This series of photos comes from a very special trip I took in December of 2001. A friend of mine who is the director of a museum group invited me to ride BNSF's Christmas Special on its San Bernardino to Victorville run. The Southern California Division Christmas Special gives rides to underprivileged children who live in communities along BNSF lines in Southern California. On this run, kids from Victorville were given a round trip ride to Barstow and back, but since the train was based in San Bernardino, I rode it for its entire run. I was expecting a BNSF train with a couple of business cars, but it turned out to be a full-lenght passenger train complete with a diner, sleeping cars, and an end-platform observation car on the rear. Not only that, but the crew invited me to ride in the cab of a brand new DASH 9 from San Bernardino to Victorville, and sit in the conductor's seat the whole way! It was the trip of a lifetime, and something I will never forget, being able to see the fabled Cajon Pass as railroaders really see it. Enjoy the photos.
BNSF 5283 was just months out of the Erie erecting shop and all spiffed up with Christmas decorations for the special train. And yes, for those of you wondering, new locomotives do in fact have "new engine smell."
The banner stretched across the flank of 5283.
One of the sleeping cars in the consist foreshadows what is to come.
First shot up in the cab. We were sitting on one of the classification tracks in the yard in San Bernardino before departure.
Pulling out of San Bernardino we passed the engine facility. The blue and yellow unit is one of only 10 ex-ATSF GP40X units on the BNSF, a rare catch.
The old San Bernardino Amtrak and Metrolink station.
Heading out of San Bernardino and beginning the climb, we meet a westbound with a Warbonnet on the point. Notice that the trains are running "left hand style" as opposed to the normal right handed running. This is so that westbounds can attack the hill with the lesser ruling grade of 2.2% versus the steep 3% that eastbounds take going down grade. In Cajon terminology, westbounds usually take the "North Track" and eastbounds usually take the "South Track."
Following shortly behind the BNSF westbound was this westbound UP with SP units leading. Riding in the cab AND good trains going the other direction. I'm in heaven!
Here's one of Cajon's famous locations, Blue Cut, as the crew sees it.
