I was 16 years old and heading across the country looking for adventure with two of my friends in an old Plymouth. We were inspired by an old TV show about the Route 66 Our parents didn’t know we left until we need money to come back after the car broke down. We didn’t quite make it to Chicago, but discussed jumping a train if are our parents didn’t help out with money
So far you are just about right with regard to route 66. You might be interested to know that Old Route 66 can still be found between Victorville and the top of Cajon Pass. Not to be confused with Summit, Ca where Chard Walker worked Old Route 66, westbound (or from Barstow, Ca., ) left Victorville on what is now Seventh St., taking a right off of todays National Trails Hwy.. It ran out to what is now Hwy. 15, and headed south west directly toward Cajon Pass. The original route can still be found, as it is todays frontage road on the east side of the freeway. There are two roads used to get over Cajon Pass. The original or old road through Cajon Pass. The original road that ran down the mountain veered off to the left and then a quick right directly down the canyon on what is today's Cleghorn Road or Hwy 138. You can still drive it, although a dirt road, where you can still find some patches of black top. When they built Route 66, it took a different route. It went directly over the hill veering off to the right, following what is now the uphill section of the freeway. Originally a two lane highway and later expanded to a four lane, modern day freeway aka "Blood bath alley". Today there are just remnants left, that can be found along the old Route 66 and you can still drive over some of the original road, north east, from junction 138, on what appears to be forest service roads. I hope that helps.
You came up just a little short. Ah to be young and not worry about the obvious. I had a couple brothers who showed me what not to do, so I considered my options carefully. What luck, but there are no good stories from that. Rick, this explains the break in route 66 here and there. A few months ago I was dealing with SB county business and most of the stops were along route 66. Even though I did not have much time to take in the history I was rolling over it was interesting enough to motivate me to look further. One day I will take some time and look it all up.
It still was a great adventure I wouldn't have traded it for anything. Its something I’ve talked about my whole life. Even the trip back on the Greyhound Bus was an adventure although not so much fun paying back the folks, I’m so glad I went.
OK, I had to have some fun with Google maps there. So It looks like if you get off on 138 "eastbound" and head a few miles you come to summit valley rd and it intersects with the tracks right where line 1&2 meet up again after diverging at Cleghorn? I have to admit, I'm a lazy railfanner. The first time I went up there I downloaded a walk through of the various places to get off and I started at Devore, made it to Cleghorn, fell in love and never bothered to look further. Check that, I went through Hesperia and Victorville once. Anyway, the current google sat images are interesting. They appear to be taken about midway through tracklaying for track 3, because at some points there are clearly 4 mains including the cutoff, but some points it just looks like grading. Also, in the shots just west of Summit, there's a BNSF train, but also a UP train. Appears to be a stack train that has clearly just left BNSF rails and is up on the cutoff. So maybe those stack trains typically leave BNSF there now that UP owns the cutoff? Or was that maybe just to avoid the work areas on the pass? Actually, looking further, this was a busy day when they took these images, because the Palmdale cutoff has a UP train holding at Summit Valley Post Office Rd. That one must have come from Palmdale. http://g.co/maps/pcy44
