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Day 4: US Highway 50

Didn't exactly hang around in my smelly motel room this morning! No signs of life from the unit next door either, watch the papers for "death by fatal laugh, Reno, NV". Was out on the road fairly quickly, some quality country blasting out on the radio (Reno knows how to do Country!). Fueled up, pump wanted a ZIP code for my credit card, but the usual 00000 and 90210 didn't work… got there in the end. Drove through Sparks and kicked myself; there, right next to the railway yard is a massive casino / hotel complex. I bet I could've got a nicely scented room overlooking the railway yards for dirt cheap! Next time…

Back on 80 East and after one wrong turn and a detour past a trailer park, I was at Scheels, thanks to a quiet tip off from someone at Cabelas. Well… I thought Cabelas was huge. Scheels of Sparks, NV is the largest single sporting store in the world! 295,000 square ft of specialty sporting goods (Westfield Riccarton is 593,000 sq ft, across two h...

Day 3: to Reno

Woke at 8am to another bright sunny day. Google said it was -9°C outside, but it didn't feel that cold. Drove up the old Donner Pass Rd to the summit of Donner Pass. The drive up looked spectacular in the early morning sun, everything was so crisp and clean and fresh looking. I had a specific shot in mind, so packed up my gear and wandered down the icy path to the tracks again. Made myself a little seat out of the wind and waited. And waited. And waited. An hour passed and still nothing, not even a blip on the radio. Sorry I lie, one hirail truck went by. I waited a bit longer but eventually gave up; even for Donner Pass this was excessively quiet.

Went back to the lookout over Donner Lake and had some lunch. While waiting I heard that the West bound Amtrak was due into Truckee in 30 minutes (quite late) so I headed down and found a nice spot.

Soon I saw some headlights, but using my camera as binoculars (200mm of optically stabilised lens is very handy!) it ap...

Day 2: Donner Pass Railfanning

Slept for nearly 12 hours! Woke about 4am NZ time and it was a beautiful sunny day outside. Realised overnight that I'd forgotten 2 important things: my webcam, and sunglasses. So I packed up and went off searching for some replacements. Found some sunglasses in a pharmacy that would make Dave's blood boil; it was the size and layout of a supermarket, with all the charm too. But… they had sunglasses.

So all geared up I hopped in the car and with that a grain train roared across the end of the carpark. Two locos on the front and a DPU putting in a good effort on the rear. Right, it's on!

Knew I wouldn't have too much trouble catching him and soon I could see him snaking along as I roared up the 80. The Dodge sure can move when it needs to! It's a lovely vehicle to drive.

Stopped at Emigrant Gap #1 and saw a maintainer placing his truck on the rails; great, he'll tie up the line for a while. Continued around the corner to Emigrant Gap #2 and pat the bo...

Day 1: Back again! Christchurch to California

Guess what, I'm back in America! After what seemed an impossibly long 3 weeks I'm back in California, almost exactly a year on from last time, and so far it couldn't possibly have gone any better!

Woke up very early on Monday and finished off some last minute jobs. After some frantic last minute packing, a call to Fedex (sevens and zeros don't survive the accent barrier well; my tracking number was something like 1707707777077!) and several "oh no I forgot my… actually I packed it" moments I was at the airport. I was surprised, shocked even, to find my suitcase was under weight, and that's including all my tech gear, snow shoes, winter clothes, etc. Miracle!

Flight to Auckland was stunning, got to see Egmont sticking up through the clouds, and just generally a lot of clouds. They even served half decent snacks and free booze.

Mt Egmont

Arrived late into Auckland and walked out of Domestic Arrivals to find a friend wait...

Day 29: Auburn to Christchurch

For those who are worried, yes, I'm back in NZ now, safe and sound. Customs was a breeze.

Journey started with early in Auburn, CA with daylight saving kicking in overnight, so one hour less of sleep and one hour less of packing time. Managed to get everything into my suitcase just fine and checked out of the hotel right on 11am. Headed down to Roseville to try and see the big UP yard there, which I found alright, along with the massive traffic jam alongside. Seems there is a big Sunday farmer's market there, and so everyone was out trying to park, or leave, and meanwhile pedestrians were everywhere. Made for a very slow escape, but from the car I could see the yard and a bunch of tunnel motor locos in UP paint, so that was a nice bonus. No photos, camera was well packed away.

Stopped in at the local Walmart to do some last minute shopping. Found some padlocks for my suitcase after losing one and the key to the other on my first day here. Pretty clever really. While...

Day 28: Donner Pass Railfanning

Well the forecast wasn't good, and I80 was closed to trucks at Applegate and then shortly after to cars at Auburn. So imagine my surprise when I awoke to find beautiful clear skies and the pass wide open! Jumped in the car and set course for Crystal Lake Rd. GPS wanted to take me on a huge detour to avoid a 4 minute traffic delay on the I80, but I knew better and shaved 30+ minutes off its time. Modern technology huh.

Drive up was fairly uninteresting until I hit the snow line, and then wow!!!

I80. Note lack of road markings. Can make things a bit interesting. Note railway formation at right in second photo. Look very carefully and you can see a snow shed just above the cars.

Arrived at Crystal Lake Road, or rather, the spot where it would be were there not 6+ feet of snow on top of it! Parked the car and started getting the snow shoes and my backpack ready. Another guy was just setting off on skis when ...

Day 27: Lake Tahoe to Auburn

Woke bright and early for a big day. Huge snow storm was predicted for Donner Pass today, up to two feet of fresh snow! Starting at 10am. So 10am I was on the road and heading up to the summit. While it wasn't snowing yet it certainly wasn't far off, and by the time I got to Soda Springs it was coming down pretty thick. Almost as soon as I parked a train came through the crossing, so got a quick video of that; hand held, quality could be interesting.

Packed up my backpack with camera, video camera, food, cellphone, and so forth. Then suited up with all my cold weather gear and decided to head down my favourite snow-road to the Big Hole. Walked down to the tracks and found some shelter on the leeward side of a clump of trees. This stopped most of the snow from attacking me, but unfortunately I didn't have a very good view of the tracks. Think I caught a few trains here, and saw the flanger in operation which had been one of my goals.

...

Day 26: Wells to Lake Tahoe

Just a short post today. Woke up fairly early and was soon on the road. There were very impressive icicles on the church next to my motel:

Had a quick scout around town for trains but apart from one sitting in the loop, nothing was happening. The one in the loop looked like it wasn't going anywhere soon. I went up to a good lookout spot to see if anything was approaching, but the only thing I saw were some UP maintenance vehicles on the track; great, no trains any time soon.

By now the transmission had almost warmed up and stopped making raunching noises and bucking on every gear change, so I ventured out onto the freeway.

Two hours later I still hadn't passed any trains, but had seen some more track workers out on the rails. They were really out in force today. I did however pass a very photogenic run down old barn, so took the next off ramp and went back to photograph it.

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Day 25: Wells Railfanning

Woke up really early, not quite sure why. Train horn? Looked outside and there was a dusting, literally just a dusting, of fresh snow. Checked the clock and it was only 7am, so got some more sleep. Woke up and thought it was 10am, rats, but then realised I was still on Mountain time, not Pacific time, which made it 9am. Confusing stuff these timezones.

Dressed up really warm; there was a cold wind blowing even down here in the township, and I was planning on spending all day out on the snow. I had on:

Underwear Socks Another pair of socks Merino long johns Polar fleece pants Ski pants Merino top with tube neck T shirt Down jacket Rain coat Neck warmer Beanie Gloves Insulated boots Sun glasses

That makes 19 items! Was I warm enough? You bet.

Headed off up the road and staked out a curve with great lighting and elevation for a nice nose shot… of course several hours later and I'd had trains come in every ...

Day 24: Evanston to Wells

Woke up way too early today to a weird sound; sounded a bit like coke cans being kicked around the yard. Dragged myself out of bed to have a look but couldn't see anything, so went back to bed. Clattering continued sporadically for the next few hours. It was only when I properly awoke later I realised it was the heaters creaking each time the thermostat clicked on. Sigh!

Got up and was on the road nice and promptly. My breakfast apple had been sitting in the car all night and was extremely cold; so much so it gave me tooth ache when I bit into it! Yup it gets pretty cold out here in Wyoming.

Drove out to a railway crossing that had looked amazing the night before with the setting sun catching the golden grass; but this morning it looked pretty ordinary. However I caught a manifest heading away, and before it'd finished crossing a nineteen loco lash up went across the other way. Nineteen locos! Obviously a repositioning move, but very impressive nonetheless.