Railroads & Locomotives Cajon Pass Extra

Cajon Pass Extra

By Angela Cotey | December 27, 2013

| Last updated on November 3, 2020


A behind the scenes look at Cajon Pass to accompany the February 2014 issue

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In October 2013, Trains sent me to Southern California to attend the first-ever Association of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums meeting, to see Union Pacific’s preparatory work for moving Big Boy 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 AND to get material for the February 2014 article in the magazine: “Cajon Pass Unplugged.”

I spent weeks before and after the visit looking through photographs, old maps, and newer maps, in an attempt to figure out how I could cover Cajon differently but in a way that at least respected the history of the area and the legion of outstanding photographers who have come before me.

In the end, there was a job to get done; a story to illustrate. So in the quick gallery below you’ll see off-hand behind-the-scenes shots. They’re not even close to the quality work in similar locations by Richard Steinheimer, Chard Walker, and Stan Kistler. But these photos are an example of what I saw when I was there and hopefully what you might see if you are ever as fortunate as I was to visit Cajon Pass in autumn.

Steve Sweeney
A loaded BNSF Railway container train – a double stack – trecks steadily west towards Summit and Los Angeles. This is the farthest east I traveled in four days of visiting Cajon Pass. This is where it looked and felt like a desert. Little did I know that this spot at milepost 53 is only the welcome mat for the Mojave Desert.

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