Harvey House at Barstow Station

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	The west end of the Barstow Station seems to be the former Harvey House, being part of the original station.

Western America Railroad Museum

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From one cupola to another.

	The Santa Fe loco #1460 is a rare one.  Santa Fe took a Baldwin switcher and rebuilt it and combined it with an EMD GP-7.  They only built one and it was used as a shop switcher in Texas.  It was retired a few years ago, and is now in Barstow.
I liked the desert plants they've put around the rolling stock.

Fuel gauge from the locomotive above shows either 3,000 gallows of fuel or a broken gauge.

	"Piggy Back" service semi-trailer.
The Overland Trail looked good next to the museum pieces.	The Silver Splendor  looked like it was at the Barstow stop in 1957 on the Chief, through the desert plants.

Classic Cars at the Train Museum

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Corvettes were first produced in the 1960s, but never in a station wagon like this. This one, a creation or futuristic car was called a Corvette Nomad.  Full sized Chevrolet, 2-door sporty station wagons were produced and called Nomads.

	This 1952 Hudson Hornet was across the street from the Barstow Railroad and Route 66 Museum.  It seemed to fit the era of some of the railroad equipment that came on the Barstow Flyer as well as the 2 museums.

Route 66 Museum

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On the northwest corner of the Barstow Station, is the Route 66 Museum, easily accessible by walking around the west side of the station.

Debra Hodkin (right) is Manager/Curator of the Route 66 Mother Road Museum. route66museum.org
	1915 Ford Model T

	Harvey Girl uniform, left, and photo of the Harvey House Dining Room, above.

Barstow Flyer at Barstow Station

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The 2-lane bridge with a pedestrian walkway on the east side is an excellent spot to photograph trains stopped at the station, as well as BNSF freights passing through, but take a telephoto lens.  These two shots were with a 28 mm lens.
This 1928 photo was taken from the hilltop above the house shown in the photo at right.  The bridge is prominent, and station is beyond the tracks.

The curved approach on the north end of the bridge is a good location for photographing passing freights.	The bridge from the south entrance, looking north.
The pedestrian walkway is outside the 2-lane auto bridge, for safe and unobstructed views eastward toward the yard and station.

This 55 mm lens shot shows how far the bridge is from the station.  As I say, take a telephoto and you will get photos as you see below.  You still need to crop you photos into a panoramic style to eliminate sky and multiple tracks.

Chris Guenzler and other Barstow Flyer passengers enjoy the view of the Flyer, the station and the yards.

Barstow Flyer and the Spanish-Moorish Barstow Station with west colonnade.

Barstow Flyer at Barstow Station.

Barstow Flyer and the Station with west colonnade.

Barstow Flyer, Barstow Station, and some Railroad Museum pieces beyond.

LA Rail private cars:  Salisbury Beach, Overland Trail, Silver Splendor, and Tioga Pass at Barstow.

LA Rail private cars:  Salisbury Beach, Overland Trail, and Silver Splendor at Barstow Station.

Amtrak locomotive #23 at Barstow Station.

Passing UP freight with Barstow Flyer at Barstow Station.

View from south end of auto bridge of yard and Barstow Station with Barstow Flyer.

Other yard activity from the auto/pedestrian bridge.

Evidence of  7 tracks for loading passengers, now only 2.	West end of station with colonnade being restored.
	Looking back at the auto/pedestrian bridge over the rail yard.

Modular Train Layouts by Pacific Coast Region of NMRA

Two rooms were filled with model train displays, one behind the ticket counter (above), and other in a large first floor room across from the ticket counter.  Admission to see the models was $3.

Craft and Hobby Vendors, and Private Rail Car Tours

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Tours of the Special Train started with the Tioga Pass, lead by Gary Herod, Trip Coordinator.
	Tours went through the Tioga Pass, then into the Silver Splendor.

The tours continued through the Overland Trail (above), and the Salisbury Beach (right).

Once back on the platform, the guests could get an up close look of Genesis #23, a newly painted locomotive.	I wonder if many guests noticed this nice reflection of the Spanish-Moorish Barstow Station in the locomotive.
Mojave Rangers had a booth as well.

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Heading back to Los Angeles on the Barstow Flyer for a RUN TO THE SUN.

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	Leaving Barstow about 5:20 pm, I went to the Tioga Pass's outdoor platform to enjoy the afternoon horizontal light, and perfect weather.
At 5:56 pm, the sun was on the horizon.	I had remembered this Historic Route 66 bridge on the way out, and there was just enough light to photograph it on this sunset run.

The rails reflected the bright sky,  and the horizontal rocks in the cut caught the golden setting sunlight.
I thought of the challenge to the civil engineers when they looked at this pile of rocks and wondered how they were going to put a track through here.

Bridges at East Victorville.

	Victorville Police discuss the meaning of "No Trespassing" with a biker on BNSF property.

	Bill Hatrick came back to join us on the platform.  The fellow with him (above) said, "This is the best thing ever, if not tell me what's better!"  (Another satisfied Private Railcar passenger!)
Main 1 and 2 crossed (right).

Many passengers on the Barstow Flyer detrained in Fullerton, and we watched the Tioga Pass disappear into the night at 8:30 pm.

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Or visit their website to learn more about their cars or their monthly trips,

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Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo - Central Coast Daylight

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If all 130+ passengers on board had as much fun as I did on this Special Train, Barstow Flyer, then it was a grand success. 

After I posted this report initially, my friend Gary Hess, worked with a photo from above and made a Microsoft Train Simulator graphic:

I asked Gary how he made such an authentic looking graphic, and he responded:

The depot, tracks, and scenery are part of a route for Cajon Pass I purchased for Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS).  The cars and locomotives are add-ons I have acquired over the years from various sources.  All I had to do was create an activity in the train simulator editor, driving the passenger train to the depot.  The UP freight train was also created as part of the activity, although it isn't driveable.  It took less than an hour.  The most time consuming part was getting the hour of the day correct so that the lighting would be better on the equipment.  This was only time consuming because I had to exit the editor, start MSTS, go into my activity, create a screenshot, and then review it.  Then I had to exit MSTS, go back into the editor, and change the time of day, etc.

Thanks, Gary, for sharing this Virtuality Copy of Reality.  Click here to see the original photo, taken from the highway bridge west of the Station (click back in your browser to return to this page).

--Carl Morrison, Carl@TrainWeb.com