American Railroads in the West of the USA

17th May 2005

100 degrees F in the valley but still snow on the peaks !!!	A multi-coloured lashup	An indication of the fairly short length of this train - it all fits into the picture !!!	Caught the wrong side of the tracks by this eastbound manifest with three on the front and four on the rear, decending towards Palm Springs.
The heat shimmer rises from these two hard working diesels and distorts the view of the traffic on Interstate 10 which parallels the ex Southern-Pacific route in this area.	The quartet of SDs roll though Palm Springs AMTRAK station on the rear of an eastbound freight	The Sunset Limited is still climbingtowards the summit of Beaumont way beyond the Morongo Casino on the skyline.	The Sunset Limited runs thrice weekly from Orlando FL to Los Angeles in California and is often late after travelling for two days. Today she was only a respectable 30 minute late as she climbs the ca
The wind turbines are very characteristic of this landscape as this heavy freight descends into the desert	This westbound intermodal is headed by UP4847 and CSX7891 and was climbing this tortuous grade at around 15mph.	Those wind turbines are huge !!	Union Pacific SD50 2227 "carries the tail lamp" on an eastbound freight descendingtowards Palm Springs. Silhouetted because I couldn't cross the tracks !!

I have visited the Western states of California and Nevada a couple of times and include Arizona in this collection of a few pictures.

I have stayed in Palm Springs on three occasions and have been fascinated by this desert region. Flying into LAX then driving out on Interstate 10 towards San Bernadino, then Palm Springs, you pass the ex Southern Pacific yards at Colton which run for miles. After climbing to Beaumont you descend through a broad canyon into the desert at Palm Springs and the other nearby towns and cities. The steep gradients of the railroad which is adjacent for much of the way, mean that "thousands of horses" are needed to shift freight (and the thrice weekly AMTRAK passenger) trains up and down these grades.

The line through the desert is lined with trees on both sides so photography there is not really an option. There is plenty of scope on the climb from Palm Springs to Beaumont through Cabazon though.

For non-railway travellers there is excellent golf and a fine assortment of restaurants and shops to cater for all tastes. You can easily drop the partner / spouse at the Cabazon outlet mall to browse the designer labels while you observe the procession of UP trains powered by a galaxy of liveried locos. I photographed a train hauled by 7 locos in 5 liveries !!