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| Re: PHOTOS: Jon's Juice Junket, part 9 - New Mexico Rail Runner (938054) | |||
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Re: PHOTOS: Jon's Juice Junket, part 9 - New Mexico Rail Runner |
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Posted by Jon Bell on Fri May 28 00:50:52 2010, in response to PHOTOS: Jon's Juice Junket, part 1 - New Orleans, posted by Jon Bell on Sun May 16 00:21:04 2010. Today I toured the New Mexico Rail Runner (NMRX). A convenient place to stay if you have a car is Bernalillo, about 15 miles north of Albuquerque. A Motel 6 and a Super 8 are within easy walking distance of the US 550 / Sandoval station. The Motel 6 is a bit further away (still only a ten-minute walk), and you have to cross a busy intersection next to the I-25 exit (with the help of pedestrian signals), but it's cheaper, so I stayed there.My room is on the second floor at the front, so I can see the trains out my window as they go by:  I started my tour with the 7:46 from US 550 / Sandoval, which arrived in Santa Fe at 8:53 (actually about nine minutes after these scheduled times).  This is the old ATSF depot, at the end of a branch line from Lamy which is now operated by shortline Santa Fe Southern Railway. NMRX and SFSR share the final four miles of track into Santa Fe. SFSR operates excursion trains including a Friday run which carries freight cars if needed. I was tempted to stay another day just for this. Here's the end of track at Montezuma Street:  After spending a couple of hours wandering around downtown Santa Fe (which is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year, by the way) and eating brunch at a cafe on the Plaza which is the heart of town, I boarded the 11:33 and rode it all the way to the southern end of the line at Belen, arriving a couple of minutes after the scheduled time of 1:43. I had just enough time there to go up on the bridge that spans the throat of the BNSF yard which is behind me in this picture:  The train left at 2:00 to return to downtown Albuquerque, but didn't go any further, so I had some time to kill there. I wandered around a bit, got a slice of pizza to tide me over, and returned to the station to catch the first northbound afternoon train at 4:18. A lot of other people had the same idea:  Finally, at 4:45 I arrived back at my starting point and walked back to the Motel 6 to freshen up. I set out with the car to get some pics along the line, but a bunch of late-afternoon thunderstorms spoiled the results. Here's one that shows NMRX on newly-built trackage in the median of I-25 south of Santq Fe:  This track provides a shortcut between the BNSF tracks that are also used by Amtrak, and the SFSR from Lamy, so NMRX doesn't have to go all the way out to Lamy to get to Santa Fe. |
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