Cajona, 5th Edition

[BNSFTrainHouse]

The Big Cajona was another spectacular outing with plenty of friends, stories, laughter, sunshine, and trains.

Venus, a waning crescent moon, and the first hint of daylight on the horizon greeted our arrival on Hill 582 at 5:46 AM where we found the 35 degree air to be quite calm and comfortable. In what was to portend the busy railroad activity of the day, we instantly heard the beautiful sounds of distant horns and heavy freight grinding upgrade.

The trains began coming, and with increasing daylight, our friends were coming too. First Jeff, and soon Ken joined us on the hill before the sun did. With four of us up there, the hut was quickly deployed and the all important decorating commenced immediately afterward.

Hut fringe? Check. Tissue paper pineapples? Check. Hula girl? Check. Tropical birds? Well, they had already been to at least one luau too many and weren't looking so good for this one. They did satisfy our tackiness requirement, so they went up anyway, except for the three without heads. Food, flower leis, and a small rack of Hawaiian shirts were deployed. Lastly, our protective tiki went up to scare off anyone who doesn't like tacky kiosks and it worked for the duration of the day.

After decorating, I just let the fun roll on, hour after hour. I spent most of the day enjoying life in the hut, monitoring the copious rail traffic as best I could on our ATCS display, and sharing the wonderful experience of it all with everyone.

I did become concerned about the safety of the hut when the winds began their relentless attack on the hill. Sometime in the late afternoon, I capitulated to their gusty threats and removed the canopy. As dusk came to the pass, the winds brought with them not only threats against the hut, but a chill that seemed to cut to the bones of many attendees.

Darkness came and the trains kept on coming. Before long, #4 made its ascent up the pass on track 3, signalling to all that it was time to make final preparations for departure, which for us, came at 9:20 PM.

It all just seemed to pass so fast.

Thanks go out to everyone who attended and brought the friendship our group is known for. As I always say, we came for the trains, but got so much more.

1. The fine day in the pass begins with Venus and the moon giving way to the first light of the day.
   

2. Daylight begins to increase in the Garden.
   

3. The last vestiges of the winter night give way to the new day as a JB Hunt train glides downgrade.
   

4. Soon thereafter, the sun lights the nose of a nice UP autorack train moving up on Track 1.
   

5. As a BNSF stack train works its way up the pass, Jeff prepares to capture just the right moment from the comfort of his private beach.
   

6. BNSF continues to provide plenty of action on this gorgeous day.
   

7. It's still just the morning and Ken seems to have seen all the stack trains he needs.
   

8. Springing up from his spot on the private beach, Jeff fires off several shots of the high quality manifest train working up the pass.
   

9. Back in the hut, Shelley reminds us that soda before 11:00 AM is just wrong. I waited until 11:01 to get my first one of the day.
   

10. Back out at the beach, Jeff gets yet another train climbing the hill. Note that the calm of the first few hours had been broken by the first gusts of the day.
   

[BNSFTrainHouse]

11. Shelley's spectacular hair flair was all the rage that day.
   

12. Radio Chris works to establish internet service in the hut while a large tropical bird catches a ride on Chuck's head.
   

13. Our imposing tiki stands guard against those who dare to come to our luau without laughing.
   

14. Alicia, our ATCS computer for the day, enjoys life among the many leis in the hut.
   

15. Using the best tricks he learned from watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom in his youth, Jeff grabs a sneaky shot of another upgrade eastbound from his concealed position in the hut.
   

16. Festooned photographers and onlookers move to the north flank of Hill 582 for a Meet 'n' Greet with a Union Pacific manifest train running down the Palmdale Cutoff.
   

17. Hungry for something besides sandwiches and junk food, Joseph decides to enjoy a taste of the biggest, sweetest pineapple he could find.
   

18. With so many trains, getting good photos became as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. While Brandon carefully fires off what he hopes will be the perfect photo, Jeff casually goes for one hands free.
   

19. Danny and Shelley curiously inspect her camera screen to see just how good a shot she just got.
   

20. Tim and Joseph, both enjoying a good round of Audience Participation Rail Fanning, seem to be out of sync on this train.
   

[BNSFTrainHouse]

21. Ryan fires up his patented high speed waving machine for an approaching westbound coil train.
   

22. The rest of the Meet 'n' Greet committee send their friendly waves to the same crew.
   

23. With winds gusting strongly, the hut canopy was removed and the Ugly Hut, shown here prepped with LED lighting for the after dark events, showed itself once again.
   

24. Some of the last rays of the sun for the day glisten brightly off the rails of main tracks 1 and 2.
   

25. The Meet 'n' Greet committee assembles once more for a UP ballest train.
   

26. With the setting of the sun, the lights come on in the Ugly Hut. In keeping with the theme of ugliness, one of our light strands failed to light.
   

27. It took a while for the susnset to show us some nice color, but eventually, it did.
   

28. I found the view of the sunset to be especially appealing with the interesting silhouettes of the barren trees in the foreground.
   

29. Jack and Alicia continue to enjoy themselves as darkness comes to the hut.
   

30. Final frame: The Ugly Hut, and some of its lights, lives on into the night.
   

[bastatim4294]

It was one of the funnest days that I have had in a long time. The food was good. The People was cool, and the cupcakes were AWSOME!!! I likes the trains too.

[bastatim4294]

Okay here is my second section. When me and Chris arrived it was almost 12, and there was already a nice sized group on site. The "UGLY HUT" was up, the sun was out, and the trains seemed to never stop coming.

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A east bound double-stack.
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A south bound "quality".
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Some of the group enjoying the quality train.
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UP 5416 pushing on the end. With the snow caped mountains in the background.

[bastatim4294]

An East bound stack-train is framed by the signal bridge.
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The engineer is peering through the windshield and wondering what is going on up there.
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Anybody know what this load is?
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I don't see too many Ashley trailers very often.
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We hear that there was going to be a south bound train on the garden track so I road my bike to the crossing and got these.

Someone scrambling down the trail to get in position.
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Big excitement going on here.
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Everybody is in attendance.
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These hills have eyes.
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Three different models a GEVO, a dash 9, and a SD9043AC.
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The group waving to the train.
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Observing the passing stacks.
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A photo of the hill, the crossing with the shot-up sign and my Raleigh-bike, and my new Avatar is born.
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[bastatim4294]

Danny, Shelley and Bob are ready for the train to get here.
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GEVO 7294 leads a three pack on the garden track south.
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After the trains stopped for a while. I decide to take one of the trails to get a new perspective. It was a interesting little trip on the switchback trails.

dash-9 5200 leads on the coil car train.
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Looking down at what appears to be a Z train. They were screaming down the hill.
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Back on the hill another UP manifest grinds up the Palmdale cutoff in the gathering gloom.
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Group watching said train.
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Checking out south bound ballast train.
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The Wolf howls.
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The train chasing the last rays of the sun.
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As the sun sets over the mountains. I reflect on the day, I had a lot of fun and there was a lot of trains. The scenery was cool, the conversation was nice and the group was cool. See yall next time on California's GOLD!

Tim~