxton first looking west and then east showing the single DPU on this train.
Only by using the drone can you see how unique these rock formations really are!
It was not long before another eastbound train was slogging uphill out of the west end of the canyon.
This intermodal had two DPU’s, one of which was a Norfolk Southern.
I tried to move to the west end of the canyon before a westbound arrived but was unsuccessful. I caught it passing under the Truxton Flyover where an eastbound intermodal was tied down in the siding on the north side.
Just before I got back on Route 66, I paused for this view of an old corral. I decided to head back east towards Flagstaff at this point as I had not heard any more west bounds that I could catch at the west end of the canyon.
This was not the best decision as I encountered a westbound in Peach Springs. I thought about chasing it back and probably could have beat it to the west end of Crozier Canyon, but I decided to save that for the next trip.
This train had two mid-train DPU’s.
I wanted to get an early start the next morning on my way back to Fort Sumner as the mid-pint of my trip back home to Texas.