Changing of the guard I
love the desert. You find the most fascinating things out there. One of them is the Trona Rail- way. In the middle of the Searles Valley, about 170 miles northeast of Los Angeles and way, way off the beaten track. A while back, if you were lucky, and patient, and brought a hat, sun cream and lots of water, you
could find rare beasts of burden out there: Baldwin center-cab and road-switcher locomotives. If you could sneak up on them when they were working, you could photograph them in their environ- ment, shuffling hopper cars and readying trains to take 30-odd miles down to the Southern Pacific, now Union Pacific, interchange at a wide-spot called Searles. For many years, the Baldwins were predominately black with silver ends. Then, as they got older, some of them–the road-switchers in particular–shed their colors and became silver with red ends. Like all things rare, however, in the 1990’s their time was up. Like so many other species that have disappeared through time, the Baldwins were doomed. Not by nature, not by catastrophe, but by EMD road-switchers. Known as SD45-2’s, the new red locomotives with a silver band across their bodies devoured the Baldwins and cast them aside. These new locomotives had varied ancestries, coming from bigger railroads that discarded them when still newer locomotives came along. Rebuilt, remanufacturered, reconditioned, whatever you want to call it, they were put back together better than new and invaded the Trona Railway. For a brief time, however, the old Baldwins and the new EMD's worked side-by-side. It was a rare sight, this changing of the guard. The Baldwins, despite being lovingly cared for, were tired, and parts, now that their manufacturer was out of business, were getting harder, and more ex- pensive to find.
Not so for the EMD’s, which were more powerful, with parts and service manuals easily available anywhere. Perhaps this tale of transition can be compared to shoving aside the old, faithful, steam locomotive by the new first-generation diesel locomotive. There was sentiment by all who made a living with steam, but the new beasts of burden were more comfortable to ride in, could pull longer and harder, and in general, made everything so much easier. So it was, like prototypes and models everywhere, that brief moment of transition allowed those
who ventured out into the desert to witness both the old and the new together for a brief moment in time. You may not be able to get out to the desert, but you can see this transition everywhere– not just in railroading. Gone now are new Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs; airlines like Western, and Eastern; and railroads named Western Pacific, and Baltimore & Ohio. Only things like Howard Johnson’s and McDonald’s seem to go on forever. However, in your world, on your model layout, in your mind, the only things that have to change are the ones you want to change. You, as a modeler, have the unique ability to form time and space into whatever you wish it to be. Mainline steam can live together with new SD70ACe’s, electric Class 1 freight railroads using box cab locomotives getting their power from overhead catenary can comfortably live side-by-side with high-speed rail projects and Airbus A380’s. And if anyone chal- lenges us, and tells us that we are dreamers who prefer the world as we want it to be rather than it is, we don’t have to explain. Because we know the truth. We have been to Sherman Hill and watched Union Pacific Challengers and Northerns. We have been to the museums that dot the coun- try to keep alive what we know reality can be. And, we have been to the desert and have seen the Baldwins of Trona.
Nobody can argue with that. DAVID LUSTIG
photography/DAVID LUSTIG 40 JULY 2013
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