BNSF 6513 climbs the hill west of Dalies, NM with an eastbound coal train on January 3, 2014.

BNSF 6513 brings an eastbound coal train up the hill west of Dalies, NM on January 3, 2014.

BNSF ES44C4 6513, C44-9W 4512, and ES44DC 7319 are climbing the hill out of the Rio Puerco valley and leaning into the big curve west of Dalies, NM with a load of New Mexican coal on January 3, 2014. Eastbound loaded coal trains are not too common here on the transcon. It's interesting also that BNSF doesn't use its 6 axle ES44AC's on these trains, rather ES44C4's (which have 4 powered AC axles), ES44DC's and C44-9Ws. But ATSF used to use C40-8Ws, and C44-9W's on the York Canyon coal trains in the 1990's over Raton pass.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 - 1/1250 sec - f/6.3 - ISO 200 - M.Zuiko75mm f/1.8 lens (effective 150mm). Processed with Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop CS6.

This work is copyright 2014 by John L. Mathis , but licensed under a Creative Commons License.