BNSF Mojave Sub

[chuck geiger]

COMING SOON

[Cajonpassfan]

...to a tablet near you...

[davefoxx]

COMING SOON

[C855B]

Hmm. There is exactly one industry on that line - the Boron mine at Rio Tinto. There is a spur off the line at Edwards (AFB) main base, another to the old F-1 rocket engine test facility - both inactive (for years, maybe decades) and currently used for car storage. Otherwise that line is the prototype for plywood prairies everywhere.

What's your incentive, Chuck? Since you tend to model close to where you currently live, did you get a gig in Barstow? Or, heaven forbid, Mojave (my home town)?

[chuck geiger]

This!

[chuck geiger]

C855B - Love Mojave, even before Pelle. Looking at the Edwards Spur, the mine Spur with siding in Boron, Kramer Junction crossing on 395 and siding and runaround in Hinkley. Inspirations for this are
Deniz Dommez, Pelle Soeberg and Mike Komo. Using Ed and Caleb's texturing. No retiring in Juneau and moving into a house next year with a train room. So might do a 2x4 test and then around room.

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[jpwisc]

That area isn’t too far from Vegas. It is cool hanging out around Boron and getting buzzed by stealth bombers and B52s while railfanning.
If you modeled the Borax plant, it could keep you busy. That Local can be a fun one. Here are a couple shots I got of it backing down the spur.
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[C855B]

This!

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Pretty good capture of the region, although that particular style of bridge (a BLMA product, by the way, as were the signals) is used east of Barstow. Culverts are enough to handle the arroyos west to Mojave. I had to laugh at the tunnel - there are no tunnels on the ex-Santa Fe anywhere in the desert. Not even Cajon, at least not any more. (In fact, I'm really hard pressed to think of any tunnels at all, from Cajon all the way to Chicago. Somebody help me here.) UP had one at Cima, but it was bypassed in the '60s.

... It is cool hanging out around Boron and getting buzzed by stealth bombers and B52s while railfanning. ...

Yeah, and it was cool to fly out of Edwards, too. The one and only time I was allowed to have the yoke, I was way too preoccupied with keeping the damn nose up to see what was on the RR.   The guy who let me fly the Aero Commander for a few minutes had piloted one of our (NASA) YF-12As (a/k/a "SR-71") the day before. Working with and among test pilots was one hell of a memory; Edwards in the '60s and '70s was quite a ride.

Anyway, Chuck, I'll be keepin' you straight on this project. You're modeling "home".

[chuck geiger]

a stick of Beemans.

[jagged ben]

... (In fact, I'm really hard pressed to think of any tunnels at all, from Cajon all the way to Chicago. Somebody help me here.) ...

Apparently there's one near Seligman in a hard to reach place.

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/478513/

[C855B]

a stick of Beemans.

Before I was born. My father, who worked at NACA/NASA 1952-1979, knew Yeager from his later exploits in the X-1 program, taking the basic design to Mach 2.4.

[C855B]

Apparently there's one near Seligman in a hard to reach place.

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/478513/

Thanks - here's the satellite view:

https://goo.gl/maps/ADkmnDQdi222

[C855B]

That area isn’t too far from Vegas. It is cool hanging out around Boron and getting buzzed by stealth bombers and B52s while railfanning.
If you modeled the Borax plant, it could keep you busy. That Local can be a fun one. Here are a couple shots I got of it backing down the spur.

I was looking at the satellite view of the complex - there are a lot of tracks, everywhere. They have (or had) a very interesting plant switcher:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/23670/

[C855B]

One thing I noticed on my last trip out there were the signals. I thought to myself, "When did they start painting the signals tan?" It was a natural thought, since there was a short period in the early '70s when UP painted their signals and other lineside support structures in Southern California "bridge green", remarkably similar to Penn Central green. However, once ducking into a side road close enough to the tracks, I discovered the BNSF "tan" wasn't tan at all, it was a coating of desert dust on the silver.

It was roughly a dozen years ago, and these were the old searchlights on the line. They have since upgraded to the standard three-color heads on safety masts, so if you go fully "modern" you may probably not have to weather lineside equipment too much. A touch of dust would be appropriate, however. Thanks to the constant wind - turbines around Mojave, remember - the very fine sand gets into anything and everything.

[nkalanaga]

"the Boron mine at Rio Tinto"

Owned by Rio Tinto the international mining company?  Or just a coincidence?