WEST TEXAS TO THE END OF THE TRAIL

For the second time this year I woke up and found myself in Del Rio Texas. I had spent the night here at the Holiday Inn when I was doing my Texas Tour this past March. When I was here in March I managed to tour the Whitehead Museum and visit the Grave of Judge Roy Bean. But this morning we made on only a quick station stop before the sun came up and then headed north toward El Paso.

West Texas Sunrise

Shortly after leaving Del Rio the sun started to turn the eastern sky a vivid bright red.  Sun rises and sun sets in the west are some of the most beautiful and this one did not disappoint. I manage to snag a seat in the sightseer lounge car for the sun rise and shortly after my arrival other people had the same Idea and the sightseer was soon full of people snapping photos of the beautiful site.

Crossing the Pecos

A little while later the Texas Eagle cross the Pecos River High Bridge. The original High Bridge was built by the Phoenix Bridge Company in 1892 for the Southern Pacific Railroad. The original bridge remained in place until 1949 when it was replace by a second bridge.

Near Langtry, Texas

The Bridge that we crossed today is the third bridge to span the Pecos River and is about 275-feet above the river. It is almost 400 feet long and carries both the Texas Eagle and Union Pacific Freight Train across the river between Del Rio and El Paso, Texas.

Our next station stop was in Sanderson Texas and it was really quick, Only one passenger boarded and in less than two minutes we were on our way. Sanderson is a very small town with a population of less than 1000 people. Most all of the people who live in Sanderson are Border Patrol employees and their families.


After leaving Sanderson, out next stop was in the small town of Alpine, Texas. We had a locomotive and conductor crew change here in Alpine and I would find out that all Amtrak Crews are not created equal. The conductors that boarded here were rude and demanding and made me glad that I would leaving the train a few hours later. This was the only issue that I had on this entire trip.

Also in Alpine the Police were waiting when we arrived. Evidently there was some type of altercation between two coach passengers. One passenger was getting off in Alpine anyway and the other one was put off the train band taken into custody by the Police.  Come to find out the passenger who was detained by the police had gotten out of prison 5-days earlier and may be on the way back.

El Paso Amtrak Station

From Alpine we made our way toward El Paso where we had another rather long stop due to a large number of coach passengers boarding the train.  It took our new conductors almost 30-minutes to scan and board the 50 passengers that were boarding here.

Leaving Del Rio were were about an hour behind and lost even more time between Del Rio and Alpine because of the number of time we had to stop and wait on Freight traffic to pass. Leaving Alpine we were a little less than two hours behind but were able to make up some time and arrived in El Paso an hour and 20 minutes late.

Any time that we made up was once again lost her in El Paso by the length of time it took the conductors to board the passengers.

The Under Whelming Rio Grande

Leaving El Paso we were only a few feet from the border fence and followed it north and crossed the Rio Grand into NEW Mexico.  One we cross into New Mexico we climbed into the mountains of southern New Mexico passing the Union Pacific Fueling station and Intermodal Terminal.

The Border Fence

I had my last dinner on the Texas Eagle as we neared Deming, New Mexico.  After dinner is relaxed in the sightseer car and visited with some of my new friends before returning to my sleeper.

As we crossed over into Arizona west of Lordsburg, I started packing thing up and getting ready to detrain in Maricopa.  As we pulled into Tucson were were about 45 minutes later and I texted my friend Chuck so he could start making plans to pick me up.  It is only about an hour from Tucson to the Maricopa Station and the Texas Eagle pulled in at 9:35 p.m.m only 40 minutes late.

Chuck and Sharon were waiting on me and Sharon took a picture of Chuck and Myself under the Maricopa Station Sign.  From there were were off to the Indian Casino where I quick lost my $20. We had a bite to eat before heading over to the Scottsdale Camelback Resort which will be my home for the next several days.