With late season thunderstorms rumbling over the Bookcliffs in the background, Union Pacific’s LJP45 “dirt train” local approaches Mounds, Utah, late on the afternoon of November 21, 2003. Rio Grande SD40T-2 Tunnel Motors Nos. 5390, 5371 and 5349 bracket a UP SD40-2 for power, and the train will soon be at the junction of the Sunnyside Branch at West Mounds, ready to head west on the Green River Subdivision to Helper.
Landscape photography is difficult due to the challenge of combining good light and good scenery. Good railroad photography enters another level of complexity since it requires the first two while there is a train in view.