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Union Pacific's Sunset Route

The fabled Sunset Route of Southern Pacific heritage runs across the mountainous desert of southern Arizona. This scenic, single track line makes for some great railfanning. While the Espee is no more, Union Pacific puts on a good show, with 20 to 30 trains daily on the line. There is also good variety in motive power, although most of it is armour yellow by now. That variety won't last though, with 1000 SD70M's coming soon to a mainline near you. But for now, second and third generation units still have the task of expediting America's freight across the deserts of Arizona...

1. Sunset on the sunset route: A westbound container train rolls along I-10 near Picacho.
2. A westbound approaches the twin sidings at Picacho.
3. An eastbound rolls through Cienega Creek Canyon.
4. Amtrak #1 soars over Cienega Creek.
5. Hot intermodels meet in the desert
6. Following the meet, the westbound's engineer climbs aboard
7. The quartet of SD40-2's work upgrade at Shawmut
8. A mix of power leads an eastbound around one of Shawmut's S curves
9. Tunnel Motors on the point of a short trailer train at Shawmut
10. Westbound containers roll below the Maricopa Mountains