I left Flagstaff before dawn on October 28, 2022, and drove to the Arizona – New Mexico border before attempting my first photo of the day. I had overtaken an eastbound intermodal train and pulled off of I40 to attempt a drone shot of it passing the tourist trap stores under the bluffs on the north side of the Interstate. As it turned out I was not as far ahead as I thought and did not get the drone up in time to catch the head end locomotives passing through the scene. I had to settle for the well cars as there was no DPU.
I tried this scenario again with another eastbound, this time overtaking it as it left Gallup, New Mexico. I had better luck this time after setting up just east of BNSF “Guam” near Coolidge, New Mexico. The red bluffs of Fallen Timber Ridge dominate the background here as I recorded this drone sequence.
I had lost an hour when I crossed into New Mexico from Arizona, so I made my obligatory stop for lunch at Pete’s Cafe in Belen. Continuing east out of Belen I made my next photo stop at Beevers on the flats west of Abo Canyon where two westbounds were creeping along side-by-side at milepost 879 in a traffic jam to get to the fuel racks in Belen. H2 paint was winning the race with H3 paint at that moment!
When I was getting near to Encino, I heard a westbound grain train on the radio and I stopped for a drone view of the train and this small community on the plains.
I had been wanting to photograph the Vaughn water tank for a while with a train passing by, and now this was about to come to pass at sunset. As soon as I saw this westbound passing West Tejon in the distance, I launched the drone from a highway rest stop. The train was flying, and I had just enough time to get into position for this successful capture.
Another westbound intermodal was close on his heels, and I launched the drone again for this final exposure only a few moments before sunset at 6:05 pm.
By the time I arrived in Fort Sumner an hour later in the dark there was just enough time to get something to eat at the local cafe before heading to my usual room at the Billy the Kid Motel.
