Topic: Ramblings
In my previous post I promised to make fewer trips to Las Vegas from Death Valley this season. So much for that promise. I have failed to go there only one week since arriving here in October. The purpose of my trip this weekend, however, was train related. The Southern Nevada N Scale club was hosting a NRMA meet. I was unable to attend Saturday due to my work schedule, but on Sunday I headed for the city. The club has a number of oNeTrak modules which were set up on the patio behind a member's house. It was a sunny day (what else in Vegas?) but a bit on the chilly side.
The layout was configured in an end-to-loop arrangement. Most of the modules were oNeTrak, but a few standard NTrak modules were included. The NTrak modules were easy to spot because they had low sky boards. Some members were operating trains using a switch list produced on a computer by one of the members. Or you could just run a train with no switching.
It gets dark very early this time of year. Not wanting to drive back to Death Valley after sundown, I stayed in Las Vegas. With one recent exception, I never stay in hotels on the Strip. Just too much congestion and I am not there to gamble anyway. Neither have I stayed in one of the older casino/hotels in downtown. This time I decided to stay at the California in central Las Vegas. The price was low and it received high ratings from Expedia guests. What none of the reviewers mentioned was odd numbered rooms in the West Tower face the Union Pacific mainline between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. No sooner than I had entered the room I heard a train horn. Not loud but I recognized it immediately. I opened the shutters on the window and saw a container train was passing below. Even though I look every time I cross railroad tracks, I had never seen a train in Vegas. Several, mostly intermodal, passed below my window. Who would have thought a high-rise hotel would be a train watching hot spot?
Take note of the tall building in the background. That is the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Water is a big business in this part of the country. There is a large vacant lot on the other side of the tracks which might be a good spot for taking afternoon photos of trains.
The highway and the railroad run alongside each other for several miles through the wide open spaces west of Kayenta. I had traveled the same route last year on my return from the Fall Photographers' Special on the Durango & Silverton. A road closure and detour on another trip earlier in that year accidentally had given me my first encounter with a portion of this route. However, on neither of these occasions had I seen anything but empty track. Maybe it would be different this time? The Colorado bound leg of this trip was just as fruitless. According to my on-line research trains make the round trip between the mine and power plant three times a day. Certainly, I would see some action during my return trip to the Grand Canyon! So on my westbound lap I lingered around the loadout sight; stopped midway to get a closer look at a road crossing and the right-of-way; but the rails were empty again. This railroad has been more elusive to railfan than I anticipated. It is uncertain when, if ever, I will have another chance to see Black Mesa trains.
With the passage of the DSNG train we reboarded our train and resumed the trip to Silverton. North of Rockwood (more properly "west" in the days of Rio Grande operations) our small consist ventured out onto the precipitous High Line. More money was spent blasting a narrow ledge out of the 500 foot high cliff above the Las Animas River than on construction of all the rest of the line between Durango and Silverton. Beyond the High Line the tracks descend to cross the Las Animas on the High Bridge. Which is not very high but it is the highest bridge on the route. Here we stopped for our first run-by. This is also where the Rio Grande Southern goose would catch up with us so we could photograph both pieces of equipment crossing the bridge. The goose is a most novel contraption devised in the shops of the Rio Grande Southern during the Great Depression. One of the few reliable sources of revenue during that time was a government contract to carry the mail. However, the mail and other limited freight was insufficient to profitably operate a steam train. The RGS answer was to create rail motorcars to carry the small amount of cargo and occasional passengers.
One of the benefits of my current employment is the opportunity to live in new places and to explore unfamiliar regions. Not long ago in the interest of seeing something new, I took a drive down to Mojave National Preserve. Among my new discoveries, I learned the difference between a National Park and a National Preserve is that hunting is allowed in a Preserve but not in a National Park. This is not of much significance for me since I no longer go hunting. I also learned this Preserve holds the world's largest forest of Joshua Trees. These trees do not provide the shady canopy usually expected in a forest. But they seem to be the most a desert can manage. These discoveries were not, however, what prompted me to visit the Mojave. The purpose of my journey was to visit a railroad museum in Kelso located south of Baker, California.
Death Valley railroad was built by the US Borax Company to service their mine at Ryan. As mining declined at the facility the Borax Company sought other sources of revenue and began encouraging travelers to visit this previously remote area. During the early days of tourism in Death Valley the Junction was the major gateway for visitors to Valley. Passengers from the Union Pacific could transfer in Ludlow to the T&T. The DVRR train would take them to Ryan where touring automobiles of the era could then take them the final miles to Furnace Creek Inn in the center of Death Valley. A few ties of the old Tonopah &Tidewater standard guage can still be found in right of way at Death Valley Junction. Also visible is the grade for the wye which marked the starting point for the Death Valley Railroad. Between Death Valley Junction and Tecopah the highway parallels the T&T or, in some cases the old roadbed is buried under the current road. The highway and the railroad part company south of Tecopah where the T&T enters Amargosa Canyon and the highway instead goes up and over the mountains. A few miles north of Baker the old roadbed of the T&T rejoins Route 127. 
I had discovered some time ago a relic of the LA & SL sitting in the ghost town of Rhyolite on the northeast border of Death Valley National Park. Given the T&T junction with the Union Pacific at Ludlow, California, it seems reasonable a LA&SL caboose might show up in Rhyolite. My guess is the Tonopah & Tidewater railroad had inherited this piece of equipment and abandoned the caboose in Rhyolite before they ceased operations. As you can see from the photo the caboose is in pretty poor condition. The lack of trucks seem to indicate it was used for storage or some other purpose before the last train left Rhyolite. 
As I went about taking photos outside, I kept hoping a UP train would make an appearance. The park ranger at the information desk said a train had passed through about an hour before my arrival and that there were typically 20 trains a day. Alas! not a train in sight. My time was limited by my need to be back in Death Valley before dark. A road paralleled the railroad tracks to the east. I decided to take the road as far as Cima and hoped to come upon a train before I had to head back north. I had not gone far when I found the reason for the absence of trains. A track crew was hard at work. 
So long as these fellows were here I was not going to see any trains and I kept on moving.
This handsome old car, unfortunately, was not operating and sat inside the locomotive shop on the day of my visit. One of the volunteers who had restored the Brill car was there, however, spent some time answering my questions and filling me in on the details of the restoration process. He also told me of their hopes to someday extend the tracks at least a couple miles beyond the immediate grounds of the museum to give visitors a real experience of what it was like to ride these early self-propelled cars. If you're ever near Bishop, California, I recommend you visit the Laws Railroad Museum.