We get our tickets and goody bag, label our suitcases and turn them over to be trucked to tonight’s hotel in Laughlin, NV. Then, we return to the waiting room, where we spend some time talking to the friends already identified. About 9:20 am, Donald, Nina and I walk out to the platform where 3751 is already waiting. Our train is not in the platform, as yet. Bob and Laura Drenk are already out there, so I stop and talk to them for awhile. Then I walk forward to take a look at 3751. Russell Hogue is on the platform as I walk back; he has come to see the train off, but is not going with us. Incoming Amtrak train 3 (the Southwest Chief) will arrive shortly, but will require an across-the-platform transfer to departing train 14 (the Coast Starlight), so our train will use track 10, rather than 11 or 12. Soon, we see the cars being backed into the station by the two Amtrak locomotives, and I move to be in position to board our assigned car when it is ready to board.
Former ATSF 4-8-4 3751 was built by Baldwin in May, 1927, the first ATSF 4-8-4 and the first 4-8-4 built by Baldwin. In its original form, 3751 had 73” drivers, 210-lb. Boiler pressure, and weighed 421,600 lbs. It was rebuilt in August, 1941 with 80” drivers, 230-lb. Boiler pressure and weighed 464,700 lbs. It has 30” cylinders and Walschaerts valve gear, with a nominal tractive effort of 66,000 lb. Originally a coal burner with an automatic stoker, it was rebuilt to burn oil in 1937 at the Albuquerque shops. 3751 is the oldest 4-8-4 still in existence.
We’re riding in 1924 Pullman sleeper-lounge Dover Harbor, owned by the Washington DC Chapter of NRHS, for the two-day inbound trip. Dover Harbor has seating for 24 people in its lounge area, including twelve at tables and twelve in movable armchairs and love seats. There is also seating available in four of the six bedrooms. Today, however, we only have 18 paying passengers and two car hosts. The latter are Dave and Patti Wolven, two of the several car hosts recruited for this trip from the Orange Empire Railway Museum. At OERM, Dave and Patti work primarily to keep business car Mount Rubidoux in running order and suitable for carrying passengers.
We choose to sit at one of the tables, which today will have only two people at each table. As usual, I sit facing forward, with scanner, employee timetables, rail atlas, and notebook arrayed in front of me. I also have my current reading matter available. Many of the passengers in this car today are from Southern California, including Charlie Bach from El Cajon, who has been on previous trips with us, and Robert and Roberta Young from Westchester, just north of LAX. Others are from further away, including New England, Atlanta, and North Carolina. At 10:20 am. train 14 has departed, leaving train 3 in platform 12, and we’re ready to depart. By now, 3751 has assumed its place at the head of our train.
There’s no coffee pot in Dover Harbor, but there is one in Kitchi Gammi Club in which Joe Williams is an “owner’s’ representative”, so Chris fills my coffee mug there. Later, Joe comes back to say hello. We’ll be seeing more of him on the way back, when we travel in Kitchi Gammi Club for two days. Later, we also get coffee from MKT 403.
Southern California Route Descriptions
Santa Fe Transcon Route Description
The route for the two-day inbound excursion is divided into the following subdivisions:
· Metrolink River Subdivision from Los Angeles to ?? Junction
· Metrolink San Gabriel Subdivision from ?? Junction to San Bernardino
· San Bernardino Subdivision from Los Angeles to San Bernardino via Fullerton
· Cajon Subdivision from San Bernardino to Barstow (mileposts from Barstow)
· Needles Subdivision from Barstow to Needles (mileposts from Albuquerque)
· Seligman Subdivision from Needles to Williams Junction
During the San Bernardino stop, Chard Walker passes through Dover Harbor. We take track 1 up the grade. North of Sullivan’s Curve (and highway 138), we trigger the hotbox detector for more than just the cylinders and firebox of the steam locomotive, so we have to stop for the crew to inspect the train, right there on the grade. When we start away again, we’re immediately stopped by an emergency brake application. It appears that the hot box was genuine, and resulted from a broken brake pipe on Pine Tree State. We sit for quite a while at Alray, while the mechanical folks fix the brake pipe under the car. When we start again, we hear on the radio that the freight train that had to stop behind us cannot now start away on the grade and will require helpers to get started. We, however, are on the way to Barstow, albeit quite a bit later than expected. During the second stop, a group of us in Dover Harbor discuss places that the folks from Atlanta might visit by car, which results in a discussion of the routing and gradient profile of the Los Angeles aqueduct. Based on things we have learned at some of our IEE Branch field trips, I know that the gradient profile is gravitational all the way, and that the route into the Los Angeles basin is down San Francisquito Canyon. During this discussion, Ed Graham walks through the car. At Hesperia, after restarting, the whole town seems to be at lineside to watch. Roberta Young goes nuts trying to weave to each and every group of people.
Barstow has a large freight yard, where trains to/from both Los Angeles and the San Francisco area are, in many cases, re-sorted from/to trains connecting to points East of Belen (near Albuquerque), such as Alliance Yard in Fort Worth, Argentine Yard West of Kansas City, Willow Springs Intermodal Yard or Corwith Yard in Chicago, or direct connections with Eastern railroads in Illinois. We stop in Barstow, first on the fuel rack to fuel the two Amtrak engines, then at the Amtrak station to provide water for the steam engine. While filling the tender(s), the steam crew “shoot the rods” (grease the bearings on the running gear on the locomotive). This takes much longer than expected, and we’re several hours late by the time we leave Barstow, less than halfway into today’s journey.
(Why does
this locomotive need the rods greased so often, and why does it take so long?
Surely, it didn’t stop so often and for so long each time when it was running
1775 miles from Los Angeles to Kansas City, and 1775 back, twice a week back in
the 1940s?)
The westward trip across the Mojave starts from the banks of the Colorado River at Needles and climbs the stiff grade (1.4%) northwestward towards Goffs. At Goffs, the line turns southwestward and descends to Essex and Cadiz, where the junction with the Arizona and California is made. Then, the track climbs Ash Hill (with the dual main tracks separated for ease of grades, 1.4% upgrade westbound), reaches Ludlow and heads due West for Barstow. All of this is across rolling terrain, populated only by scrub and desert animals, between numerous ranges of treeless mountains. At Daggett, the Union Pacific line from Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, formerly used by the Desert Wind before that train’s cancellation in 1995, joins from the North.
As we head east, there is radio chatter about 3751 “foaming”. Presumably, this means that the water treatment at Barstow wasn’t quite correct! At Ash Hill, we again trigger the hot box detector for more than just the steam locomotive. We stop on the hill to inspect the train, and the crew greases the rods again while we’re doing this. Complete darkness has fallen by the time this process is complete—we should have arrived in Needles, by now. Another scheduled daylight trip across the Mojave has been thwarted by delays. Fortunately for us, we have traveled the entire route in daylight on a very late Amtrak train 3, returning from the 2000 NRHS Convention, but many people hoping to see Cadiz to Needles (if not Ash Hill to Needles—we’ll see Cadiz to Ash Hill on the way back) in daylight on this trip will be disappointed. At Bagdad, we stop again to change crews, with a lengthy delay before restarting. Fortunately for us, the food available in first class is sufficient to permit us to skip the (included) buffet dinner when we finally arriver at the hotel.
Not long after the restart from Bagdad, Trainmaster Ervin White travels through the train to discuss the need for a delayed departure in the morning. Roberta Young objects to the planned setback of Tuesday’s departure time, when it is announced in our car, until it is explained to her that it is needed for obtain the mandated crew rest time (ten hours) between signing off tonight and signing on tomorrow. (Roberta has spent the day waving at people trackside, as if it were her assignment to get everyone trackside to wave at here, talking out loud about it the whole way.)
After darkness has fallen, Dover Harbor shows a couple of videos compiled from the NRHS film collection by NRHS Media Director Mitch Dakelman. Soon after 11 pm, we pass thorough Needles station; however, the switch to the yard lead is two and a half miles further along, and between setting the switch and the glacial backup into the yard, it is 11:35 before we can depart the train, after midnight before the buses leave for Laughlin, and after 1 am by the time we reach our room. In the room, we find that we have the bags belonging to Donald and Nancy Winters, as well as our own, and Chris has great difficulty explaining this to the hotel staff. Eventually, all is resolved and we go to bed.
Tuesday, August 20th, 2002
At 6 am, I’m wide awake. (Drinking caffeinated coffee all day Monday had something to do with that), and a bit later Chris is awake, also. We get up, partake of the included buffet breakfast, then get ready to leave. We get some pictures of the narrow gauge steam train whose line encircles the hotel, then checkout of the room. Waiting to board the buses, we sit next to Jim Bistline, who is enjoying a cigar. We board a bus at about 9:30 (compared to the stated 10 am departure time), but are not initially allowed to proceed when our bus is full. Eventually, common sense prevails and we head back to the yard in Needles, where there is time to photograph all of the cars in the train and the locomotives up front. Bob Drenk is greeting old friends from his days with the Santa Fe.
The last bus from the hotel arrives late, so
we’re late departing. (After her words yesterday, Roberta Young is on the late
bus, leading to some pointed words to her from Ervin White, later in the day.)
Then, before we get out onto the main line, we have to deal with a sticking
brake on the auxiliary tender (“water bottle”). Including the planned delay in
starting, we’re over two hours late in the original schedule by the time we
cross the Topock bridge into Arizona. An intermodal train on track 2, ahead of
us, has had a failure in its end of train device, and can’t proceed until it is
fixed. In conjunction with planned trackwork for that day, the dispatchers thus
have a massive headache to deal with. We pass the failed train on track 1, and
start the climb east from the Colorado River.
Approaching Williams, we stop briefly with 3751 on the bridge over the Grand Canyon Railway line, with GCR’s 4960 below. This is a photo opportunity, but not for those on the train. Stopping again at Williams Junction, our train reverses down the branch line into Williams, where it shuffles over onto the GCR to stop at the former Santa Fe depot now used by the GCR. By now, darkness has fallen, and we’re unable to perform the photo runby that Trainmaster White had hoped to run on the GCR. Leaving the train, we reclaim our suitcases (that had come by truck from Laughlin) and check into the Fray Marcos hotel. (the former Harvey House). On the station platform, I see Alex Mayes and Teresa Renner in line to register for the Convention (they had chased the train from Los Angeles, Alex tells me later, seeing me in the window of Dover Harbor a number of times). We eat dinner at Rosa’s Cantina, just north of the hotel, and supposedly Ervin White’s favorite restaurant. He doesn’t appear while we’re there, however.
At the NRHS Convention (8/21-8/24)
Wednesday, August 21st, 2002
Today’s excursion is the one rail activity at this convention that requires bus transportation away from and back to Williams. The rail part of the trip is one the Verde Canyon Railroad, which starts and ends at Clarkdale, AZ, about a two hour bus ride south of Williams. (Actually, Clarkdale is not very far from Williams, as the crow flies. Unfortunately, the road layout requires a quite circuitous journey between the two places, because there is no road traversing the Mogollon Rim escarpment on the south edge of the Colorado Plateau, directly to the south of Williams.)
The last bus is to leave Williams at 7:30 am. We’re on a bus that departs about ten minutes earlier than that, with three other buses just in front of us. While were waiting for the bus, the man behind me in line, seeing 90-year old Darrel Brewer in his wheelchair being pushed towards a bus, opines that “the liberals have gone too far, ‘they’ shouldn’t be required to accommodate him.” Darrel and Mike Dickerson, who is accompanying him on this trip, prove to be on the same bus as both us and the man who made that remark. The buses head east, across the Arizona Divide to Flagstaff, 33 miles east, then south on highway 89A through Oak Creek Canyon, where the descent of the ‘rim’ is a winding road on the north end of the canyon. At the south end of the canyon, we pass through Sedona, where the cliffs comprise the famous red rocks. Clarkdale is 25 miles west of Sedona, and is about 3500 ft lower in altitude than Williams, a fact reflected in the ambient temperature (almost twenty degrees hotter than Williams would have been).
The Verde Canyon Railroad runs on the track of the Arizona Central Railroad, once the Clarkdale branch of the ATSF, leaving the Peavine at Drake, built in 1911-12. The tourist line uses the easternmost 20 miles of that 38 mile line, descending 500 ft. on its way to Perkinsville. Because of the ongoing drought in central Arizona, the forest is tinder dry, so we won’t be able to make any photo stops along the route today. Instead, the train will be pulled past interested photographers at Clarkdale depot, before and after the run. While waiting for things to get started, we meet Helen and Smoke Shaak, who came out on Amtrak directly to Williams, not on the inbound excursion. Today’s train is hauled by the line’s two FP7s, built for the Alaska Railroad in the 1950s and serving there until 1988, then operating on the Wyoming-Colorado until that line’s demise in 1995, arriving here in November, 1996. The First class cars in the train were built by Pullman Standard in 1946-47, and have been refurbished and outfitted with an interesting arrangement of 2+1 seating facing forwards and backwards at tables along the sides of the car. The coaches were built by Budd in the 1930s and 40s for the Santa Fe El Capitan. Donald and Nina, Alex Mayes, and Mitch Dakelman are among those nominally riding in our first class car (Scottsdale), although most of them spend their time in one of the open cars. John Harmon also appears in the car at one point, to talk to Julia Decker.
Verde Canyon Route Description
The Verde River, which the route follows all
the way, collects water from creeks flowing down from the Colorado Plateau,
including Oak Creek, then flows southeast. Just northwest of the depot, the
line passes the United Verde Copper Company’s smelter, closed in 1953, whose
tall smoke stacks were demolished in 1962 and 1965. Behind the smelter, we can
see the mining town of Jerome, halfway up the mountainside to the south. The
line them comes alongside cliffs to the left of the train, the upper reaches of
which include some Sinagua Indian cliff dwelling ruins dating from 1100-1125,
and abandoned in the early 1400s.
Along the river are cottonwood trees, with sycamore and ash at higher elevations. A Great Blue Heron stands in the Verde River. There is an eagle’s nest on one of the walls of the inner canyon, to the right of the train. Later, we see Elephant Rock, resembling the profile of an elephant’s head and trunk, across the river to the right of the train.
At Perkinsville, the locomotives run around the train, which then returns to Clarkdale. After patronizing to souvenir shop, we board the last operating bus (one has broken down) back to Williams, which returns by the faster route using Interstate 17 to Flagstaff, then Interstate 40 west to Williams.
After dark, we walk the six blocks north to the Pizza Hut for a pizza dinner.
Thursday, August 22nd, 2002
This morning, the Grand canyon Railroad is hosting many conventioneers at its maintenance shop. A shuttle bus is provided to take us to and from that facility. We board a shuttle that gets us over there about 8 am (the first shuttle of the day). As we head over there, GCR 2-8-0 18 backs over to the dept to lead the 10 am service train to the Canyon. We’re required to sign a release to permit us to walk about the shop and adjacent tracks. Bob Franzen, GCR Chief Mechanical Engineer, addresses us briefly and sets up a Question & Answer session for 9 am.
The GCR maintenance facility is a metal-clad steel-framed building that has two through tracks and an area filled with machines and machine tools. When we arrive, a 1946 Budd-built streamlined blunt-end observation diner passenger car, being rebuilt into an open platform lounge car, occupies track 1 inside the building. This is intended to replace the heavyweight Chief car whose interior burned in an electrical fire in February, 2002. Purchase and rebuild of the new car will cost about $400,000, while rebuilding the old one would have been over $500,000. Track 2 is occupied by GCR 2-8-0 29, being overhauled for continuing operation. All of its tubes, valve gear, and wheels have been removed, and its cab (but not backhead) is sitting outside the shop to the south. (Standing outside the south end of the shed, we can see the hulk of the old Chief car sitting on a track at the south end of the shop yard.)
The third area of the shop includes a couple of milling machines, several different kinds of lathes, and a driving wheel quartering machine. The latter was purchased by Ross Rowland at the auction dispersing the facilities of the Norfolk Southern Steam Program, back in 1995, and later made its way here. The GCR also acquired former NS steam program a wheel lathe by that same route, but has yet to re-erect that machine, which is stored under wraps outside the shop. The other machines are variously from the C&O at Russell, KY and the UP in Colorado.
At the north end of the shop, GCR 2-8-2 4960 occupies track 2, ATSF 3751 has come over from the depot area and taken up a place on track 1, and the four unit Alco diesel set (ABBA FPA-4/FPB-4s, 6773, 6871, 6860, 6776) that will later haul our excursion train to the Canyon is standing on the main track, having moved over from track 3 (which is out-of-bounds to us). We’re allowed into the cabs of all three locomotives, so Chris and I both take the opportunity to do so for 4960 and the Alcos (having already been in the cab of 3751 at Railfair 99 in Sacramento). On climbing into the diesel cab, Chris tries to rearrange the doorframe with her head, to no avail! J
At 9 am, we both take seats in the area where Bob Franzen is conducting the Q&A. A number of very interesting questions are asked, all of them answered forthrightly. The steam locomotives use #3 oil, which comes in tank cars from Los Angeles, and softened water (which originates with the city supply). After the Q&A, we watch as the use of the milling machines is demonstrated (no actual work is being performed during this morning’s visit, although the pieces worked on during the demonstration will eventually be used on real projects), then take the shuttle bus back to the GCR Depot. Here, I photograph 2-8-0 18 on the regular service train before it departs. We see Robert and Roberta Yound board that train for their overnight visit to the Grand Canyon.
After 11:30 am. We return to the depot, where our train set awaits. We’re allowed to board at 12 noon, for our 12:30 pm departure. Today, we’re riding in Plaza Santa Fe, a former Santa Fe dome car (but we’re not in the dome) built for the Super Chief. This car has the Starlight Lounge (where we sit) and the fabled Turquoise Room, used for private dining on the Super Chief in the days when movie stars and the like used the train to get to and from Los Angeles. We take seats that have a little shelf for drinks, etc., not far from the stairs to and from the dome. Donald and Nina have dome seats in this car (they have dome seats for the entire six days in this train, alternating between the two dome cars), and we can see Donald in the front seat, but Nina prefers to sit downstairs (the car isn’t full) and talk to Chris (and eventually me) during this train trip. After the FPAs are added on the front (the two Amtrak locmotives are already located at the rear to provide HEP to the cars), the train leaves right at 12:30 pm, just as Trainmaster White said it would (by his definition—I think it’s 45 seconds late J). As we pass the GCR shop, we see that 3751 is now inside the shop, with its tender sticking out of the rear door on track 1.
Grand Canyon Railway Route Description
At Anita, MP 44.9, just before the start of Apex Hill, we have a photo runby from 1:55 to 2:18 pm, where a dirt road crosses the tracks. Most of the photographers stand west of the line (the sun side), even though the train unloaded on the east side. At the Canyon, our train pulls into the wye at 3:32 pm as the regular service train leaves, then at 3;40 pm backs into the station. We’re here to watch the sunset, and the return train leaves an hour after sunset. We’re also on our own for dinner. We climb the stairway to El Tovar, then check dinner reservations and find none are available at any time of use to us. So, we walk over to Bright Angel Lodge and check that we can eat there at an appropriate time. Then we look for places from which to view the canyon as the sun sets, and settle on the terraces below the ?? Studio.
At about 5:30 pm, we put our names on the
list for dinner, and get our table about 5:45 pm. After dinner, we make our way
to our selected 
sport below the studio, and settle in to watch the changing
colors and appearance of the canyon as the sun goes down. We watch and take
photographs from 6:45 to about 7:30 pm, then return to the train. The trip back
to Williams in the dark is largely uneventful. Helmi, the red-headed car host
of German extraction, takes offense when Chris gets Joe Williams to make coffee
for Nina, saying that she (Helmi) is “here to serve us”. Well, I don’t object
to being served, but I do object when the servants want to act as gatekeepers
to the resources. We stop from 9:25 to 9:34 pm, because we (almost?—there’s
some dispute about it the next day) hit a cow. Back in Williams, we’re in bed
before midnight
Friday, August 23rd, 2002
There are no excursions today, and we have elected not to go to the seminars. I arise after 9:30 am, and walk over to the depot to photograph the departure of the regular service train to the canyon, today headed by 4960 with the assistance of an FPA-4 and a chop-nose GP. We have an impromptu photo line east of the road crossing. Greg Molloy laughs to a couple of those near him, including Richard Shulby and Wes Ross, that NRHS folks are willing to form a photo line with no prompting whatever, but he can’t get them to agree on anything at the business meetings! L
After discussing the matter for awhile, Chris and I decide not to go to either the Board Meeting or the membership Meeting this year, since both are at a motel several blocks away. We do attend the Annual Banquet at that same motel, sitting across from a member of the Grand Canyon Chapter who is also a Physics Professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. The after dinner talk is on Walt Disney and Railroads.
Saturday, August 24th, 2002
We’re off to the Grand Canyon again today,
this time with 3751 on the front of our train, and the two Amtrak locomotives
on the rear, ostensibly to provide HEP to the cars. Today, we’re riding in Colonial Crafts, a former PRR
lightweight Pullman owned by Rod and Ellen Fishburn. The car hosts are Linda
Ripetteau and her husband, from Chicago by way of Fort Madison, IA. Today, the
train is full, se we’re somewhat more limited in choice of seating than before.
Colonial Crafts has a lounge area as
well as four bedrooms, one of which is designated to provide toilet facilities
for the car today. There’s also a kitchen area from which coffee is provided.
The man sitting across the car from me works for a railroad signaling company
in New Jersey, and has a number of interesting anecdotes as the day progresses.
The folks next to Chris both work for the city of Tempe, AZ, and one of them
deals with elections, so Chris has interesting conversations about her role as
a precinct inspector in Hermosa Beach.
We depart more or less on time (Ervin White is slipping a bit, today J). At Anita, we stop at the same location as on Thursday, but the sun is on the east side of the train today. The intent is to have the photo line along the road, but there are some ‘chaser’ automobiles in the way, so the line is moved forward. I have climbed up on an old wooden stockade, along with Alex Mayes and several others. Nina is just below me. At the front of this construct, Mitch Dakelman persuades Steve Barry, editor of Railfan and Railroad to talk for his video camera. While doing so, Steve steps in the center of a cow pie, getting the mess all over his shoe. Just then, the train starts its runpast from around the next curve.
We’re all expecting it to stop after the run, but it
continues and we can follow its progress by the plume of smoke. Those (like me)
who were at the GCR Shop Tour early know what is happening, particularly if
they have scanners—the train has run forward to attach 4960 on the front for
the climb up Apex Hill, and returns to make a second runby with both steam engines
on the front. Setting off again, the climb up Apex hill, and the last few miles
into Grand Canyon station proceed slowly. By now, we’re only a half-hour or 
so ahead of the regular service train
(compared to the 90 minutes separating departure at Williams). We head straight
in to the station, and after everyone is off the train, the two Amtrak diesels
take the stock out to a siding alongside the main line. The regular service
train (headed by GCR 2-8-0 18 and two GCR diesels) arrives and unloads, then
its stock is taken off to the tail track on the wye. All three steam
locomotives are then placed side-by-side in the depot, facing the end of track,
staggered such that both side-on and head-on views are possible, while the
assembled conventioneers take photo after photo.
There’s then time for a quick walk along the rim between Bright Angel and El Tovar, to see the canyon in a different light, before returning to the train. On the return, there’s a rumor of runbys in Coconino Canyon, but those don’t pan out. Jim Fetchero walks through the car, and stops to chat when I say hello. We do a runby at MP 44.2 (reversing after a stop at MP 41 to find the correct spot), where I manage to get to the top of a small hill while the main photo line is stretched out below, with just 3751 on the train. Then, again, the train heads out of sight after the runpast and returns with 4960 on the front again for another runby with both locomotives.
At Willaha, site of the major siding on the line, our train stops in the siding and the photographers pile out to get pictures of the regular service train passing our excursion train, with all three steamers in the picture. Our train then does a couple of runbys with 3751 and 4960 on the front. Approaching Williams, we stop again at MP3 and do another runby in golden light as sunset approaches. Then our train disappears, and returns several minutes later with 18 added to the point and does a couple of runbys in the twilight with all three locomotives (a triple header). Although for many people, this was worthless photographically, what matters is the experience of seeing those three steamers charging past at full throttle, smoke plumes heading skyward. The experience was no to be missed, regardless of the photographic results. (Those with video or digital cameras seem to have captured the results successfully.)
Returning to Williams after dark, the main part of the convention is over. We eat dinner at Rosa’s Cantina, again, then pack for departure.
The Outbound Journey (8/25-8/26)
Sunday, August 25th, 2002
For the return trip, we revert to the original consist from the inbound trip. This time, Chris and I are riding in Kitchi Gammi Club, a 1923 Pullman, owned by Virginia Rail Investment Corporation, a partnership of Chuck Jensen (Carl Jensen’s son) and another man. The car hosts on this car are Tom and Cindy Clabaugh, also from OERM (where Tom is the new Operations Manager). Carl Jensen, Becky Gerstung (Chuck’s mother-in-law, from Buffalo), Dave Ackerman and Joe and Elissa Williams, who have traveled out on this car, are also riding here, as are Robert and Roberta Young. We elect to sit in one of the remaining Sections (in daytime configuration), while the Youngs join those riding in the lounge area of the car. Jim Bistline and Chard Walker are also riding back there. Joe Williams spends time sitting in the section immediately behind us, allowing us to have several conversations over these two days.
At Matthie,
we stop on the wye to change crews to an A&C pilot crew, then stop
again to ‘shoot the rods’ on the locomotive. On arrival at Matthie, we lost HEP
due to a couple of covering plates on the private cars working loose; the HEP
was restored at 1:55 pm by the Amtrak mechanical crew, Pat Egan and Harold
Weissinger, who refresh themselves with a cold drink in Kitchi Gammi Club
afterwards. Along this stretch of line, we do two sets of runbys—a
double runby in 110-degree weather at MP 44.7, where most of us have to take
close-in shots of the train going by, and a triple runby in 114-degree weather
at MP 100, just 5 miles east of Parker, where the photographers line up along a
sand dune with marvelous vistas across the desert to some mountain in the distance.
Here, it is possible to get shots with the whole train in the picture, and
those mountains as well. The third runpast, starting closer to us to allow us
to capture the starting spectacle from 3751, is the last one of the entire
8-day trip.
Leaving Barstow, we make our way past the
massive marshaling yard and locomotive servicing facilities, but are stopped by
signals at Valley Junction, where we sit for an hour or so. A maintenance gang
has one of the tracks ahead out of service, and the dispatcher is working five
other trains ahead of us (two going our way, three opposed) past that segment
on the remaining track. While we’re waiting, there is a discussion of the
markings on sections of rail. The one next to me is marked 1360RE VT CF&I
1997, which inter alia means that it
was rolled at Colorado Fuel & Iron, in Pueblo, CO, in 1997.