21-05-16 PHOTOS: Tucson

In 2021 I went on a bit of a National Parks kick as I raced to take advantage of the still-low airfares in the time after I was vaccinated for Covid, but before many other people were ready to travel. I had previously learned on some friends in Arizona to enable a visit to the Grand Canyon and this year I was looking to go back with Saguaro national park, located near Tucson, as the target. Between the downtown Tucson Amtrak station and the former Southern Pacific Gila sub that parallels Interstate 10 I managed to cobble together enough railroad related content to fill out this post. You can see all of these photos here ( mirror ).

Although most Americans associate things like giant Saguaro cacti with all deserts, they are actually unique to the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona and parts of northwestern Mexico. Unlike other great world deserts such as the Sahara and the Gobi, the Sonoran Desert receives a surprising amount of rainfall that is confined to two brief monsoon seasons. As a result the local plant life has evolved to absorb and store as much water as possible to get them through the dry seasons. This mostly takes the form of cacti, a plant family that is almost entirely unique to the Americas.

May is when cacti flower. The resulting fruits form the base of the animal food chain in the Sonoran Desert. The spines of a cactus are actually an evolved leaf (thorns are an evolved branch). Replacing spines with thorns not only protect the cactus and its absorbed water, but also reduce the rate of water loss from a leaf's large surface area.

Slow growth mean most notable saguaro cati are well over a century old. Most don't even form their first arm until at least age 70.

Gila woodpeckers are especially common and make these nests inside saguaro cacti.

Amtrak's Tucson station is located downtown with Tri-weekly service to LA, New Orleans and Chicago via the combined Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle.

The most interesting part of the station is a preserved Union Switch and Signal Traffic Control Center CTC console. This example was installed by the Southern Pacific at this station in the 1950's or 60's to control most of the Gila Sub between Tucson and Yuma.

The station also features preserved Southern Pacific M-4 class 2-6-0 Mogul #1673, which is associated with the Southern Arizona Transportation History museum.

Since I was not around for any Sunset Limited departures, the only train i caught at the Tucson was a Union Pacific intermodal that slowed to a stop due to congestion in and around Tucson's yard. Power was in the form of UP AC4400's #7021, #6515 and ES44AC #7397 up front with a AC4400 #5910 helping in the middle.

Heading back to Phoenix on Interstate 10 I caught ES44AC #7692 at the head of a westbound manifest freight on Main track #2 the parallels Gila sub.

About four miles ahead on main track #1 near the town of Red Rocks I overtook a westbound doublestack intermodal train with ES44AC #2536 and AC4400 #6054 on the rear and ES44AC #7934 and AC4400 #6476 in front.

I actually managed to get sufficiently ahead of the train to pull off the interstate and set up at Sunland Gin Rd crossing near Eloy where the westbound track #1 signal was displaying a Clear indication. Until about 10 years ago the Union Pacific southern transcon route was a largely single track and passing siding affair, but the explosion in intermodal traffic from the Port of Long Beach spurred a large investment that pretty much double tracked the whole thing. I believe the track is Class 5, good for 70mph freight speeds and the location is 925 miles from San Francisco.

The same four engines and double stack train at Sunland Gin Road.

Well that's all the train stuff I have. I'll end with some desert flowers.