A Day With The Lone Pine Local

[@philiphall2675]

Don't worry about talking to yourself. It's when you argue with yourself and lose that you have a problem!

[@louGriggs1944]

Very interesting and informative. Thank you.

[@robvanderhyde823]

I drove up and down 395 while in my 20's and was always curious about the Lone Pine branch. Thanks for the video!

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

My pleasure! Thanks for checking it out!

[@anthonygermano9363]

That sure is some good looking track. Very nice video, Thank You.

[@wrangler70jkujeep74]

Wow this be awesome place great spots catch great UP in action photos. And do videos.

[@darreneverywhere]

I just stumbled on your channel as I have recently taken an interest in the historic railroads of the Mojave Desert. Looking forward to binge watching all of your stuff. Thank you!

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

Welcome to the fun!

[@jerryscott8608]

I guess I asked about Lone Pine too soon. When I worked on the Sequoia National Forest I would pull a crew trailer from Porterville over Warner Pass to Nine Mile and up to Black Rock, an all day deal. The cool thing about fire camp in Lone Pine was seeing the morning sun on Mt. Whitney.

[@likesanddislikesetc]

Locals are the real backbone of the railroad. They are the ones that switch the businesses along each subdivision and bring the cars to the yard. I was a mainly a thru freight conductor; I worked locals a very small amount. I found being a thru freight conductor was easier than being on a local.

[@ATSFSuperChief]

Never knew exactly where the Trona interchanged with the UP, now I know and feel a little smarter. Thanks MARK!

[@rrelectric5159]

Nice video. Cool to hear that you got some friendly honks from the engine.

[@jcure]

Mark's, got his giggly on! Lone Pine branch is my railroad so hadda watch. Appreciate ya capturing the acid and other tanks on end of the train. Hoppers are mostly Soda Ash and associated dry chemicals.

[@marlacunningham1526]

I grew up on the Mojave desert. And, enjoy your videos! You give a lot of information, I had no idea ever existed! Thank you…

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

I'm glad I could help expand your knowledge of the dez! Thanks for checking it out!

[@averageguy7136]

I really enjoyed the working tour of the lone pine branch. Thanks for filming this!

[@brianhickey5949]

Fascinating - we don't get to see yard work building a consist much. So this is cool :) One heck of nice lashup for sure! Tunnel 29 is kind of intimidating I would think :)

[@alexschmollinger6576]

I remember seeing SP SD40T-2's in the 1990s pulling a Train on the Lone Pine Branch as a young kind with my late Dad Steve Schmollinger

[@johncamp2567]

That was fun! Thanks for taking us along on your exploration! I had wondered about this branch…you gave a great sense of the grades and distances. Spectacular scenery…. I liked seeing the lines of covered hoppers parked in the distance, below the mountains. This was a very interesting video…I enjoy your work!! 👍

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

Thank you for checking it out and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@bob-bf3ru]

Great Video

[@rant1200]

Great videos from the desert.

[@rolfoliversen5821]

I was hoping the engineer would wave you over and give you a taste of inside the cab. May be sometime. Good luck and keep on. Sincerely

[@cdiddles.]

Great to see that UP still uses some of the older road power on those locals. Nice hornshows from the crew as well. Keep the vids coming!

[@pauljaronsik5112]

I have one word for the warm weather - Florida! LOL

[@StormySkyRailProductions]

Awesome footage and catch of the UP local.

[@quintinivey9359]

Big power for this local. And welded rail.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

They laid the ribbon rail back in the late 80s

[@basilorloff1237]

Nice!!!

[@PaulA-yh7kr]

Thanks for the trip they are all good Paul

[@roncross1945]

I thoroughly enjoyed this video. I lived in Victorville, California for almost 20 years, drove 395 and highway 14 so many times. I had no idea there were tunnels on that railroad. As a sidelight, I have hiked all of the PCT from Horseshoe Meadows south to 30 trail miles north of highway 58. So it’s fun to try to pick out mountain peaks in the distance as the train goes by.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for checking it out!

[@dmorgan28]

Mark this was another awesome video as usual. You made some pretty cool shots. Really did enjoy it. 👍👍👍❤️

[@garykcs5532]

Great catch Mark, I used to live in Lancaster, went to majove and the loop many times but never had a chance to follow the line pine local, thanks for the great information... Gary

[@Billwis52]

I actually worked for Halcon up in NW Washington shuttling BNSF personal around sometimes in Canada!

[@proudfoamer2]

All that wide open beautiful space, we got to get mark a drone.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

I have one. I just haven't had time to learn how to use it!

[@pacset2]

You should have hit them up for a ride along 👍

[@laspiedrasrailroad]

Love me some LP action, way cool back in the SP days.

[@annahogsett3967]

that was fun to see!!

[@johnmeadows5645]

I spent some time up at Trona once, i can still smell it to this day.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

I hear this all the time, but we have friends who live there and we visit regularly and I've never noticed the odors so many speak of. Maybe it was worse back in the day. Here's the link to a video I did around Trona. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kF6lio2NrKikebM

[@JohnTalbot-k6xi]

Didn't know about the transfer yard or the tunnel ... fuel tank cars were empties / two in the lead were pressurized liquid Propane

[@kmcc01]

Mr. McGowan, I know you did a video history on the S.P.'s East Side line, have you done a history on the West Side line that ran from Fresno to Tracy?

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

I haven't, but I have thought about it. I've studied its history, but have only been to a couple of places along the former line.

[@kmcc01]

O.K., thanks. I haven't seen one but just wanted to make sure.

[@johnwinden8511]

Hi Mark, what is All con? (sp?) Is that a contractor brought in to do switching? A lot different country there than we have here in the Pacific Northwest. Thanks!

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

It's a contractor that hauls crews and switchmen around, like if a crew goes on the hours away from a terminal, or if a train is parked somewhere. In this case, they haul the switchman around the yard, then out to Searles, he just has to get out and throw the switches.

[@johnconnolly6011]

Mr. Personality

[@jerryscott8608]

I always talk to myself, nobody else will listen. I fought fire out of Lone Pine, California, but that's a long way from Mojave. where is this Lone Pine?

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

It's the same place. It was just a very long branch line. About 200 miles. It only goes as far as Searles now

[@bobandbarbkozminski1578]

Hi Mark, I really like your videos! We noticed that most of the railroad cars do not have graffiti on them. Why is that?

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

My guess is these cars don't sit in yards or industries where there are many people. It's a pretty remote operation

[@alexschmollinger6576]

I have a idea why don't you do a Video of the Union Pacific/ BNSF Jct at the End of Mojave California where the BNSF comes onto the Union Pacific at Mojave California

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

I did one early in my channel history but it was just trains going through. I'll do one about how the interlocking works in the future.

[@johnscanlon5889]

What exactly is ALCON?

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

It's a company that hauls crews around when they go on the hours or tie down a train away from their HQ. They also haul switchmen around to throw switches as in this video. It used to be Renzenberger

[@kens.3729]

Sounds Like 👍 the Engineer is a Disgruntled Union Pacific (UP) employee with Low Seniority. 🤔👎