Longtime reader and commenter Mi3ke took a train ride and came back with a fascinating photo essay. Here’s his introduction, but as his blog’s title says, it’s Things My Camera Sees and the photos tell the story.
BNSF Railroad runs a transcontinental mainline from west coast ports to Chicago. With all but 32 miles of the track being double track, one of the biggest bottlenecks was a 5 mile stretch of single track in Abo Canyon, just east of Belen, New Mexico. The track runs 80 to 90 trains a day, about one every 15 minutes. They go through 400 to 500 foot high bluffs, cuts 100 to 150 feet deep and over 9 bridges over 80 feet high and up to 500 feet long. In the train industry, time is money. This stretch could stop a train for up to 3 hours. Time to blow stuff up!