Nostalgia & History > Big trains, big trucks and an unprotected crossing. Hmmmm

Back around 1959/60 Sloan was considered "way out there" southwest of Las Vegas, Nev. However it was a pretty lively place with a big dolomite quarry that seemed intent on tearing down the side of a mountain. Dolomite is an ingredient in making concrete, among other things.

Sloan is on the Salt Lake City - Los Angeles main line of Union Pacific to L.A. and has a big sweeping curve on the railroad great for train pictures. Just to keep things interesting, there was a constant parade of loaded mine trucks thumping over a grade crossing near the depot. As I recall there were no crossing signals. To my surprise I never heard of train/truck crash there.

I'm advised these views are somewhat constricted these days. Also I'm aware of a recent NIMBY fight from Henderson residents over expanding the mining to an open mine operation. I would be interested to learn if the crossing is still there and whether it ever received lights/gates.

Both trains were westbounds, powered by the ubiquitous GP-9s.



John Bromley - Omaha



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/17 13:17 by Copy19.

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Stock cars on the first one. Great period shots. BSB

I just noticed the 179 on the first train has a plow. I don’t remember ever seeing a UP geep with a plow.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/17 13:30 by Copy19.

Great B&W Photos. Love the GP9's, especially in several multiples.
ALLEN

Nice, Love the A-B-B-B lash-up in the last photo!!

John, my dad and I had the opportunity to go to Sloan once. As summer 1964 approached, I convinced my parents to order some fireworks to take down to a family reunion of my mom's along Mobile Bay in Alabama. So, we sent off this big $28 order to a fireworks company in Canby, Oregon. They shipped the fireworks by REA, but because of the restrictions in Las Vegas, couldn't be shipped there. The closest open agency to Las Vegas with an agent handling REA shipments was at Sloan. Boy, oh boy, did we have a blast of all sorts of fireworks down there in Alabama that summer!

Lee Hower - Sacramento

Great photos and story John.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

John - here is a 1994 image of that big sweeping curve you had mentioned in your original thread!

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Wow, that color shot makes me feel 2x older. I rode one of those “new” tri-clops EMD units westbound around that curve about then. I was thinking of the time I took the b&w shots as I looked back over our manifest as we went around the curve!

JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/17 15:37 by Copy19.

I remember many years ago watching an SD and 10 loaded hoppers with full instrumentation woking that curve
testring load dynamics. Was never sure why, this was after the coal and other heavy Westbounds ran, etc and
nothing ever seemed to change on the big curve. That plant used to be a good customer though I hated calling
on them on a windy daty.

Out

Beautiful location and nice pictures!

Posted from Android

Love that A-B-B-B set of GP9s!!

Nice to see the gates and lights. I see the main has concrete ties too.

JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/17 20:24 by Copy19.

When I ran 36/35 I never had a problem with the trucks (they knew better) but I almost hit a couple of private cars over the years. No gates or lights back then.

Copy19 Wrote:
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> I just noticed the 179 on the first train has a
> plow. I don’t remember ever seeing a UP geep
> with a plow.


Well, John, you obviously saw one because you just posted the photographic
evidence of it. LOL. Entire thread is very interesting, especially the
"before" and "after" stuff.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

ntharalson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Copy19 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I just noticed the 179 on the first train has a
> > plow. I don’t remember ever seeing a UP geep
> > with a plow.
>
>
> Well, John, you obviously saw one because you just
> posted the photographic
> evidence of it. LOL. Entire thread is very
> interesting, especially the
> "before" and "after" stuff.


>
> Nick Tharalson,
> Marion, IA


Like many photographers I dIdn’t pay attention to details on the passing train. I didn’t notice the plow until I posted the image.

JB