Here is another date nail from the next tie. You can tell better from this angle that the eight has a smaller upper loop so this view is upside down. One guy on the trip said he thought the Santa Fe had discontinued using date nails by 1989.
I have started an album where I am periodically adding photos from the trip. http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=2541
I've already visited your album and appreciate the pictures. You got to do something I've wanted to do but never had a chance. Keep the pictures coming and thanks for sharing them with us.
Someone sent these two photos to Patrick Henry, the owner of the two cars. My wife and I along with our friend Tom are on the back platform. View attachment photo 2.JPG
OK, it's fairly clear that your wife is wearing the white T-shirt, but are you wearing red or black? I'd guess black because you don't strike me as a "hat" man. BTW, that photo proves that no amount of planning replaces Dumb Luck....LOL
We saw a lot of folks taking pictures along the route down Cajon Pass. Could have been any one of them.
Here is one of the photos I just uploaded to my album. The depot at San Bernadino. http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/2541
Over 100 Boy Scouts and their leaders got on at La Junta and off at Raton where they loaded onto school buses for the trip to Philmont Scout Camp. This tradition may soon come to an end. http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/07/08/amtrak-train-service-philmont-jeopardy/
Sad. Maybe if Amtrak was run like a business..... I'm tempted to bet any money they are demanding just goes into a general fund, and is not dedicated to those places where it is literally almost extorted. In that linked article, some of service off support arguments read don't hold water. They're written, again and again, by people living on rumor, too lazy to do some research. (No wonder we are such a mess with folks too many like this amongst us.) The NEC comparison commenter is obviously ignorant of travel conditions in the SW. The BNSF stance is this being supposedly a cost saver, but it is not. They've poured all kinds of money into the Abo route, in the end spending more than saved by reducing their other route. And these expenses will only continue with rising traffic levels. There could easy, quickly come a day when the other line is desperately needed. Nor is anyone considering what will happen to Amtrak, if attempting to mix them into this other heavy trafficked route. Example- Look at the huge mess on the old GN "High-Line" up north. Didn't I just hear or read, within the last month, BNSF is looking at returning more use to the route in question?
However, by late morning when we were rolling into the LA basin, we joked that it was like a convection oven out on the platform. The hot air swirling around did not feel much like a cool breeze, even in the shade.
