by Jeffrey Plant/photos by the author
I began my railroad photography in 1967, but like many fans, I was limited to shooting on weekends and annual two-week vacations that always seemed too short. I was thus thrilled to become eligible for a six-week sabbatical leave in June 1991. I thought that the fall of 1991 would be a great time to visit some of the western states, avoiding the summer heat. I visualized a journey without any rigid plan, which would allow for railfanning and visits to some of the National Parks that I always wanted to see. On the last day of September, I loaded my Mazda, left New York’s Capital District and headed west. The captions follow the course of the trip, which ultimately lasted 49 days. It was, needless to say, the experience of a lifetime, with a great feeling of freedom to go wherever I wanted, without worrying about time…
ABOVE: I next headed for the newly-formed Montana Rail Link, basing myself out of Livingston, Mont., which is the home of the former Northern Pacific shops. Livingston is at the east end of Bozeman Pass and long freights were often dis-patched westward behind sets of four SD units. At this time, many Montana Rail Link diesels were wearing fresh coats of blue paint. MRL contracted to haul certain Burlington Northern trains, so you often saw mixed MRL/BN consists. Just a few miles out of Livingston, MRL SD40-2XR 251 has four more EMDs working together to pull a westbound mixed freight. The 251 was built as an SD40 for Union Pacific in 1966 and was upgraded by MRL, hence the “XR” appendage.
ABOVE: I next pushed south into Arizona’s copper country. The relatively new Copper Basin Railway’s action centered around Ray Junction. A few miles from Ray Junction, SD39 304 heads south and east through the cacti of Arizona desert country. The headlight package gives this away as a former Southern Pacific unit. The SD39s are well-suited for the heavy ore drags with their medium horsepower and six-axles providing excellent traction.
ABOVE: The next stop was to see the San Manuel Arizona Railway, which served a large copper ore processing plant in its namesake town, with well-maintained Alco power. RS-3 1 is switching the plant beneath a beautiful cloudscape. The Alcowas built in 1955 for the start-up of this railroad.
ABOVE: I have always been a Baldwin enthusiast, and I heard that the Magma was still all-BLW. I had no information on their operations, so I drove to their junction with the Southern Pacific at Florence, hoping for the best. By great luck, I encountered the Magma just leaving the junction at 10 a.m., heading north to Superior, Arizona. Magma’s traffic consisted entirely of the mineral perlite extracted from the spoil banks at the now-closed smelter in Superior. In this view, Magma Baldwins 8 and 9, the sole power on the railroad, have brought their empty train through the cactus desert from Florence to Superior. Note the dynamic brakes on 8 — it’s the only Baldwin S8 to be so-equipped.
ABOVE: My time in the West was winding down. It’s absolutely true that time goes by so fast when you are having fun! I headed north to the Apache Railway in Snowflake, Ariz., where there had been a paper mill in operation. The friendly employees allowed me to freely explore the property. They said that there would be a northbound train running in the after-noon that would head to the interchange with the Santa Fe at Holbrook, with a stop to switch the agribusiness that they referred to as the “Pig Farm.” The train is leaving Snowflake behind a beautiful matched set of Alcos consisting of four C-420s and an RS-36. Lead unit 83 was built as Monon 516 in 1967. Apache purchased RS-36 800 new from Alco in 1962.
