As luck would have it, the Southwest Chief is running late. Seen here passing MOW workers clearing switches at Summit on a beautiful snowy December morning.

After adding the 504 in the lead for three units over the mountains the ATSF Carman cuts the main steamline back to the train.

The Southwest Chief backs in from Amtrak's prep yard to Union Station.

A well-powered Southwest Chief ducks under the Dan Ryan expressway.

Amtrak's number 1 leads Train 3 west.

A group of Boy Scouts gets ready to board the Southwest Chief on their way to Philmont Scout Ranch in Northeast New Mexico.

Amtrak's Southwest Chief highballs west, with five BNSF business cars deadheading on the end.

Number 3 slows for its station stop at Mendota as it passes the "Welcome" sign.

The Southwest Chief is rocketing along jointed rail as it splits the semaphores at Colmor, NM. Yes, these classic signals are still standing, but for how much longer?

Amtrak 3 with P42DC 186 pointing splits an old Santa Fe semaphore south of Bernalillo, New Mexico. The train is ten miles from Albuquerque. Many thanks to the police officer who was kind enough to... (more)

Crews changing for the run to Kingman, AZ.

Reaching the summit, a long - and quite delayed - Southwest Chief meets the Californian mist before diving into the L.A. basin.

Amtrak P42 164 leads the westbound Southwest Chief through LaVergne as a westbound manifest with a pair of SD75Ms approaches.

Amtrak #3 departed Chicago with two operating P42DCs (93 and 116) and one dead-heading unit (113). By the time #3 got to Colorado, 116 had died, and 113 could not be started, so FURX SD40-2 8130 w... (more)

With a borrowed BNSF C44-9W on the point (itself in place of a FURX lease unit that was added and subsequently removed at some point in its westward journey), Amtrak train #3, the Southwest Chief,... (more)