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!

California 3 2018 Cajon Barstow Needles

 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.

We headed out for Cajon Pass.  This is a railfan's paradise and I was overwhelmed with the trains, grades, and scenery.  I had expected to find a long track or two heading up over the mountain and probably hard to access.  Wrong on all counts!  There are 4 mainline tracks on 3 different grades.  And with public land throughout the area, photo locations abound.

 Cajon Pass is a mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains and located at he San Andreas Fault!  (No, we didn't experience any earthquake!)  It is located in the Mojave Desert and the tracks are used by the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroads.  California State Route 138 passes through the area and there are other roads as well as some very poor roads (trails) which require a 4-wheel drive vehicle.

Here are some trains at the base of the canyon.

Here is a Union Pacific train coming on the Palmdale Cutoff.  Just 5 minutes before, a wedding party had been taking pictures on the bridge the train is crossing.

You can see the grade this train is heading down.

And right behind it is a second UP train.  It is passing the famous Morman Rocks.  In 1851, a group of Mormon settlers traveled through Cajon Pass in covered wages on their way from Salt Lake City to southern California.  These prominent rocks are named in their honor.

Unfortunately, we could not find a way to get to famed Sullivan's Curve.  In the following photo, there are 4 tracks.  The original Southern Pacific track built in 1885 is a 3% grade, located near the top of the photo.  A double track main line, built in 1913, reduced the grade to 2.2% and had two tunnels.  And, the track the UP trains ran on is the Palmdale Cutoff track.  Tracks have reconfigured numerous times to reduce grade and curvature and the tunnels were 'daylighted.'

We head near the top of the pass or the Summit and grab these shots.

 

Here is a shot from 2015 of Summit, Brian Sykes collection.

At Summit, the top of the pass, there formerly was a station and a wye track for turning engines.  Nothing remains except for this marker.

More great scenery.

We will be back here the next day so we head for Barstow and Needles and our B&B.  We are hungry and find this 'Barstow Station' eatery featuring a railroad motif.

And we head down to the beautiful Barstow depot.  Opened in 1911, the old depot was originally a Harvey House known as the "Casa del Desierto"; today it houses various museums, a visitors center and city offices.  Harvey Houses were large dining rooms where train passengers could eat before going to their next destination.
Fred Harvey started his restaurant chain in Kansas.  Prior to that, passengers did not have time to eat the food they ordered and paid for at a station stop.  The restaurants at that time were dirty, uninviting and had bad food.  The train engineers were often in cahoots with the restaurants and shared in the profits made for the food not eaten (and reserved to the next set of passengers, who could not eat the food either!)
Mr. Harvey hired women between the ages of 18 and 30 who were unmarried, attractive, and they could not get married while employed by him.  The Fred Harvey girls would serve a 4-course meal in 30 minutes!

 And, since it was Sunday, this excellent Museum was open.  It is formally called the Western America Railroad Museum.

They have a super collection of memorabilia and the museum is manned by volunteers.  The head man hired on as a track laborer in 1953 and advanced to Trainmaster at Barstow, retired in 1995.  He greeted us this day.

I was really impressed with this date nail collection.  They are grouped by various railroad from around the country and are on all 4 walls plus display cases in the middle.  There are THOUSANDS of different date nails and they were collected by a railroad employee.

 Back outside, there is a nice collection of rolling stock, mostly locomotives and cabooses.

Outside, there is a highway overpass over the rail yard where many photos are taken.  We didn't walk back there to get pix.

Time to head to Needles.  Instead of taking the Interstate, we take historic Route 66!!!

We saw 20 trains between Barstow and Needles.  All were container trains or manifests but we found this train loaded with Army vehicles.

Many times we saw opposing trains and MANY times we were right at the meeting point!

 TRAINS magazine reports that BNSF will lay a fourth track for 4 miles through Needles in 2018.   Enjoy some desert scenery!!

And, again we are in the exact position for a meet.