Experiencing the Dining Car as It Use To Be

Train travel in the United States today is a far cry from what it once was. Only the long distance passenger trains have dining cars, and although the food is good and passengers are presented with a menu to choose from breakfast, lunch, and dinner much of the food comes semi-prepared. Dining on Amtrak is still a treat, and well worth experiencing both for its coolness factor and historical connection. Dining by rail though was once something completely different from what it is now. 

Back before the disintegration of the great passenger trains, dining by rail was something that helped distinguish one railway from another. Some railways even became famous for particular items on their dining car menus. Food on the dining car wasn't just sustenance to eat while the train sped along for many miles but instead it had become a gourmet dining experience that was on par with some of the larger cities finest gourmet eating establishments.

It wasn't always this way though dining cars really didn't come into fully functional service until around the time of World War I. Before then various food service  cars had been experimented with, railways tried everything from lunch cars to buffet cars to café cars, all of which came with varying results. Most of these experiments started back around the time of the transcontinental railway and lasted all the way through the late 19th century into the very early 20th century. For the most part though if passengers wanted to eat along the way in this time period it required passengers to deboard trains at towns where the locomotive was forced to stop to take on coal and water. One can only imagine the inconvenience of having to do such a thing especially with having to worry about weather or the possibility of missing ones train and/or meal. 

It was during this same period time that the Santa Fe Railway entered into an agreement with the Fred Harvey Company. The Fred Harvey Company would provide eating establishments at larger whistle stops for the Santa Fe and the Santa Fe would agree to extend the time it took take on coal and water for their trains so that customers could have a leisurely meal at one of Harvey's restaurants. These restaurants became known as Harvey Houses, and I will take a deeper look at some Harvey Houses in postings to come. But Harvey Houses did something else they gave passengers a quality meal that was stress-free since Harvey Houses were located close to the Santa Fe tracks, the food was prepared in conjunction with trains that where stopped over, and managers would often wonder the Harvey House dining rooms notifying passengers of departing trains.

As a decades wore on locomotive's became more technically advanced which required them to stop less for coal and water. Eventually locomotives only had to make longer stops at larger cities meaning many of the whistle stops where they had previously allowed passengers to the leave the train in order get a meal where now totally bypassed as the train passed through them at high speed. For the railways it was time to finally have onboard dining facilities. By the 1910's advancements in onboard cooking, and refrigeration finally gave the railways the chance to produce effective dining cars. By the 1930s dining cars were at their peak, and so to was each railways need to brag that it had the best food. To say the least the battle between the railways for the best dining car would carry-on for 30 more years finally culminating in the 1960s with the Santa Fe Super Chiefs Turquoise Room, a special five-star dining room located in the Super Chiefs dining car and known for attracting the glitz and glamour of movie stars and other famous people of the era. 

By the 1970s the railways, specifically the passenger lines would go into to decline and many of them would disappear from memory. However memories of the wonderful food on their dining cars still remain and some have dedicated themselves to maintaining the memory of this food.

The books above James D Porterfield's Dining By Rail, and George H Foster and Peter C Weiglen's The Harvey House Cookbook are two great books commemorating the railway dining experience.

Dining By Rail functions as both a great history book and cookbook. Porterfield gets in-depth with the evolution of dining cars on various railways and then also manages to get in depth with how the various railways came about designing some other most famous menu options. Porterfield carefully brings together some brief histories and recipes from over 40 different railways. One of my favorite parts of this book is when Porterfield mentions the great French Toast Battle in which the Northern Pacific, Soo Line, Union Pacific, Santa Fe, and Pennsylvania railways try to compete for the best French Toast recipe, and you can find the French Toast recipe for each of these railways right here in this book.  There are hundreds of other excellent recipes from the railway dining cars listed in this book as well as a lot of great insight into life in the dining car. It's well worth the read in these recipes are definitely worth trying at home if you want to get a taste of how high-quality the food was I many of these dining cars.

The Harvey House Cookbook is another fantastic book to add to the overall experience of dining by rail. The book is dedicated to Harvey Houses, but is intermixed with recipes from various Santa Fe passenger trains. This is another fantastic book for gaining both historical insight into the operations of Harvey Houses and Santa Fe passenger trains and for just getting overall taste of what it must been like to actually have eaten at these places during their heyday. The book covers some of Fred Harvey's most notable resorts like the La Posada in Winslow, AZ, and the La Fonda in Santa Fe, NM, as well as some of it's other operations like Los Angeles, and Chicago Union Stations, and Chicago's Midway Airport. This book has a fantastic layout in which the historical text is in between the recipe sections which are themselves laid out by meal segments. All though this book isn't as in depth with Harvey House history as some other books it is a fantastic and should I say hands on or taste buds on introduction to Harvey House's which is extremely unique for any book on this subject. The book also allows us to see how dining cars where developed by giving us a peek into the period in which rail travel dining transferred from Harvey Houses to actual dining cars since some recipes in this book come from the California Limited, Santa Fe's precursor to the Chief and Super Chief, and the first of their trains to present onboard dining in a first class manor.

I must own 2 dozen books on the Santa Fe, but of all of them these two are the only ones that give me a real feel for what it must have been like to have been there, and put this piece of history in such human terms through a connection to food.

Christmas Memories of the Warbonnet Livery

Electric trains and Christmas Trees have been a normal pairing for over a hundred years now. So when sitting under my tree last night with my two sons watching the train go around it hit me that the Santa Fe Warbonnet livery must appear under more Christmas Trees then Bing Crosby's White Christmas is played on FM radio stations during Christmas time. 

The Warbonnet livery of red and silver, is the same livery that graced Santa Fe's diesel motive power in front of its great passenger trains like the Super Chief, El Capitan, and many others in Santa Fe's passenger fleet. For the past 60+ years though the Warbonnet livery has also graced electric trains staring with Lionel's  Santa Fe F-3 in 1948. This particular unit by Lionel would become iconic not only for Lionel, but Santa Fe, and the hobby of electric trains in general. 

Even though the Warbonnet livery hasn't been used in front of a passenger train since 1971, Santa Fe has used it from time to time on their modern freight locomotives. Before the BNSF merger and the appearence of the "Pumpkin" livery Santa Fe was using the old Warbonnet on such locomotives as the Dash 9, and SD-70. Although I haven't seen any ACE's or AC's in the Warbonnet livery supposedly BNSF has a few as part of a "Heritage" series today. 

In the realm of electric trains though the Warbonnet livery is alive and well. The set under my tree is a Lionel El Capitan set from 2008, Lionel re-released this set in 2012 as it's Super-Chief set alought both sets are identical. But leaving the comfort of Lionel, we see other manufactures making and selling Warbonnet sets, by the bushel full over the years. The livery can be found on locomotives from Z to G Scale, in a wide range of sets. In a quick review of a Christmas ad from a local hobby shop for instance I was able to find a Bachman N and HO set both featuring Warbonnets, the Lionel Super Chief set I spoke about, and a loose Alco in Warbonnet livery by USA Trains in G scale. Of course these are just a few of the more well known manfacturers, and excludes others out making trains in the Warbonnet livery like MTH, Atlas, LGB, Marklin, and K-line all examples of modern manufacturers.

So 60+ years and a myriad of toy train manufacturers translates into a lot of trains made in the iconic Santa Fe Warbonnet livery. Which if you do the math of trains and Christmas Trees means there are a lot of these trains making the evergreen circle right now.

With that said I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!!! 

Dag Nabbit

A few weeks back I had the privilege of guest blogging for The Boron Sun. The piece I wrote was about the 1940 film 20 Mule Team, a forgetten film I had seen some years back, and that had some relevance to the town of Boron's history. In the process of doing research on the film, so I could dot all my I's and cross all my T's, I discovered the film was actually suppose to be set in the town of Dagget, CA. 

Now, being a Route 66 and Santa Fe Railway enthusiast and amateur historian my mind suddenly clicked in with the question, "Dagget? Isn't that a town off 66?", 30 seconds later and with the help of Google maps I had my answer. Yes,  Dagget is off of old 66 directly East of Barstow, and Santa Fe's Super Chief and all it's other famous liners ran through it. Then I began to see Dagget in my mind with its hodgepodge of desert abodes, and it's creepy looking experimental solar power plant with that weird tower. If you didn't know any better you would mistake Dagget for being nothing more then Barstows outskirts which in all reality it is.

 

In the process of doing my research though I actually found some information about the town that was somewhat astonishing. Turns out Dagget at one time was very much the place to be, and a lucrative one at that. This small now nearly forgotten town was a hub for silver and boron mining in the 1880's and believe it or not it is actually the latter element and not the former that bought the town most of its wealth. 

But, if your like me your asking yourself, "If Dagget is so close to Barstow, then why wasn't Barstow the center for these operations?". I have a few theory's on this. 

One is that Santa Fe wanted Barstow to have a certain image. You see Barstow was the railways town it was even named it after a Santa Fe president. So I believe  Santa Fe wanted it to be a place where railway workers could live and raise families, with the whole churches, schools and civilization in the West thing. 

Another theory which may also go hand in hand with the first, is that Barstow had a Harvey House, which fed and accomodated tourists. So Santa Fe wanted a town that showed the West and cross country train travel in the best light possible. They wanted an image that mirrored Harvey Houses, that where clean and genteel with their fine linens, top quality food, first class accommodations and pretty young waitresses in black dresses with immaculate white aprons. 

So more then likely hoping to suit either or both of the above theories, Santa Fe (AT&SF) Couldn't have the goings on of a mining town in Barstow.  So Santa Fe decided to keep all of the mining based business of mining towns and what came with them slightly off site in Dagget. This also kept mining trains out of Santa Fe's crowded yards for loading and unloading of mine inputs and outputs. 

When comes to Dagget though you have to realize that it was actually Calico, a town to the North of Dagget where most of the silver mines and a few borate mines where. But Calico was not serviced by any major rail links, meaning silver was transported to Dagget for rail shipment, and in the process a lot of money exchange hands in this town making it a boomtown. But, at the same time borates where almost as lucrative, since borates much like now days had many uses and attracted many buyers. Boron of course had to be mined in Death Valley, and was carried into Dagget via the famous "20 Mule Team". But the 20 Mule Team's where slow, and could only carry so much, and it was only a matter of time till a railway the Borate and Dagget, was established as a spur line to carry borates out of Death Valley and into Dagget as the name implies. 

The Borate and Dagget Railway became highly lucrative and spurred the creation of the Pacific Borax Corporation, later called US Borax, maker of the famed Boraxo soap product and a modern miner and distributor of borates. But Pacific Borax would eventually move to Mojave, California 78 miles to the West, due to the fact that it served both Santa Fe and Southern Pacific trains and lines to San Francisco and Los Angeles could be easily served in one spot. 

Daggets mining heyday would finally come to an end around 1900, when Calico and would see the last of its mines for both boron and silver play out. But Dagget wouldn't go through a major decline though until after World War 2 thanks in part to both the Santa Fe Railway and Route 66 running through it. 

The town would also see a lot of traffic from Route 66. This also helped associate Dagget with one of Route 66's most famous movies derived from one of its most famous literary works. The film version of Grapes of Wrath would be filmed on Route 66 in Dagget in 1940 coincidentally the same year 20 Mule Team was made about Dagget but not filmed there. 

More then likely Daggets final decline happened after I-40 moved traffic south of town. Meaning Dagget was another victim of the Route 66's decommissioning. 

Today there isn't much to see in Dagget and there is not even a sign it was a mining hub a 100 years ago. But you can still see Santa Fe's BNSF descendent's running through town regularly, and watch tourist take sections of old Route 66 though town. 

Finding the Descendent's of the Super Chief, under Route 66

The time is 8:06 AM on a balmy late August day in Chicago's West Loop. The sun is out and the sky's are blue, but the humid overnight heat bought Lake Michigan inland in the form of fog, enshrouding anything above the 35th floor of the Willis Tower. Looking down on Jackson Blvd one can see hundreds of people moving like ants over the bridge rushing to get to work by 8:30. 

Odds are that most of those rushing down Jackson and over the bridge have no concept of the historical significance of the street they are walking down let alone, what lies below street level on the West Loop side of the bridge. In 1926 Jackson Blvd was Route 66, both eastbound and westbound until 1955 when it became one way from Michigan Ave to Ogden Ave. The foot bound commuters are traveling on the first few miles of the the famous route, with no realization that that it had westbound lanes leading all the way to Santa Monica, CA. 

Eastbound Jackson Blvd (left), and Union Station southbound train sheds (right).

Below this portion of Jackson Blvd from Canal to the river bank lay the tracks of Metra and Amtrak feeding into Union Station. The only parts that are visible to street bound travelers are the train sheds, large greenhouse looking corridors, that cover the southbound track. Historic survivors in themselves witnesses to the Alton Limited, and Pennsylvania's T-1, somehow spared the air rights glut of the 70's and 80's. Under these sheds Metra operates two lines with significant connection to the Santa Fe passenger operations that once where. 

The most important of these is a line that runs from Union Station to Aurora. For you see this mere 40+ miles of track is the home to Santa Fe's now BNSF's last surviving passenger trains. 

View from inside the locomotive, notice the BNSF lettering above the passenger car door, reminiscent of the Santa Fe lettering on silver cars indicative of Santa Fe's Super Chief, and other passenger trains. 

BNSF operates these passenger trains for Metra, meaning you won't see any Warbonnet F40PHM's pulling these trains. Instead you will see Metra locomotives pulling them.

I had the privilege of riding in the cab of this locomotive from Chicago to Aurora and back. Metra F40PHM-2. 

These passenger trains are the last operating with any direct connection and lineage to Santa Fe. BNSF takes pride in this as you can see since the lettering on the passenger cars gives a close resemblance to what we would have been seen on both Santa Fe and CB&Q passenger cars of the past. Looking at these passenger cars one is reminded of the high-liners Santa Fe operated on such trains as the El Capitan, but inside they are standard commuter cars like those on the rest of the Metra system. 

Metra also operates one other line of significant lineage as well, that is its Heritage Corridor. This line is entirely operated by Metra but leaves from the same southbound tracks as the BNSF operated trains. The Heritage Corridor is aptly named and travels down the same tracks as the famous Santa Fe streamlines did, and also crosses paths with Route 66 a few times. The line runs to the Route 66 town of Joliet. 

Historically speaking Santa Fe's trains would leave southbound out of Dearborn Station, which is actually across the Chicago River a mile to the southwest of Union Station, there are no tracks going to Dearborn Station now. Riding on and experiencing these trains is something any fan of Santa Fe's trains need to do, to have some final connection the past. 

Boron a Town of Ghosts & Legacy's: Part 3 - Sky-borne Odyssey

Part 3 of a series on a small Mojave Desert town that witnessed American transportation history in motion.

Authors Note: Boron's involvement in military and space avaition history is extensive. My summary here does no justice to its level of involvement, and I must keep my summery concise to stay within the content and theme of my blog. For more in depth subject matter please visit the Boron Sun blog @  http://theboronsun.blogspot.com/ .

The day was October 14th, 1947 and the long slender silver shape of a B-29 took to the clear blue sky's over Rogers Dry Lake. Today though the bottom of the Boeing masterpiece would be disrupted by the shape of an odd orange missile protruding from its bomb bay.  The B-29 climbed to 45,000 feet, and once level the orange missile known as the Bell X-1 suddenly dropped from the bottom of the B-29 at 1019 hours military local, igniting its four rocket engines. 

The rocket plane shot past its escorting P-80 Shooting Stars sent to chase and observe it. At 1024 hours military local, 10:24 AM Pacific to the rest of us, a huge boom shook the land, rattling in some accounts shattering glass in the town of Amargo, CA now known as Boron. The orange missile, or the .50 caliber bullet with wings, known as the Bell X-1 piloted by the legendary ace Chuck Yeager had broken the sound barrier in straight and level flight. 

Amargo then, known as Boron today was a hotbed of activity in the world of aviation even before Yeager's historic 1947 flight. Not far from the town was the ranch, turned bar and hotel of avaition legend Poncho Barnes. Poncho's "Happy Bottom Riding Club", had become a major destination in the world of early avaition. Aviation pioneers and celebrities alike would fly into the ranch’s private airstrip also known as the Rancho Oro Verde Fly-Inn Dude Ranch, to mingle and drink, and swim in the ranch’s unusual swimming pools. It wouldn’t have been unusual to see Howard Hughes here rubbing elbows with the likes of Randolph Scott, Myrna Loy, and other notables of the time in those days before the war. Even after the war started the celebrities still stopped in but the bar had also become a destination for pilots in training from Muroc Army Air Base (as Edwards AFB was known at the time) or one of the many other military and private aviation schools in the Antelope Valley at the time.

  

The link below is a great website known as Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields that can show you the location of many lost WW II training fields, and reserve bases in the Antelope Valley.

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA.htm

 

The bar was known for its pictures of aviators that served as a memorial for many of those killed while trying to tame the sky’s, above the Antelope Valley, most of them test pilots. One of the pictures of recollection was of America’s highest scoring ace of all time Richard Bong, a P-38 pilot with 40 kills in the Pacific, killed while test piloting early versions of Lockheed’s P-80.

 

Ruins of Ponchos today. 

Eventually controversy would catch up with the club, and the “Happy Bottom” would be closed after a mysterious fire destroyed the bar in 1953. But the bar would become the stuff of legend, especially after Tom Wolfe’s 1979 novel, and 1983 film adaptation of “The Right Stuff” in which Wolfe captured Barnes personality, and the bar. Wolfe also gave notoriety to Poncho’s famous steak dinner the prize to the first man to break the sound barrier, something that dispite much of the book and films mythos actually was true and was awarded to Chuck Yeager, plus I’m sure he was bought plenty of drinks from that time on as well. Sadly though, not much remains of the bar and hotel today, and it takes special permission from Edwards AFB to access the area.

 

 

Poncho would live out the rest of life in Boron, finally passing on in 1975 from Breast Cancer. Although there are several rumors that the death had some usual and even mysterious circumstances to it, one could say Poncho even in death, was larger than life.

 

 

Today in Boron, Domingo’s Mexican Restaurant is the modern day equivalent to Poncho’s, but a little more refined and family friendly. Test pilots old and new dine here after a big flight, and shuttle Astronauts would dine here after landing at Edwards. Meaning Boron is keeping the spirit of aviation alive, even if its foremost ambassador Poncho Barnes is long gone. Once again Boron legacy’s comes to light, too bad the free steak dinner tradition isn't part of that though.

 

The Saxon Aerospace Museum in Boron is open to the public and is wonderfully family friendly. If you want to spend some time investigating Boron’s rich aviation history this is the place to do it.  The museum gives you a great look at Muroc and Edwards operations, and unlike the museum on Edwards you don’t need to request special access to visit.

Here is their website: http://www.saxonaerospacemuseum.com/Saxon/home

 

There are even more stories to tell about the sky’s above Boron, like the story of the XB-35 and XB-49 grandparents of today's B-2 Spirit bomber. The XB-49 would crash under dubious circumstances on June 5, 1948 killing test pilots Major Daniel Forbes, and Captain Glen Edwards, Muroc Air Force base would have its name changed to Edwards Air Force Base in honor of Capt. Edwards, and Forbes too would have an airbase named after him in Kansas.

 

 

There are stories here about astronauts from Mercury program all the way to the ISS. Stories of X-planes such as the fastest manned aircraft ever the X-15 blazing through the sky’s above the town. Stories of Neil Armstrong piloting the “Flying Bedstand” a terrestrial simulator for the Luner Excursion Module, that Armstrong ejected from moments before it crashed. Even now the stories still come as new and fantastic aircraft race above Boron’s sky’s, like Spaceship One, the X-43, X-48, and a wide range of UAV’s.

 

Visiting the town, all one needs to do is look around to get the feel and sense of history this town has, especially its place in aviation and the space race. On a nearby mountain southwest of the town there is “Rocket Site” a NASA rocket test stand that you can see from Boron, and occasionally you can see rockets being tested up there. To the northeast of the town on another hill is former radar facility used to track X-planes, and other experimental aircraft in the past, it was known as Boron Air Force Station. West of town you will find Desert Lake Apartments, this structure was originally built to accommodate members of the 750th Aircraft Control Squadron, but after housing was built near the radar dome the apartment complex was sold to private owners who turned it into a motel and apartment complex.

Boron has a very unique feel to it, but as the article title indicates it’s a place of ghosts and legacies. When it comes to aviation you can still sense that 1950’s and 1960’s ideal of the future to come, the optimism of the “Space Age”, this is a ghost that lingers, sometimes hit home by both relics and active aviation sites nearby. But its legacy continues on above in its sky’s.

The Santa Fe Railway at Edwards Air Force Base

 

As we now combine Route 466, Santa Fe streamliners such as the San Francisco Chief, and this deep connection to aviation history, and compare it to California 58, BNSF's Bakersfield District operations, and the X-43 zooming above it all we see Boron’s legacy and life that still streams from it. The very fact that a small relatively obscure town could become so intricately involved in key transportation routes past, present and very possibly future is almost mind boggling, and yet it happened.

 

If you are a rail fan (or Foamers in rail speak) of the Santa Fe, a Route 66 aficionado, or a military aviation buff I would definitely suggest visiting Boron for a day. For those of you chasing the Santa Fe or Route 66 Boron is only 40 miles west of Barstow a town any Santa Fe rail fan, or Route 66er will be in anyway just follow California Route 58 west out of Barstow, and  be sure to stop and see one of the last signed portions of Route 466 north of Barstow. If you’re a military aviation buff Boron can be found on the map near California Highway 58 directly northeast of Edwards AFB.

Winslow, Arizona - Transportation Hub of the Western U.S.?

When you hear Winslow, Arizona it is very hard to not hear the song "Take it Easy" by the Eagles running through your head. If your anything like me you imagine them referring to some tiny desert town, with a few houses and stores, and tumbleweed blowing down the street. When you actually see Winslow though you find it's a lot different then you had expected. 

Winslow has the honor of not only being a Route 66 town, but also the district headquarters of the Santa Fe, now BNSF. This meant that Winslow was not only visited by Route 66 travelers, but had such iconic Santa Fe trains as The Super Chief, and El Capitan pass through daily. One could only imagine that in the 1940's through early 60's between Route 66 and the daily precession of Santa Fe passenger trains, Winslow was a busseling travel mecca. 

But did you know Winslow also has passenger aviation history as well? This fact was bought to public intetest thanks to a traveling exhibit that the Smithsonian, in conjunction with the Winslow Old Trails Museum, and La Posada Hotel, bought to Winslow last week as part of its "Journey Stories" tour. One of the exhibits and lectures made the world  aware of this forgotten part of Winslow's and avaitions history. The TAT or Transcontinental Air Transport airline came to being in 1928, flying its first flights in 1929 offering a hybrid of air and rail transport to deliver passengers from New York to LA or San Francisco in 48 hours. 

Winslow was a fueling stop on the second air leg of the westbound trip. But by no means was Winslow nothing more then a runway and a fuel tank. The airport itself was state of the art at the time designed by Charles Lindbergh, giving the airport part of its name Winslow-Lindbergh. 

Sadly, the TAT was short lived and after an accident a few months after the first flights TAT was forced to emerge with other airlines that would eventually became TWA. By the mid-1930's non-stop passenger travel also became more prevalent, especially with the development of the sturdy DC-3 by Douglas in the late 1930's. This meant that Winslow not being a major city was bypassed by most major airlines, however the airport lived on serving the military in World War 2 as a USAAF Transport base. The airport still serves general aviation, US Forest Service fire planes, and occasionally some military. 

It's interesting to note that between Route 66, Santa Fe's operations, and the potential of the TAT Winslow was in fact a Western travel hub in 1929. I would have to suggest definitely spending time in Winslow if you can, make sure to stop by and see the Old Trails Museum, and the La Posada which is worth staying and/or eating at. I would have to suggest seeing both since you can learn all about Winslows place in transportation history from both places,since they work hand and hand with each other to present a complete picture. If you in to train watching or your kids are, Winslow has a lot to offer as well. 

 TAT Ford Tri-motor flown by Charles Lindbergh. 

I'll cover the TAT more in future blog postings

Boron a Town of Ghosts & Legacy's: Part 1 - Legacy of The Chief

A small Mojave Desert town witnesses the legacy of American transportation history. 

40 miles West of Barstow is the town of Boron, CA. In late summer through early fall the nights are beautiful. The temps stay in about the mid-70's, the gentle desert breeze creates music in the windchimes, and there are no Mosquitos for several hundred miles. The nights are perfect for sitting outside and having a great conversation over a few glasses of wine, or just gazing at the stars. 

The only thing that interupts these quiet nights are the sounds of BNSF frieght trains pushing through town a few times an hour. After a while even that becomes part of that ambient environment, and the rumble of trains seem natural and missed  after they pass. 

From the porch of my wife's childhood home, one can look accross a 1/2 mile of desert and see the trains pass. Sometimes as you sit there, especially at night, your imagination allows you to hear what these tracks where 60 plus years before as steam locomotives made their way down these stretches. You can hear the whistles blow, and the chuffs of steam, and see the glow of the fireboxes in the still desert night. You can imagine the outline of a 2-10-4 Texas, pulling an endless stream of box cars in your minds eye. 

You see as middle of nowhere and as far from civilization and history this little desert town may seem, the town itself has many stories to tell. This little nowhere town has a history that in many ways should make it well known, yet it lies forgotten. You see in Boron, the roads, the tracks, and the sky all have a story to tell. Boron is a town of ghosts and legacy's in 20th century American history. 

The tracks running through Boron have a particularly captivating history. Currently these tracks serve a very busy BNSF route between the Barstow Yards and the Bay Area, as well as serving a lively spur to US Borax mining operations nearby. But the interesting facts about these tracks is that until 1971 these tracks saw Santa Fe passenger operations. 

Such trains as the San Francisco Chief, The Navajo, and The Grand Canyon all traveled this route on their way North through the Tehachapis and on to the San Francisco Bay Area. I can only imagine what it must have been like to pass through the tunnels and grades of thr Tehachapi mountains, and than the famous Tehachapi Loop as a passenger on one of these trains. 

Although the bulk of Santa Fe's passenger trains headed to Los Angeles, Santa Fe knew that the San Francisco market was competitive, and lucrative. Passenger service to San Francisco gave Santa Fe access to the surrounding cities of the Bay Area and Northern California beyond. The San Francisco Chief was Santa Fe's luxury answer to the City of San Francisco a luxury liner jointly opetated by the Union Pacific, Chicago Northwestern  and Southern Pacific, and the jointly operated California Zypher shared between the CB&Q, Western Pacific, and D&RG. Santa Fe was obviously hoping the brand value of The Super Chief would carry over to the name on the San Francisco Chief when the luanched the service in 1954, which obviously it did since the train discontinued service in 1971 with all other Santa Fe passenger operations.

The Navajo was meant to serve a similar role as the El Capitan did on the Los Angeles route as an all coach consist, and The Grand Canyon was to serve a mixed consist aimed at Grand Canyon tourism and the Santa Fe/Fred Harvey operations nearby. 

As in the cases of most passenger trains the town of Boron probably saw each of these trains twice a day, one Eastbound, the other Westbound. I try to imagine what it must have been like for this small town to see the Warbonnet livery, and gleaming consist of silver stainless steel passenger cars flying through the town. You have to ask what stories could be told, and if and when the trains made flag-stops to pick up town residents. 

I could only imagine what a thrill it would have been to stand on the porch of my wife's childhood home, or from the patio of Domingo's Restaurant in town and see these trains go by. To see the desert sun shining off the cars and thier windows, and watching the train disappear accross the flat desert beyond. 

To its residents of Boron the mere fact that these silver luxury liners passed through town every day must have made them feel like the center of the world at that time. Today though there are no reminders of that era, no connection to those gleaming daily visitors. What are left behind are the ghosts of Santa Fe's passenger train heydays, and the legacy of its operations in today's BNSF traffic through the town. 

But remember I said the roads and sky had a story to tell here too, and I will tell them in postings to come.