Chasing Freight Across the Desert
In late May 2022, a work trip took me to Las Vegas, Nevada for four days. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I scheduled off the next day and allotted four extra days to hit various railfanning hotspots, and other sites of personal railfanning interest, between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Beginning early Thursday, May 26th, I picked up a rental car and headed west. With only 3.5 hours between Las Vegas and my next hotel, I essentially had the entire day to explore railroad locations in the nearly 300 miles that lay in-between. The first goal was to catch a little action along the Union Pacific Cima Subdivision, which runs from Las Vegas to the junction with the BNSF Transcon at Daggett, California. Knowing that this isn’t a particularly busy subdivision, I was unsure how much I would actually see, but nevertheless, the scenery was breathtaking, and even a train or two would make it worthwhile for a video. No sooner had I left the suburban landscape of Las Vegas, than movement on the mountainside ahead caught my attention. A coal train was charging eastbound. There was no time to get off the interstate to beat it to any location nearby, and I had to watch as it made its way out of sight, but this was at least a sign that things were moving on the sub.
For the next 10 miles or so, I was on Las Vegas Boulevard. This stretch is barely recognizable as the same bustling road that hosts the Luxor, New York New York, and the Bellagio casinos a few miles to the east - it’s a desolate desert highway, with two lanes running into the silent distance as it parallels the Cima Sub - the perfect place to start this expedition! After a brief breakfast stop, with the tracks remaining silent, I continued west in the hope that something would show up. About halfway between where I joined the boulevard and where it ends, it crosses from the south side of the tracks to the north under a somewhat attractive Art Deco bridge. If I was to catch anything along this segment, I would want it to be here. Reaching the end of the road, there was still no train in sight, but as I was beginning to contemplate rejoining the interstate to continue west, a distant headlight caught my attention. I raced back to the bridge with a comfortable amount of time to set up before an eastbound manifest appeared, climbing towards Las Vegas.
Satisfied with this catch, it was time to hit the interstate. Although the road and railroad both reach Daggett, they take different routes, with the highway cutting through the mountains, as the railroad diverges to the south to follow the route of least resistance. About an hour and a half later, I rejoined the tracks just east of Yermo, California, a working-class desert oasis built around a Union Pacific yard. After scouting out a few filming locations, the signals at the end of the yard remained red. I abandoned Yermo for a brief stop at the nearby Calico Ghost Town.
Although an actual ghost town at one point, Calico has today been turned into a tourist attraction chronicling the silver mining industry in the region. Served by the narrow gauge Waterloo Mining Railroad, which hauled silver to the mills at Daggett, the town features a representation of the line which now runs from a depot, through a small tunnel, and over a fairly impressive wooden trestle - none of which are original to the railroad. The small 0-4-0 gasoline-powered faux steam locomotive hauls several cartoonish open cars and a caboose at about 10 miles per hour. I did grab some footage of this line in action, but it struck me as more of an amusement ride than a real railroad, so the video will likely find its way onto the Facebook page as bonus content.
From Calico, it was time to get back to the real action. One more swing through Yermo found the signals still showing red, so I headed to Daggett and the BNSF Transcon. Living up to its reputation, the Transcon was alive with intermodal traffic. Three consists were stopped west of the junction awaiting clearance into Barstow Yard, and another westbound was cresting the horizon to the east. A grain train with CSX and Kansas City Southern power was also noted in a pocket track, but sadly it wouldn’t move any time soon. I later found out that it had been sitting there without a crew since Monday.
Before too long, the Cima Sub also yielded some action, as a westbound coal train that had been sitting in the yard at Yermo crawled to a halt just short of the junction. With trackage rights over BNSF for much of the remaining westbound route, the UP crew would have to wait for a break in the intermodal traffic to get clearance from BNSF to continue their trip. This wouldn’t happen while I was here, but I did manage to catch several more intermodal trains before heading into Barstow.
Despite there being no shortage of action, I didn’t stay long in Barstow. It was already late in the afternoon and I had plenty of ground still left to cover. I did, however, stop at the Amtrak station to visit the Western America Railroad Museum. The museum was closed on Thursdays, but their fairly impressive locomotive and rolling stock roster are fully accessible from the parking lot, so I spent some time checking out the collection. Some of the more interesting pieces on display included a somewhat recently retired ATSF Bluebonnet SD40, Union Pacific SD40-2, and an impressive (albeit faded) Warbonnet FP45. One of the more unique pieces was ATSF #1460 - otherwise known as the “Beep”. This full-size “kit-bash” was constructed using the long hood of a GP7 married to the cab from a Baldwin switcher (hence the name). This curious mashup was an attempt to prolong the life of ATSF’s aging switchers, rather than replace them outright with new locomotives. The project wasn’t pursued beyond this single prototype.
From Barstow, I continued west, this time on Route 66, which remained closer to the tracks. Approaching the town of Oro Grande, I overtook a westbound manifest with an unpatched Warbonnet Dash 9 second out. With the number of these left operational on the BNSF roster dwindling each year, I pulled off at the first accessible railroad crossing to capture some video of it. After an eastbound UP power move blasted past, the manifest showed up, working hard against a brutal high desert wind that had picked up.
Continuing west into Oro Grande proper, I arrived at the CalPortland Cement facility, where I was able to briefly capture their internal railroad switching with a former Norfolk Southern GP38-2 and an EMD “Repower” demonstrator GP22ECO. After a brief stop at the plant, I turned my attention away from the rails to check out the nearby Southern California Logistics Airport, otherwise known as the Victorville Boneyard. For aviation fans, this is one of three airports in the southwest used for long-term airliner storage - the dry climate is perfect for keeping the planes from degrading. It’s a fascinating sight to see these giant birds from across the world sitting silently amid the desert brush. After getting some stills at the airport, I returned to the mainline one last time to catch a westbound intermodal in the golden evening light. From here it was time to rejoin the highway down into San Bernardino for dinner at the Colton Diamond, where the final train of the day - an eastbound BNSF manifest - was caught in the last moments of dusk.
Look for more in part two as we climb into the desert once more and visit the famous Cajon Pass…