Nomad of Mid-America
Inferno
The end of a Mojave winter day at Goffs, CA, long-neglected, nearly forgotten, once a stop for first the railroad and later the Mother Road (66, of course) each on their final sprints to the west coast, now barely a mark the map. This dot in the Mojave badlands, a place called home by not even two dozen, has succumbed to two main enemies--the elements and time--and has faded away to next to nothing, its sole worthwhile activity nowadays courtesy of what BNSF sends through on the Needles Subdivision. The dispatcher has one holding safely on Main 2 at EBCS Goffs--Q LACATG6 13L--for an oncoming onslaught of westbounds pounding to the top of the climb away from the Colorado River valley at Needles, the dimmed headlight of the rear DPU from one of them shrinking into oblivion. This exemplary display of the modern intermodal supply chain unfolds beneath painting-like magic developing overhead, consequences of the rapidly falling sun slipping towards the horizon line and combusting the suspended moisture in the air into an inferno. In mere minutes, the fire will be extinguished by the onset of nightfall and this little place on the desert floor will go cold, but the rails will remain hot as BNSF continues its non-stop effort to pump 90-per-day in or out of the Golden State on the sacred rails of the Santa Fe.
Inferno
The end of a Mojave winter day at Goffs, CA, long-neglected, nearly forgotten, once a stop for first the railroad and later the Mother Road (66, of course) each on their final sprints to the west coast, now barely a mark the map. This dot in the Mojave badlands, a place called home by not even two dozen, has succumbed to two main enemies--the elements and time--and has faded away to next to nothing, its sole worthwhile activity nowadays courtesy of what BNSF sends through on the Needles Subdivision. The dispatcher has one holding safely on Main 2 at EBCS Goffs--Q LACATG6 13L--for an oncoming onslaught of westbounds pounding to the top of the climb away from the Colorado River valley at Needles, the dimmed headlight of the rear DPU from one of them shrinking into oblivion. This exemplary display of the modern intermodal supply chain unfolds beneath painting-like magic developing overhead, consequences of the rapidly falling sun slipping towards the horizon line and combusting the suspended moisture in the air into an inferno. In mere minutes, the fire will be extinguished by the onset of nightfall and this little place on the desert floor will go cold, but the rails will remain hot as BNSF continues its non-stop effort to pump 90-per-day in or out of the Golden State on the sacred rails of the Santa Fe.