Forgotten Clips From Trona RR and Searles Station

[@armandosoliz1455]

Thanks for the look back..love the GPS coordinates.

[@turkfiles]

Thanks, Mark. Way back in 2019 before the Covid mess. Much appreciated.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

Before I retired!

[@jimg6476]

I worked the Searles turn out of Los Angeles in the 1970s. We would layover at Searles. The SP had trailers for us to stay in. One of the best jobs i ever worked😊 the shoofly was built during the tunnel fire. The shoofly was the original mainline before the tunnel was constructed.

[@richardhardin9469]

No, it was great. Went camping with the Boy Scouts, Troop 5 out of Oildale to Trona about 1968 ish. Loved their pool. Even had a Snipe hunt for the younger Scouts. Keep posting.

[@jeffreygosselin7576]

Very interesting Mark! Thanks!

[@3sierra15]

Really enjoyed the footage at Searles. Have visited there several times on road trips from NoCal to Barstow. Now I understand what I was looking at. Can't wait for the new stuff. Thanks!

[@bradleyjanes2949]

Great videos thanks

[@pacset2]

Very cool Mark

[@dfirth224]

I did not know until several years ago this branch was used or built to construct the LA Aqueduct in the early 1900s.

[@PaulA-yh7kr]

I like shots of how it was as time goes by. Time is the thing we have to shear with others Thank you for yours. Paul

[@StormySkyRailProductions]

That was fantastic Mark, great to see this all! Thanks for taking us along! (Dave).

[@kens.3729]

Wishing you a Very Merry Christmas and a Safe, Happy and Healthy, 2024. Thanks for your Strong 💪 Efforts in 2023.

[@davec9244]

A trip down memory lane. Started watching your channel after doing my usual Google Earth surfing. Came across an anomaly in the middle of nowhere, the tunnel in the desert near Trone. KZbin searched Railroad Trone, the rest is history. We all served the crap of 20/21 to fight another day. . thank you ALL stay safe! DeJa'Vu at the end, the end, the end

[@royreynolds108]

The water tank--the delivery pipe is called a spout and is held up by counter-weights that will lift it back to the up-right stored position. The vertical board had markings on it with a marker or pointer to indicate the amount of water in the tank. There was a float in the tank connected to the pointer by a rope or chain to keep them together. Obviously, the markings on the board are reversed in that the higher the marker, the less water is in the tank, and the lower the marker, the fuller the tank. To fill a tender, the loco would stop with the hatch in line with the spout and the fireman would reach up with a hook to catch the spout or a rope to the spout to pull it down over the tender hatch. There was a rope attached to the spout that went up over a pulley and down into the tank to a flap valve which when pulled, would open letting water enter the delivery pipe and spout. It is hard to pull because of all the water over the flap pushing the flap down against the opening. When the fireman was finished filling the tender, he let go of the rope and the flap closed and then pushed the spout up into the stored position, then closed the tender hatch before returning to the cab.

[@terrywebb8636]

Hi Mr. McGowan, the video was very windy, but it was good. Would you be interested in making a video of the SD 45 T-2 especially how they got to be known as (T) Tunnel Motor's, growing up in Texas, the Southern Pacific was it. My paw-paw was a fireman on the steam, and a lead conductor on the caboose he retired in 1982, i was 5, i sure do miss him and his stories.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

I'm not very conversant with locomotives, past or present. I know why the tunnel motors were designed, but not much beyond that. I understand the Trona is getting ready to replace most of their aging fleet, so if I get the time to do a little research, I may do something like that. Thanks for the idea and for checking it out!

[@beeble2003]

Regular locomotives draw their cooling air in through fans on the roof. SP had a lot of long tunnels in the mountains. In a tunnel, the lead locomotive is passing through fairly clean air, but the one behind it is breathing in a mix of fresh air and hot locomotive exhaust. The one behind that is breathing in less fresh air and two locomotives' exhaust, and so on. So locomotives later in the consist are trying to cool themselves with much hotter air, which doesn't work, and they overheat and shut down. Then you get a cascading failure, because the remaining locomotives have to work harder, so they overheat and shut down, too. The main point of the tunnel motors is that their air intakes are in the lower half of the bodyside -- the big grilles at the back. That means they're pulling in somewhat cooler air from lower in the tunnel where there's less exhaust. As I recall, they also have larger, more powerful radiator fans, so they're drawin more air through the radiator to help maintain cooling power when that air's still pretty warm. What I'd like to know is why tunnel motors aren't a thing any more. There are still plenty of long tunnels in the Rockies, but there's no such thing as an SD70T or a GEVOT.

[@Qrail]

Thanks for posting this. Don’t be so hard on yourself. That was a good video. Piece of video. What product is derived from the plant at Trona? On another subject brought up in the video, you said the tracks were removed on the route to Lone Pine. Is it possible to follow the ROW the distance? (If you know where to look, you can still follow the ROW of the train route to Yosemite). Keep smiling, and Happy New Year.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

Trona is the product mined from Searles Dry Lake. It is processed into many things such as soda ash, and potash, just to name a couple. Yes, the roadbed is quite easy to follow all the way Lone Pine. Google Earth is a great way o see if from the air! Here is the link to a piece I did about Trona in 2019. January 2019 kzbin.info/www/bejne/kF6lio2NrKikebM After the earthquake kzbin.info/www/bejne/goHcYp58nJWgraM

[@beeble2003]

@@MarkClayMcGowan Yep. One of those imaginatively named towns. "We mine trona here, so let's just call it Trona." Trona is a form of sodium carbonate, which is one of the most widely used minerals in industry, for all the things you mention and more. In most of the world, it has to be made from salt water and limestone (sodium chloride and calcium carbonate), but about a quarter of the world supply is mined, including everything used in the US, because of large deposits in California and Wyoming.

[@robertweeks4299]

Want to hear more about the tunnel fire and see pictures of you're able to get close enough.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

I hope to get a video of the history of the tunnel as well as some Trona RR stuff shout this winter or spring. Thanks for checking it out!

[@wallochdm1]

Kirk and Spock on the wall, so we know you're a good guy.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

I've been a Star Trek fan since it first came on TV when I was a kid! Not a big fan of Discovery or the Kelvin timeline stuff, but still dedicated to the franchise! Thanks for checking it out!

[@wallochdm1]

@@MarkClayMcGowan Me too. Love your videos, especially the derailment stuff. Original Star Trek is still the best.

[@joshthetrainfan]

YO I LOVE TRONA! I love hearing the old EMD SD40s rage away at notch 8. Be careful of the Kodachrome TRC 2003, because it's on the move again.

[@Atsf1976]

Do they operate on a regular schedule? If so, do you know it? I'm coming out there in May and thought that it might be worth visiting.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

If I remember correctly, UP runs out Tuesday and Thursday 10ish to noonish? Trona generally switch at Searles in late afternoon, but I'm not sure if they do it the same days. I hope to find out so I can do a video out there

[@Atsf1976]

@@MarkClayMcGowan thank you sir. Keep up the great Tehachapi videos.

[@jeffreygosselin7576]

That was taken prior to COVID 19.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

It was while I was still working!

[@jamescotter5376]

Is that where that trona came from that was on that train that wrecked the busted the gas main as well is that where it came from I hope you know what I'm talking about

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

The Duffy Street derailment in 1989. Yes, it was. The train manifest showed it 4,000 tons lighter than it was, and th dynamics weren't working on all the locomotives. What a disaster.

[@MarkJoseph81]

How far out in the middle of nowhere is that guy taking a "nap"? Seems a random, desolate area for a vagrant.

[@MarkClayMcGowan]

The closest civilization is Ridgecrest, about ten miles north. I have no idea how that guy ended up out there unless he hopped the Lone Pine thinking it was going somewhere!

[@beeble2003]

@@MarkClayMcGowan Dunno! Not sure it's possible to hop that train, though. I think every car seen in the video is a PS/Trinity 4750cuft covered hopper, and there's nowhere to ride on those. No floor under the end cage.