Here the helper set from the previous photo curves back to its left as it continues the climb toward Tennessee Pass. I've included this photo because it best captures one of the most spectacular settings for train photography I've found, and it was photographable from the shoulder of US 24. The tracks here are still in place, but are no longer used now that the Union Pacific has taken over the Southern Pacific. During the period I visited this line was busy, as it gave Espee a shorter route from Oregon and northern California to the Kansas City gateway than its route via El Paso, TX and Tucumcari, NM. Union Pacific has abandoned at least part of the Missouri Pacific line to Pueblo,CO that formed the eastern portion of this route in 1994.
I have read that a company is trying to lease this line from UP to restore service. I doubt that train frequency will ever again approach what it was the day I spent in this area. As you can see from the scenery in these photos, that is an unfortunate loss for railfan photographers.

Photographed by Warren Beckwith, May, 1994.
Added to the photo archive by Warren Beckwith, April 17, 2021.
Railroad: Southern Pacific.

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