Yes the bnsf follows it most of the way
I am not sure if I would stay in a motel near the tracks at East Flagstaff. I made that mistake a couple of years ago and didnt sleep much.
Be sure and eat at Crown Railroad Cafe on the east side. Good action inside the diner and the adjacent tracks. I would recommend the Arizona Divide just west of Flagstaff. It is really special up there. East of Flagstaff the landscape changes from Ponderosa Pines to high desert. There is quite a bit to enjoy around Flagstaff.
ed
A few years ago I drove to Tucson to visit a sick uncle. On the way back I did a lot of shunpiking (avoided freeways and stuck to secondary roads) from Tucson to Phoenix to Kingman. The leg to Kingman was on US 93 which was a great run in my roadster despite thunderstorms in the hills. If I drove fast enough ony the top of my cap got damp. It was beautiful all the way.
From Kingman I went west on old US 66 but it is possible to take 66 east to Seligman as well. I have also ridden the Southwest Chief all the way from SoCal to Chicago. The stretch from Flagstaff to Albequerque was a great ride and we raced trucks a lot of the way there.
Jack
I worked in Gallup back in 2000-2001 on the brakemans xtra board when I had little seniority and was just fighting to survive. I still keep in touch w/ a few of the Gallup workers. Unlike back then, the entire Gup Sub is now CTC all the way. Mainline traffic is quite heavy between Winslow-Belen. Engrs work from Belen, condrs work from Winslow on these jobs. There is a crew base in Gallup and crews there change on the area shuttle coal trains that run to Lee Ranch mine and power plants in St.johns & Springerville, AZ. plus some WY trains in the mix. Route 66 follows the trks in town w/ a fence between the tracks and highway. Lots of good eating places to. Directly across from the yd is Don Diegos which has good mexican food and is visited by the yd crews everyday (use to eat there alot).
Ed, you're killing my productivity at work!
Seriously, great stuff--love the information and the photo's.
Thanks to Dining Car and everyone--excellent information. Spent some time on Google satellite maps today following the route. Should be great!
Yep, Diningcar's brief is so good I printed it out to use as reference next time I get to go out there.
Thanks, John
Follow this link to Brett Wirick's page on the Seligman Subdivision. It should give you enough information to do some very detailed planning for your trip as far as Winslow.
http://www.trainweb.org/brettrw/maps/seligmansub/seligmansub.html
Ed Cooper
former Flagstaff, Winona and Bellemont resident
We had our best day of train chasing last year. BNSF 7605 was leading a stack train out of Flagstaff early morning. Going east on I-40, exit 207, at Cosnino road, we viewed it from a spot recommended by forum members. In all we saw it 6 times that day, between Flagstaff AZ & Grants NM.
Thanks !, diningcar. On this, "you are clearly the higher source !"
- PDN.
I have waited to respond to see what others offer. But since I drive between Ash Fork and Albuquerque 3-4 times a year (round trip) and have a scanner with BNSF frequencies I shall recommend:
Drive I-17 to Flagstaff and (if schedule permits) stay at a motel in east Flagstaff next to the tracks. If you wish to end your day further east got to Winslow, a crew change location, and stay at the La Posada which is next to the tracks and is an experience unto itself. It has a wonderful restaurant open for all meals and a great veranda with comfortable seating where you can see all of the trains at a slower pace since they are stopping (westward) or excelorating (eastward). There is plenty of action between Flagstaff and Winslow and if you want a different distraction there is Meteor Crator just five miles south and about halfway to Winslow.
East from Winslow I-40 is next to the double track CTC line as far as Holbrook. There is an old 19th century depot building in Holbrook now used by MOW which is a good photo op with trains going by at track speed, so be careful. East from Holbrook it will be 40 miles or so where the tracks cannot be seen,except at a distance, and then they once again are paraell on to Gallup. There are magnificant sandstone cliffs near the state line between AZ and NM and a photo or two of trains juxapposed with them would be a memorable keepsake.
If your schedule permits there are many motels in Gallup near the tracks, just get off I-40 and drive old Route 66. AMTRAK 3 & 4 stop in Gallup but only briefly. There is a nice restaurant at the depot and some RR artifacts on disply inside the depot building. Check the schedule for AMTRAK and a scanner will tell you if they are OT.
East from Gallup toward Grants the Interstate is adjacent to the tracks most of the way. If your schedule dictates there are several motels in east Grants near the tracks, but restaurants are so-so. As you drive east from Grants I-40 crosses and recrosses the Transcon several times but there are few locations where they parallel for a significant distance. If you should choose to take a 1-2 detour along your way to albuquerque exit I-40 at MP 126 and take State road 6 to intersect with I-25 and then north to ALB. This is a two lane asphalt road that is adjacent to the Transcon much of the way and allows opportunities to pull off which are not available on the Interstate.
Please feel free to ask questions.
Thank you, Chuck.
Steve
WisconsinCyThanks, Paul, lots of good help. I also stand corrected from an earlier post I made that said it was UP that paralleled the highway--it is BNSF, and I have been past the auto facility. Just been a while. I think we'll pretty much high-tail it north though, up toward I-40.  Good stuff!
Thanks, Paul, lots of good help. I also stand corrected from an earlier post I made that said it was UP that paralleled the highway--it is BNSF, and I have been past the auto facility. Just been a while.
I think we'll pretty much high-tail it north though, up toward I-40.
 Good stuff!
That high-tailing would be up I-17 which is pretty quick. If you take off on 69 to Prescott and then north on 89, you will hit I-40 at Ash Fork. The last few miles on 89 would put you near the BNSF line from Ash Fork to Phoenix, though it's not likely you would see any traffic on that line.
There are some great spots near I-40 between Ash Fork and Flagstaff, but the whole detour would take probably three hours, plus watching time, maybe some more, as you would be driving two-lane highways that aren't the fastest routes, to say the least.
Wherever you go along the route east from Flagstaff, you will see plenty of traffic, even in this time of weak commerce. You may even see coal traffic heading to Joseph City and its large APS electric plant. If you visit the petrified forest, say hi to the ghosts of Bogie and Leslie Howard. You should have a pretty good time on the trip, in any event.
Thanks, Paul, lots of good help. I also stand corrected from an earlier post I made that said it was UP that paralleled the highway--it is BNSF, and I have been past the auto facility. Just been a while.
Good stuff!
Here's the link to the "Train watching in Phoenix" thread from back in mid-Dec. 2008, which has several very informative posts and is most likely where I got the info that I referenced above - a big Thanks ! to SFbrkmn, silicon212, diningcar, and Doublestack.
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/143324/1593805.aspx#1593805
- Paul North.
There's also a BNSF branch from Phoenix up to the Southern Transcon main. Someplace recently I read that it sees like 4 to 6 trains a day. But you'd better check into that yourself before making any great plans based on my memory !
- Paul.
Thanks, John--we'll be flying into Phoenix--did think about angling up to Williams. Have to see how much time we have, but will give that full consideration. I think it may be doable. Plus, if I recall, there's a UP line that roughly parallels the highway from Phoenix toward Williams, at least for a ways. I don't know that it's used a lot, but gets some traffic.
I would not limit myself just to Flagstaff and east unless you are really pressed for time. I would start at Williams and work eastward. There are lots of great photo locations in that stretch that have been published in Trains. One thing to think about if you are looking for quantitiy of trains is that the closer to Beleen you are the more you will be under the influence of fleeting as Abo Canyon (long stretch of single track) will come into play. I have noticed that Sunday in Flagstaff is very heavy, pre recession anyway. There are a number of motels along the line in Flagstaff where trainwatching from the room is possible; some you may not wish to stay in as they have been there forever. A little scouting after your arrival would be recommended. Its a great stretch of railroad, well worth the trip.
John
About 55- 60 miles east of Flagstaff is "Winslow, Arizona", as in the song (by the Eagles ?). There, a former Fred Harvey House hotel & restaurant that was operated in conjunction with the Santa Fe has been restored in the last 10 -12 years and reopened as La Posada. It is on the northern side of the BNSF main line, and of course right next to / west of the Amtrak station there. It has all kinds of history in the architect, is a Registered National Historic Landmark, that kind of thing. Here's the link for their website:
http://www.laposada.org/
Full disclosure: I have no personal experience there (yet) - this morning, I was looking them up for a possible trip out that way maybe this June, too ! (actually, a route something like from Yellowstone National Park down through Salt Lake City to Phoenix - see below). I'd recommend doing a "Google Maps" search for "La Posada, Winslow, Arizona", and then check out the link for "La Posada Hotel", esp. the "127 reviews" part. It will also proovide a map which shows exactly where it is in Winslow. Maybe someone else here will have some comments and reviews.
As far as the rail traffic: Back in mid-Sept. 2008 when my daughter moved from Denver to Phoenix, she drove I-40 West from Albuquerque to Flagstaff (the railroad gets close to I-40 about 30 miles west of Albuquerque, as someone else indicated above). She didn't believe me when I told her that she'd be seeing trains about every 30 to 40 minutes, and that she'd have trouble keeping up with some of them. Well, she was impressed, and now she believes. She also remarked on seeing 2 or 3 trains - mostly double-stack intermodalsand multi-level/ auto-racks - at the same time on the stretches with long views.
Let's see who else posts here - there are a couple of Forum members who frequent that area, I believe. If not, then I suppose we can exchange planning tips and trip reports here.
In Flagstaff, the Kings House overlooks the mainline a few blocks east of the depot. It looks like its been refurbed recently. A second floor room on the back wing will give you a nice view of the action. Haven't stayed anywhere else along the line.
The route follows approximately the same path (sometimes very close, other times maybe five-six miles away) as I-40 until you get within about 40 miles or so of Albuquerque, where it dips south before coming north roughly along I-25 into town and then north towards Las Vegas and Raton, etc. East of Albuquerque means the Belen cutoff which is south of Albuquerque considerably and certainly nowhere near I-40.
There are some good vantage points east of Gallup NM, at Grants NM, certainly, and near Winslow and Holbrook AZ, or even in town. I'm sure there are many more.
Planning this year's train watching trip. Looking to travel between Flagstaff and Albuquerque. Does the BNSF basically follow I 40 the entire way? What does the route do east of Albuquerque? Any good places to stay that overlook the tracks?
Thanks in advance for any input.
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