My First Railfanning trip with the Kiddo!

[canazar]

I asked a few questins before I left for my trip so I thought I would post a small trip report for those that were following along...

I had a big mile stone the other day. My fiancee's son and I, (who just turned 5 in March) took our first camping trip together and it was a rail fanning trip no less! It was just us "guys" for a overnight trip up the BNSF Trans Con Line between Flagstaff and Williams.

We got to the tracks around 1230 pm on Sunday and set up camp about 100 yards across a field so that we had a great veiw from the back of my truck. ( I have a small campershell on the back) From our vantage point, we could see one way about 300 yards, the other, almost a mile. We also had a grade crossing with a road that led to a small cabin community which proved lots and lots of horns and bells. On Sunday, we had snow, rain, blowing cold wind, some sun, cloudy. Just everything Mother Nature could come up with. We were able to take a small "hike" up to the ROW and waited but only got to see one tran go by. but it was good one as it was loaded with all kinds of cars includeing a dozen or so flat cars with large CAT construction equipemtn on it. graders, dumptruck, and bulldozers. That was a double bonus for the little guy.

After that, we gave up due to the weather being just nasty. We climbed back in the truck and watched a a movie (gotta love the those portable DVD players) and wathced the trains go by. We kept on goign until it was bed time, he crawled in the front and I slept in the back, and we fell asleep to the sound of desiels rumbling up the grades and horns in the distance.

Monday mornig we woke up and drove over to the grade crossing, parked just on the other side of the ROW and hung out to see a couple more before went home. All in all, not includeing bedtime (there was alot at night) we saw close to 30 trains in less than a day. Great, great trip and the kid had a ball. Not much more a Dad could[:D] ask for.

As far as what rains we saw.... here is a breif score summary....

Most of the power we was the staple BNSF -9 in Pumkin colors. followed closely by the silver and red warbonnets. (Some pink too). Saw 3 or 4 UP AC4400's (I think, I am not that good yet with engines) Even caught a old UP Dash 8 with the regular cab. Looked out of place with the others. About a dozen NS units quite a few of those were SD60's. One Conrail unit, Wide cab engine, maybe SD70. Caught a couple of ex BN lease SD40's, and even saw a SF SD40 (or 45, had a long nose) with the BNSF patch. Also got to see some pusher action on Sunday. Two trains went by with power on the rear. My guess is because of the weather the rails might have been slick. (total guess on my part) And to top it off, throw in a couple of CN power units too. And on Monday morning at 530, we were woken up to the horns of the AMTRAK. First time I have seen seen one of those. For the coup de grace... Twice, we got to see east meet west on the two tracks in front of us. Always cool to see two trains pass. Kiddo though that was just the coolest thing ever

Traffic was mixed, with most of it being container type. Traffic on Sunday was west bound with 4 to 1 ratio over east. At night it was a toss up it seemed. By Monday morning, (being after 530am) it seem to be east about 3 to 1 over west.


Thanks for all those gave info to help me out.[:D][:D] It came in handy. It was well worth it and plan on going back again when it gets a bit warmer.

Best Regards
John K

[Anonymous]

John [8D]

I am glad to hear the trip went well. It sounds like you have a railfanning buddy there. Also ( I forget now) maybe a modeler to boot. Modeling would be a great time for both of you.

Best wishes. (Did you take any photos?)

[JoeKoh]

John
glad to hear about the good time you had.matt loves to go watch trains too.
stay safe
Joe

[chad thomas]

Glad to hear you had a good time. Thanks for sharing.

[locomutt]

Sounds like you two had a good time;hope it's the 'first' of many.

And pictures,if you got any,would be great to see.

[CShaveRR]

You--and he--are lucky to have hadthis experience. Hope it happens again--and often--for a long time.