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Went out to the Salton Sea area on Union Pacific's Yuma Sub in early December 2023 mainly to catch UP SD70M 4776 leading a 7 hour late Amtrak Sunset Limited #1. After it passed I decided to stay till sunset to enjoy some of the cool late Fall weather along with the busy Christmas Z-train rush! The action was pretty constant the rest of the day, only about an hour lull with no trains.

The Sunset Limited was running 4 hours late leaving San Antonio due to connections with the Texas Eagle, then shortly after leaving El Paso AMTK 193 took a dump... UP 4776 comes to rescue adding an additional 3 hour delay. I've never caught the Sunset Limited through the Salton Sea, mainly due to the midnight hours it passes through, it has to have a trip from hell (like this one) to be seen passing by here in daylight.

0:00 Intro
0:16 UP Z-train at Niland at Sunrise
1:10 UP Z-train rounding curve at Rogoza
2:17 Amtrak Sunset Limited at Hot Mineral Spa Rd
3:31 Amtrak Sunset Limited at Salton
4:12 UP 6454 heads East at Salton
5:28 UP 8779 at Bertram leads a massive manifest
6:55 UP 6454 departing Bertram
7:54 UP 6454 once more at Hot Mineral Spa Rd
8:27 UP 5272 leads a 70mph Z-train
9:48 Massive Z-train heads East at Hot Mineral Spa Rd
12:28 UP 2693 at the Niland Crossovers
13:03 UP 7845 leading empty flatcars at Niland
14:00 Great horn echoes from UP 5798 in Niland
14:43 UP 5798 at Rogoza
16:19 UP 9022 leads a Hot Z past Niland
17:31 UP 7232 East at Niland
18:08 UP 8881 East at Niland
19:15 UP 2648 comes off the Calexico Sub at Niland
21:09 UP 5690 throttles up at Niland
22:03 UP 7831 at Wister slows for the geyser shoofly
23:30 UP 6853 East leading a massive port stack
25:12 UP 7899 West at Niland

Thanks for Watching!
AmtrakCal462