|
You are in the CarrTracks website Picture Gallery. Picture Gallery of Santa Fe Railway trains on the Transcon in Arizona |
|
I have made multiple trips taking pictures of the Santa Fe between Barstow and Clovis, NM. My early trips were during leave from the Navy in the 70s. While working in Dallas in the late 80s, I helped several Christian agencies promoting literacy among the Navajo. They were teaching the Navajo to read and write their own language. Most of the agencies were located in Flagstaff or near Gallup and were using computers running DOS. Remember that old operating system? At the time, I was teaching a computer course for beginners that included programs capable of keyboarding, displaying, and printing letters in languages other than English. So while driving from Dallas to Flagstaff and back, I had the opportunity to chase trains along the busy Santa Fe mainline. |
|
The Santa Fe began installing automatic block signals between Yampai and Seligman during the summer of 1913. It completed the installation of automatic block signals on 27.5 miles of double track between Ash Fork and Seligman in May 1914. Installation of automatic block signals on 59 miles of double track between Winslow and Flagstaff was completed in April 1914. At the same time, an eight lever interlocking was installed at Canyon Diablo for the gauntlet section of track on the bridge. In 1928 it added signals on second track between Chambers and Carrizo. In 1932 it added signals on single track between DT Junction and Joseph City. In 1940 it added a second track and signals between DT Junction and Joseph City. The biggest change in Arizona was the completion of the Crookton Cut-off in December 1960. The Santa Fe built a new double track line between Williams and Crookton and installed CTC between West Seligman and Maine. The CTC was extended to East Winslow in 1966. With the removal of the flyover west of Ash fork the dispatcher had to shift trains from operating right west of Seligman to operating left east of Winslow and vise versa. The CTC installation was completed between West Defiance, NM and Winslow in November 2001. CTC installation was completed between Seligman and Needles in 2003. In the good old days (50 years ago) on the Second District (Gallup to Winslow) there were train order offices at Chambers and Holbrook. Steam engines could take water at Chambers, Adamana, and Holbrook. On the Third District there were train order offices at Canyon Diablo, Flagstaff, Bellemont, Williams, and Ash Fork. Steam engines could take water at Angell, Flagstaff, Bellemont, Williams, McLellen westbound, Corva eastbound, and Ash Fork. On the Kingman District there were train order offices at Nelson, Peach Springs, Hackberry, Kingman, and Yucca. Steam engines could take water at Pica, Peach Springs, Hackberry, Kingman, and Yucca. |
|
As we move to the area west of Winslow you will see some unique operations on the Albuquerque Division. One of those is block swapping (described later in this series) and the other is the shift from left hand running to right hand running. When the Santa Fe installed double track it built a flyover west of Ash Fork in 1914 that automatically shifted the railroad from left hand running east of that point to right hand running. There are several area where the new second track separates from the original line to access easier grades for uphill trains. You can still see these segments between Rio Puerco, NM and Suwanee, between Baca and Thoreau, in Kingman Canyon, and Bagdad to Klondike in California. When the railroad built the Crookton Cut-off it eliminated the flyover. Before CTC was installed east of Winslow and west of Seligman, the dispatcher had to switch trains form from left hand running east of Winslow to right hand running west of Seligman and vise versa. You will see many pictures of train shifting between the north and south main tracks. Sometimes this move is to return trains to the normal flow of traffic and sometimes it is to let a faster train run around a slower one. For those modeling the Santa Fe in the late 60s, the library contains a series of pages with detailed freight train consists. The trains featured on those pages were observed at Winslow and Barstow. For modern photographers I've assembled a schedule of sorts of the trains I've observed recently (2011) between Amarillo and Flagstaff. Lupton |
Main Gallery