Almost every summer when I’m on my vacation, I go through Kelso in the Mojave desert – usually at night. Used to be, I could take a 15-20 minute break there and almost be guaranteed to see at least one train go by. Often there would be one or two trains idling, waiting for clearance. The past few years though, I haven’t seen any trains idling there and may not see any passing through. This last trip, I was there for over an hour and didn’t see anything. What happened?
Just the dog slow economy, I’m afraid. Reportedly some trains have been rerouted onto the Sunset Route as well. Hey, more capacity for the Z-Train!
Between the economy and the traffic that was diverted to other routes, there is less traffic on that line these days. I go through there a couple time a month, and have been for about 5 months now, and I have only seen one train moving.[8D]
Honestly, Ray, you must have found the secret of time travel, and the experiences you reported having must be in another dimension of time.
Perhaps it hasn’t been recently, but I’ve camped out between Cima and Kelso several times. During those stays, only four or five trains came by all night, and the economy was much better than now. So, with that firsthand experience, my conclusion is that you somehow time warped to another time period.
In the forties, Las Vegas, Kelso, and Yermo were crew change points. There were so many trains back then that many of those trains would go dead on the law, and the law allowed 16-hours of service then. Matter of fact, I use to have a neighbor that was a trainmen back in the forties on that very line, and he told me many stories about that time and how life was for him.
Anyway, if you could convey the secret of how you can go through time, I most certainly would love to try it. Seeing UP passenger E’s again … and domes … would be ABSOLUTELY spectacular!
K.P.