After allowing an eastbound train to pass, this westbound intermodal descends the grade into Gila Bend.

Big C&NW Dash 8 No. 8523 leads a westbound UP freight through a sweeping curve at Shawmut, with the inside of the curve in full bloom with beautiful desert wildflowers.

A late afternoon eastbound out in the hot stinking desert!

A late afternoon westbound on a pleasant winter day in the Sonoran Desert.

This heavily loaded eastbound ballast train is just crawling up the 1 percent grade on a nice winter afternoon in the Sonoran Desert. Even had some "Kodachrome Skies" for this one!

A westbound Union Pacific intermodal train passes through Shawmut east of Gila Bend, Arizona, on March 30, 2010. Spring is arriving in the desert on the former Southern Pacific Sunset Route, along... (more)

A westbound UP stack train passes one of the many Sonoran Cactus in the Shawmut area as it heads towards Gila Bend to meet 3 eastbounds on 11/24/12.

Sonoran cactus bathe in the desert sun as a eastbound UP Z train passes by at Shawmut,AZ on 11/24/12.

With the Maricopa Mountains behind, a short-stack came barreling around one of the curves at Shawmut later in the afternoon.

2 of UP's Heritage units (Southern Pacific and Missouri Pacific) are westbound near Shawmut.

An eastbound is crossing a dry wash just west of Shawmut.

An eastbound Z train with a nice clean shiny new (!) unit on the point.

These NS units are a long ways from home as they head westbound across the Arizona desert. Now if only the NS would let some of their Heritage units come out this way....

Westbound train at Shawmut in the late afternoon sun. This was the Arizona & New Mexico Centennial Special that the UP ran. One of my first digital photos....

At sunrise in the Maricopa Mountains, an eastbound UP stack train roars up the grade at Shawmut as it struggles through the many curves on the Sunset Route here.