Chasing Trains Along 66

A BNSF container train holds at the Amtrak platform beside the El Garces Harvey House in Needles, California. In its heyday El Garces was known as the Queen of the Harvey Houses, a stop on famous Santa Fe Railroad trains like the Super Chief, Grand Canyon, and El Capitan, with a restaurant, hotel, and waiting room. Nowadays it only serves one train in each direction nightly, the sole public facility a waiting room open for a few hours in the middle of the night.

Though the historic cantilever signals no longer control rail traffic on the historic Santa Fe Railroad mainline, this one has been placed overhanging Front Street in Needles, California as a reminder of the connected history of the railroad and Route 66. El Garces, built as a stop for the Santa Fe's famous passenger trains and later also serving Route 66 traffic, stands sandwiched between the railroad and Front Street, the early alignment of Route 66 in Needles. Nowadays it only serves one train in each direction nightly, the sole public facility a waiting room open for a few hours in the middle of the night.

A Chevrolet Volt and Tesla Model 3 glide by on the historic Arroyo Seco Parkway as a Metro L Line train passes overhead on the historic 1896 Santa Fe Railway trestle, the same rail line that 66 followed from New Mexico all the way to Los Angeles. Part of that line was converted to light rail around the turn of the millennium. The parkway, the first freeway in the western United States, opened in 1940 to bypass traffic-choked neighborhoods between Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles.

Union Pacific Big Boy 4014, Moonrise at Yermo (black and white version)

Union Pacific Big Boy 4014, Moonrise at Yermo

Union Pacific Big Boy 4014, Moonrise at Yermo

Union Pacific Big Boy 4014, Moonrise at Yermo

The Big Boy cools its wheels at Yermo after a hard day's work pulling the Rail Giants excursion alongside Route 66 through Cajon Pass. As the moon rises the UP Steam crew inspect and ready the locomotive for the next day's return trip to Colton.

Union Pacific Big Boy 4014, Moonrise at Yermo

The Big Boy cools its wheels at Yermo after a hard day's work pulling the Rail Giants excursion alongside Route 66 through Cajon Pass. As the moon rises the UP Steam crew inspect and ready the locomotive for the next day's return trip to Colton.

Union Pacific Big Boy 4014, Moonrise at Yermo (black and white version)

The Big Boy cools its wheels at Yermo after a hard day's work pulling the Rail Giants excursion alongside Route 66 through Cajon Pass. As the moon rises the UP Steam crew inspect and ready the locomotive for the next day's return trip to Colton.

Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 at Barstow Harvey House

Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 at Barstow Harvey House (black and white version)

Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 at Barstow Harvey House