Union Pacific Cima and Caliente Subdivision Page

While my wife was enjoying (maybe that's not the word) her work related schooling at the Venetian Hotel, this left me with time to go explore the desert and train chase (anything to get out of Vegas). Las Vegas is a division point, to the south is the U.P. Cima Subdivision and to the north is the U.P. Caliente Subdivision. Not only did the weather stay sunny the whole time but was also very pleasant temp wise for late November. I can imagine how hot this area gets in the Summer and how bad some of the dirt roads I traveled become when it Rains (sometimes a wash is the road). Use Care if you ever rail fan this area, have a good map and sense of direction, water, snacks, fuel in the gas tank and by all means keep an eye on the weather report and the weather conditions.

First we'll lead off with the Caliente sub, north from Las Vegas:

Union Pacific # 5294, a GE ES44AC delivered new in April, 2007 is on the point as this stack train descends Apex Summit in full dynamic breaking. He was not making more than about 10 MPH This gave me plenty of time to get off the freeway and find a place to pull over to shoot the action. From here the line descends quickly into North Las Vegas. These were actually the last photo's of the day.

Below is a photo taken near the large coal fired power plant just north of the Apex Summit. This was a local switcher move of some empty coal cars into the wye track there. The lead unit # 3520, is an EMD SD40-2.

As one travels farther north along the Caliente sub it becomes less and less populated. This is a perfect place for the pilots from near bye Nellis Air Force Base to get some training in. While waiting for the next train near Rox, I heard a lot of jet action above me, way above me. This is the only photo I could get, it's been cropped and magnified. It sure looked like those pilots were having fun, almost as much as I was!

I mentioned Rox. Well, this area has undergone a lot of changes brought on by the big flood of the Meadow Valley Wash in 2005. Some areas I understand are not as accessible as they once were. Some areas are marked as either U.P. or private property. Please respect the signs. There are still many good places to get some great pictures. These next pictures were taken from the gravel road that runs along the tracks between Rox and Hoya.

Above: Passing over Meadow Valley Wash U.P. #5942 and sister #5969, both GE AC440CW,s pull an empty coal train trackage east. As you can see this area is very lush due to the Meadow Valley Wash and the high moisture content just under the surface. Bringing up the rear was a remote helper unit.

Right: This picture caused some frustration, If I had stayed put another ten minutes or so I could have caught this westbound coming right at me. (if you look close, you'll see it is the same train that I caught at Apex). Instead, I chose to drive a little farther east, oops! A scanner would have helped but it was stolen with a lot of other stuff after our car got broken into in California. However, that's another story.

As mentioned earlier, the Cima Sub heads south from Vegas and crosses into California near Primm, Nv. This area is very picturesque, being in the Mojave Desert. I was only able to spend part of a day in this area. It's worth another trip in my book. I started at the little town of Nipton, Ca. There was a lot of MOW work going on in the area, mostly replacing ties. A very rough dirt road parallels the track in this area. I just had to watch out for a lot of U.P. truck traffic. The employees were all very friendly and almost wore my arm out returning the wave from each vehicle. This work I'm sure probably cut down on some of the rail traffic but I did get a few good pics. If nothing else I enjoyed the extreme quiet (once I got beyond the MOW equipment) over the noise of Vegas.

Here is a coming and going shot of U.P. EMD SD 70M # 5061 and her friends leading a manifest freight down the east side of the Cima grade heading toward Nip ton and finally Las Vegas.

After moving East a Mile or so I was surprised by another Eastbound coming up behind me in my rearview mirror. A quick jump out of the car and that was it for the day. U.P. # 5400 is a GE ES4400AC.