Amtrak's Southwest Chief in New Mexico - Semaphores, Jointed Rail, Desert Beauty

Seven clips of Amtrak's Southwest Chief in the beautiful scenery of New Mexico. Of the seven clips, six are on the endlessly endangered passenger only segment of the Chief's Route. For 223, miles, over two mountain passes, the Southwest Chief is the only traffic - one train each way per day. Several years ago, Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson proposed that the entire segment be converted to a bus segment, which would have been a severe downgrade of service.
Instead, somehow, it hangs on. Most semaphores have been replaced, but a few remain. In this video, the Levy semaphores on the Raton Sub are shown first, and later a semaphore at MP 849.1 on the New Mexico-owned NMDOT Sub is shown. New signals are being installed, and many searchlight signals also remain.
Another unusual feature of the passenger-only segment - Rael Junction northeast of Albuquerque to Trinidad, CO - is extensive amounts of jointed rail, shockingly maintained for track speed of up to 79mph. Certainly no other Amtrak route has this much jointed rail, which you can hear in several clips. Stayed tuned to the end to really hear how that sounds!

[@amtrakandcsxrailfanning351]

great catches and video of this long distance train with heritage 203 on one of them

[@user-AZ-phil]

Are you sure that one locomotive isn't an ALCO? Beautiful scenes of northeastern NM and railroading. I wonder what caused that intermodal move to be shifted off the transcon. BNSF pulled freight off this line years ago. ❤😂

[@VMac822]

Nice. I was at Wagon Mound April 2023. I’m surprised the semaphores are still there. When did you shoot the semaphore clips?

[@mrvwbug4423]

Is that a legit section of 90mph track in NM? I'm amazed BNSF would willingly install the PTC and trackside equipment to operate the cab signaling for that. Of course that track is so straight that they could probably run it at 125mph with a few upgrades to signaling

[@NCATrainsPlanesProduction]

Nice!

[@KHAI_137]

Love from 🇲🇾 Malaysia ❤

[@jackchen7003]

Are these signals still up as of April 2024?