Model Train Journal

When I lived in the Los Angeles basin, California, as soon as I got a car (age 16.5) I started roaming in the desert. My favorite spot was Cajon Pass, where I watched the trains from Los Angeles struggle up the grade to the Mojave Desert. I once found the old abandoned roadbed of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad and explored as much as I could. I found the Railroad Station, where a passenger found Black Gold. I did not find any Black Gold there.

When I lived in the Sonoran Desert (Tucson, Arizona), it was like being on vacation for 40 years. As an added bonus, I got to roam the Southern Pacific yard in Tucson. For a while, anyway. When Union Pacific purchased Southern Pacific, I got kicked out. I remember fondly the first time I got kicked out. RR Security came rushing over to me in their vehicle. A guy jumped out and yelled, "What are you doing on my railroad property?" Before I could answer, he saw my railroad T-shirt and exclaimed, "Oh, a railroad nut!" He calmed down immediately and told me, "You can take pictures outside the fence, but do not come inside the fence." I agreed, and he left.

Now that I live in Kentucky, it is a different world. Trees, green grass, and real rivers.

I still love the desert, but no more weekend trips or vacations there. Instead, I have been watching Matt's Off-road Recovery in Hurricane, Utah. For a while, I had a contract with AAA to tow vehicles, so I can relate to Matt's recovery business.

One of Mattt's videos:
No One In Utah Would Rescue Them… Now I Know Why!
https://youtu.be/FQE7yZHfDFg?si=7Kc3tDk_76K0tAyR

I visited a few spots in the Sonoran Desert back in my Hughes days. I generally found the experience unpleasant, kinda like taking a walking tour of an operating blast furnace.

I know I've previously related the recollection of an extended stop at a rail depot somewhere in Arizona back when I was about ten years old, coming back from the West Coast with The Old Man in the dead of summer. It was about ten o'clock at night and I remember getting off the train, it was still stifling (and that's when I was young and could withstand just about anything). I don't recall if it was an SP or UP train, but I remember being damn glad to be back aboard in an air-conditioned coach.