Uploaded May 2018 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
BNSF’s Needles Subdivision travels 170 miles through one of the hottest and driest places in North America: The Mojave Desert.
Between Barstow and Needles, California, the double track main line follows the rough contours of a land that is anything but flat. Modern locomotives fight an age old battle with gravity through several miles of 1.4% grades. The wide open vistas of the desert produce great views of long trains twisting through its many curves. The lonely mile posts pass old ghost towns slowly succumbing to the desert and mysterious station names like Klondike, Siberia and Bagdad.
Highlights include the junction with Union Pacific’s Salt Lake City route at Daggett, Ash Hill, the junction with the Arizona & California Railroad at Cadiz, and Goff’s Hill.
The high density Southern Transcon sees 80 trains per day, yielding both a wide variety and many perfectly timed meets. From hot and fast Z trains to long, heavy stacks, grain, coal, ethanol and manifest trains, the Needles Subdivision delivers!
This program was shot in March of 2018.
2 Hours 20 Minutes
BNSF’s Needles Subdivision travels 170 miles through one of the hottest and driest places in North America: The Mojave Desert.
Between Barstow and Needles, California, the double track main line follows the rough contours of a land that is anything but flat. Modern locomotives fight an age old battle with gravity through several miles of 1.4% grades. The wide open vistas of the desert produce great views of long trains twisting through its many curves. The lonely mile posts pass old ghost towns slowly succumbing to the desert and mysterious station names like Klondike, Siberia and Bagdad.
Highlights include the junction with Union Pacific’s Salt Lake City route at Daggett, Ash Hill, the junction with the Arizona & California Railroad at Cadiz, and Goff’s Hill.
The high density Southern Transcon sees 80 trains per day, yielding both a wide variety and many perfectly timed meets. From hot and fast Z trains to long, heavy stacks, grain, coal, ethanol and manifest trains, the Needles Subdivision delivers!
This program was shot in March of 2018.
2 Hours 20 Minutes
![Minnesotas Iron Range Part 1 [The Iron Range Sub]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sq8uklHIg-s/mqdefault.jpg "Minnesotas Iron Range Part 1 [The Iron Range Sub]
Visit the former Duluth Mesabi and Iron Range in Northern Minnesota where heavy taconite trains roll from the mines to the CN ore docks in Two Harbors along the shore of Lake Superior.
Owned and operated today by CN Railway, the historic lines of the DM&IR still play a vital role in transporting taconite between the mines and the Great Lakes freighters bound for steel mills on the lower Great Lakes.
In Part 1, we will cover the Iron Range Sub which feeds the CN dock at Two Harbors. The majority of traffic is taconite pellets from US Steel’s Minntac Plant near Mountain Iron.
This program is available on DVD and Blu-ray at 7ideaproductions.com.
https://www.7ideaproductions.com/collections/frontpage/products/minnesotas-iron-range-part-1-the-iron-range-sub
0:00 Intro
3:29 Map
6:31 The Mesabi Range/Virginia
9:05 Ramshaw
16:19 Sparta
21:44 Jones
26:52 Biwabik
29:28 Aurora
30:30 Hoyt Lakes
30:56 Nugget
33:59 Allen Junction
28:23 Skibo
44:15 Skibo Viewpoint
45:49 Fairbanks
56:14 Brimson
57:47 Wales
1:04:24 Highland
1:07:37 Alger
1:08:34 Waldo
1:12:15 Two Harbors
1:22:23 Lake Superior
1:26:22 North Shore Scenic Railroad")
