California 4 2018 Cajon Pass

 Brian Sykes of Atlanta recently retired from the Norfolk Southern Railroad.  He asked me to join him on a railfan trip to southern California.  Here is what we did on Day 3.

Day 5 was reserved for the Tehachapi Loop so we decided to spend Day 4 traveling back to Cajon Pass, watching trains there, and then driving closer to the Loop at the end of the day.

We had spent the night at an Air B&B at Bullhead City, Nevada.  We looked for a Donut Shop for 'breakfast' but the only one was closed on Mondays!  We noted there was a Dunkin' Donuts at the Casino so we head there (but the line was half an hour long!)  A local convenience store became our source of breakfast and we passed a shop that we don't see in Wisconsin!

 As we drive through the desert, it is filled at this location with thousands of Joshua trees in the Joshua Tree National Park.  The name Joshua tree was given by a group of Mormon settlers crossing the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. The tree's unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer.

We have no idea what these white areas are.  I'm guessing they are tailings for an old mining site . . .

And we found the Hotel California!  For you youngsters, Hotel California is the title track from the Eagles' album of the same name and was released in 1977, winning the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1978.

We went straight . . . . . . .

And back at Cajon for train action.  This shows the grade of one of the lines.

They were doing tie replacement on one of the mains so I think that slowed some of the action until they finished, although trains did go by slowly on the parallel main.

More descending grade.

Would you believe the original Route 66 went under this bridge???

In the next two pictures, the 4 tracks are close to each other.  Nearest to us is the Palmdale Cutoff, the train is on one of two parallel tracks, and the far track is the original 3% grade.

Brian rented a 4-wheel drive so we could access some back roads for different photo locations.  I wish I would have taken a picture of this road where we first got on it!  Mule trail would be more like it and lots of ruts and washouts.

Brian took a hike to see if this trail would come out on a highway or we would have to try and go back up this trail.  It did come out on a highway.

Back to more train action.  You seldom have to wait very long for a train to come by.

 

This is a poor picture, taken through a windshield in a late afternoon sun.  But that "tree" thing is actually a cell tower disguised to look something like a tree.  Lots of these in this area.

And our Air B&B this night was an Airstream Trailer!!  Not very comfy and the furnace didn't work at night so it was 49 degrees in the morning.  But it was cheap!  This was located at a KOA Campground and is used by movie actors who do makeup and planning in it for movies that are made at this location!