Excellent shot Mike, I always enjoy shots that show some of the consist of the train, keep them coming please.
James...lots of locals that work day/night, through out the Valley....about 20-25 regular freight trains a day run through the Valley. Alot during the day...lots of good vantage points...there are two "mini-yards" that replaced the main one UP had in Vegas itself a few years ago. One south of town in Arden...and the other north of town in North Las Vegas, called Valley.
Well a "mini-yard" is not my term...another railfan from here uses that term..and I guess its a good one...the yards themselves are not very large by UP standards...maybe only 6-8 tracks wide...but probably 10,000 feet long?? Here is an image from Google earth..
Both yards are fairly easy to access...Railfan friendly? Well I've never been kicked out...but I stay my distance...wave etc...when looked at ...LOL...at the main crew change point in Vegas itself...its easy to park there...and you can catch alot of action...with part of the Strip as a good background
No, Its a very busy yard...several "locals" work out of that yard...and when the UP is short on crews..they tie trains down in that as well as the Valley yard in North Las Vegas.
Interesting! If you have a track map of the area, it would be interesting to see how that yard relates to industries those locals might work. Boxcab E50
For better aerial views, click the following link then click Bird's Eye. You have to click the different sections then scroll around within the sections. It is cumbersome to use and I don't know why they did it this way, but the results are awesome. http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=36.015661~-115.233879&style=h&lvl=16&scene=336543
There's a lot of places around like that. There's a lot of undocumented locations with Bird's Eye. Norfolk, Virginia is an example. I spotted 5 aircraft carriers (4 side by side) in Bird's Eye and at least 2 yards. One had some rather interesting equipment in it and the other had autoracks unloading. I am glad you enjoyed them, but Microsoft gets the credit. I am looking forward to seeing what Google does to return fire!
