The name of the Harvey House was called Casa del Desierto and this
building opened in 1911. The Santa Fe closed it in
1973. It was saved by being added to the National Register
of Historic Places in 1975.
Since the heyday of passenger rail travel, the tracks have been removed.
Heading for "Barstow Station" strip mall. There are golden arches
and other good eats at this location at the Interstate 15 undercrossing.
There is a military logistics base with its own railroad.
Convoy. I was riding shotgun to get these shots.
At beautiful downtown Daggett, the
Union Pacific and BNSF rails
separate. This UP train came from Yermo, just a mile or so up the
road. Their tracks extend to Salt Lake City via Las Vegas.
What a nice route to take a train. We aren't doing that.
Passenger trains rarely travel to Vegas even though a train from
southern CA to Vegas has been discussed for years. I-15 is a
heavily traveled highway on weekends with Vegas traffic. If you
want to gamble and do so at the river, you keep on I-40 towards Needles
and then up to Laughlin or Bull Head City. We'll roughly parallel
I-40 for the next few hours and then take an off the mainline jaunt.
The only time I had ever ridden a
train over Cajon Pass was to Las Vegas for a series of Grateful Dead
concerts in the early 1990's. This would be new trackage for me
even though I have drive out Interstate 40 a few times to help a friend
move to Golden Valley Arizona, between Laughlin and Kingman. The
old Santa Fe (now BNSF) runs through Kingman. From the air, the
ground near this railroad has some odd features which are levees.
Two BNSF freights were waiting their turn after the UP train.
Various people were busy in the open door baggage car. Car Host
Robert was busy guarding the yellow chain which delineated the crew
area. I heard there were oranges up there. James was
checking out his GPS unit. Occasionally I would find out how fast
we were going throughout the trip.
We are headed to the desert metropoli known as Pisgah, Ludlow, Amboy
and Cadiz.
