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Mark Lovgren Photography, Sparks, NV (2026)

06/18/2026

"Monday on the Highline"

After working Sunday night's yard van until 02:00, I decided to take Monday off. When the clock struck noon, I joined up with local rail enthusiasts, Nick Stewart, Thomas Elmer and his four legged copilot, Spike, for an afternoon on the BNSF Inside Gateway Subdivision. The goal was to photograph the O-KLFSTO8 (Officer Special, Klamath Falls OR to Stockton CA) Employee Appreciation deadhead movement. The train featured BNSF's newly released 250th Anniversary units, the BNSF 2026 and the BNSF 1776. As we approached the Keddie Wye, on the drive up from Reno, we noticed a northbound manifest freight slowing down for its crew change at Quarry Road. After the two crews exchanged positions, We followed the train up the highline and captured it at a few locations. When the train entered the Almanor siding, we broke off the chase and headed north to intercept the passenger special. Our first encounter with the O-KLFSTO occurred at Clear Creek Junction. After photographing the train at several locations on the southbound run towards a crew change at Keddie, the three of us decided that we were too hot, tired and hungry to continue the chase. Another consideration was the fact that I had to work on Tuesday morning. The final photo location of the day, proved to be at the Keddie Wye. Then we took off in search of a pizza in Quincy, before resuming the drive back to Nevada.
6/15/2026

06/18/2026

"Sunday Night in the Yard Van"

A look back at this Sunday's views from my yard van office.

6/14/2026

06/17/2026

"Saturday's Deadhead and Dog Catch"

On Saturday morning, I was dispatched to deadhead a Sparks crew to Elko. When I arrived at the yard office to pick up the crew, I was surprised when a second crew asked if I was their driver to Elko. Ok, no problem. Just call Dispatch and tell them that you're deadheading two crews to Elko. A few minutes later, an update to my trip appeared and the five of us departed. When we arrived at the Elko rail yard, we had to stop at the main entrance crossing for the MGRRV (Manifest, Green River WY to Roseville CA). The train had just departed after its crew change. After dropping off the crew, I fueled up the crew van. grabbed a bite to eat and started my drive back to Sparks. Since the MGRRV was a forty mph train, I thought that I would be able to overtake it and take some photographs before the train reached Winnemucca. On my two hour drive to Winnemucca, the train seemed to have vanished. I didn't see any lights to indicate that a train was in the area, nor did I hear any of the detectors sound off. So a stop at the Winnemucca yard office, to glance at the CADS Board, was the plan. That glance revealed two things. First, the MGRRV was approaching Valmy, forty miles to the east. Since my employer was paying me to drive west, I had to let the MGRRV go and I concentrated on the second bit of information revealed by the CADS Board. I discovered that the IOANP (Intermodel, Oakland CA to North Platte NE) was approaching from the west. After photographing the IOANP, I resumed the drive to Sparks. Along the drive, I saw two other trains but wasn't in a position to photograph them. After ending the deadhead, I had just walked in the door to my house, when PTI's Regional Manager on Duty called. He wanted me to drive to Portola and transport a patch crew to relieve the inbound crew on the MGRRV at Sand Pass. So almost twelve hours after first seeing the train in Elko, I finally captured a view of the MGRRV.
6/13/2026

06/15/2026

"Friday's Views from the Yard Van Office"

On my previous post, I mentioned that I covered the Thursday and Friday morning's yard van shift for a coworker that was ill. Although I was pretty busy for most of Friday's 05:00 to 15:00 shift, I didn't have the opportunity to photograph all of the rail traffic. In most cases, I was out of position and busy assisting another crew when the trains rolled through the yard. Here's a look back at Friday's views from my yard van office.
6/12/2026

06/14/2026

"Thursday's Views from the Yard Van Office"

On Thursday and Friday, my boss asked me to cover the yard van day shift for the regular driver who was out with an illness. As usual, I brought my camera along for the ride. While working the day shift, I noticed a couple of differences from my usual night shift. The first was the rail activity was considerably busier and the second difference was the harsh summer lighting made for some tough photo opportunities. Since I'm limited to the four mile yard limits, I have been looking to improve my photographic creativity while working in the same locations. Here's a look at Thursday's views from my yard van office.
6/11/2026

06/13/2026

"Wednesday Evening in Portola"

After working the sale day at Adesa Auto Auction, I stopped by Walmart for a couple of grocery items. On my way home, I received a call from PTI. The dispatcher wanted me to pick up the inbound crew from the MNPRV (Manifest, North Platte NE to Roseville CA), at Portola and drive them back to Sparks. When I located the crew at the yard office, they were concerned that the inbound crew on the MGRRV (Manifest, Green River WY to Roseville CA) was not assigned a ride back to Sparks. There wasn't a rested outbound crew and the inbound crew had been instructed to tie down the train when they arrived in Portola. There also was a third player involved in the scenario, the LRC60, Portola Local. The local was holding for the two west bound trains before departing east, to service their customers in Herlong and Gerlach. Unfortunately, the MGRRV crew's HOS was about to expire and they had to stop the train at Plumas County Road A24, seven miles short of Portola. The three crews came up with a plan to clear up the log jam of trains. Since the local crew had four hours against their twelve hours of service and wouldn't be able to complete their work before those hours expired, they proposed to UP Dispatcher 9 to allow them to tie down their train and then go patch the MGRRV. The dispatcher agreed, although that meant that a second crew would have to be called to patch the local. Then the MNPRV crew climbed aboard my crew van and we drove to the east end of the siding to pick up the LRC60 crew. After exchanging places with the local crew, the MGRRV crew joined the MNPRV crew in the van and we started the drive back to Sparks, Thirty minutes into the drive, I received a call from one of the Sparks managers. He wanted me to take an EOT (End of Train Device) to Portola for the LRC60 patch crew. So after dropping off the two crews at the yard office, I turned around and made the second trip to Portola.
6/10/2026

06/10/2026

"Scenes from Saturday's Dog Catch/Deadhead"

On Saturday morning, I was dispatched to transport a dog catch crew to Winnemucca for the INPOA (Intermodel, North Platte NE to Oakland CA). After accepting the trip, I logged into my PTI App to review the details of the trip. Nowhere in the trip notes was any mention of a back haul. On my commute to the rail yard, I started to wonder what happened to the crew that brought the train from Elko to Winnemucca. The mystery was cleared up when I met up with the patch crew and put the question to the conductor. He informed me that there were no rested Sparks crews, so an Elko extra board crew was called to run the train to Winnemucca. After contacting the dispatcher, the conductor informed me that I would be driving the Elko crew home. Surprisingly enough, in my almost nine years driving a crew van, this was the first time I would be transporting an Elko crew. Over my career, I've driven Sparks, Roseville, Portola and Winnemucca crews for the UP and Stockton and Klamath Falls crews for the BNSF, but not an Elko UP crew. After the two crews exchanged places, the inbound crew and I started the drive to Elko. After driving past Carlin, I looked over and noticed the QPVBCJ (Manifest, Provo UT to Stockton CA, Foreign Road) BNSF trackage rights train. Since the train would be running on the Nevada Sub towards Sparks, I knew that I would catch up to it. The question was where. After spotting the train over an hours head start, by dropping the crew off at the yard office, topping off the crew van's fuel tank and grabbing a bite to eat, I took off in pursuit. Two hours later, while approaching Winnemucca, the train had somehow eluded me. All the signals, that I passed, were dark and listening to the radio was no help either. At that point, a visit to the Winnemucca yard office for a look at the CADS Board, was worth a few minutes of my time. The CADS Board revealed that the train had made better time than I thought and was holding for a meet at Mill City, another thirty miles to the west. So I set my sights on the Tungsten Road crossing and hoped that I would arrive before the train resumed its run to Sparks.
6/6/2026

06/08/2026

"Friday's Views from the Yard Van Office"

At 06:03, Friday morning, I received a call from my boss at PTI. He wanted me to head to the rail yard to relieve the morning yard van driver who was not feeling well. As usual, I brought my camera with me. Although the views are similar to my Sunday nights in the yard van, I was able to photograph some of the daily trains that usually depart before I start my 16:00 shift.
6/5/2026

06/07/2026

"Views from Thursday's Elko Deadhead"

On Thursday morning, I was dispatched to deadhead a Sparks crew to Elko. On the eastbound drive, the crew and I rolled past a couple of westbound trains, but I wasn't in a position to photograph them. As we approached Elko, I looked over and saw that the INPOA (Intermodel, North Platte NE to Oakland CA) had departed the rail yard to begin the run to Portola. Since I needed to drop off the crew at the yard office, fuel up the crew van and garb a bite to eat, I knew that I gave the train a good hour's head start. However, I thought that I had a chance to intercept the train before it reached Weso and crossed over to the Winnemucca Sub. Roughly eighty five miles into my drive back to Sparks, I looked over and was dismayed to see that the dispatcher had routed the INPOA on main track 2. Although the trains can run on either track, the usual plan is to run the west bounds on track 1 and the east bounds on track 2. Since main track 1 runs alongside Interstate 80, there are several options to easily access the tracks. However, between Dunphy and Golconda, there are only a couple of locations to access track 2. And both require a bit of a drive to get to them. So I continued on to Button Point, where the tracks briefly come together. After photographing the train, I resumed the drive towards Winnemucca. As I approached the town, I looked down and saw the eastbound counterpart, the IOANP (Intermodel, Oakland CA to North Platte NE) holding for the arrival of the INPOA at Weso. At the same time, I overheard a radio transmission between the INPOA crew and the dispatcher. The conductor wanted to know why there was a red light at the west end of the yard. The dispatcher informed him that there would be a special clearing up for them in the north pass siding. By this time, the INPOA had cleared the east end of the crossover, so I turned around to head back to Button Point for a look at the IOANP. When I returned to the yard office, after photographing the IOANP, I encountered a Winnemucca conductor. He informed me that the special, the SHRPU (Special, Herlong CA to Pueblo CO) consisted of one unit and 70+ empty military flatcars. After capturing the special, it was time to resume the drive back to Sparks.
6/4/2026

06/06/2026

"Work Train Wednesday"

On Wednesday evening, I was dispatched to retrieve the crew manning the WSPSPW (Work Train, Sparks NV to Sparks NV) from the Clark siding. The train crew operated the train while a clean up crew loaded the repurposed coal cars with debris from the March 27 derailment, a couple miles east of the siding. The crew, on the IOANP (Intermodel, Oakland CA to North Platte), encountered a broken rail and put 31 cars on the ground. After a two month hiatus, the UP has resumed the task of cleaning after the derailment. Shortly after dropping the WSPSPW crew off at the yard office, I had just started my commute home when I received a call from PTI Dispatch. The dispatcher apologized for the short notice and then informed me that she needed the outbound Roseville crew to be picked up and transported to Portola for the INPOA (Intermodel, North Platte NE to Oakland CA). I replied "Today is your lucky day, as I'm less than a mile from the yard". Here are a couple of views from each of Wednesday's trips.
6/3/2026

Mark Lovgren Photography

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