'By the Time I Get to Phoenix'

When I was first invited to write train related articles for The Loop several years ago, I had no idea what to expect or how long I could be productive. Having an ancestral background of railroad riders and workers willing to regale their accounts of riding the rails certainly does make my job easier. There is also an urgency to commit these wondrous stories to print lest the last generation to use trains as their primary form of transport be silenced by time. Grandpa Frank, his daughter Grandma Gail, and one of her two daughters, my Aunt Zoe, are no longer with us. Grandpa Frank worked his entire life for the Union Pacific. The lone survivor of this traveling railroad generation in our family is my mother.

Mom and Zoe were both born in Los Angeles before the Stock Market rash of 1929. Growing up in Southern California as young girls gave them certain dreams about college and the future. A promotion in 1939 relocated them to Phoenix, Arizona where they graduated high school. Mom applied to and was accepted at Pomona College, one of the family of campuses collectively known as the “Clairemont Colleges”. Aunt Zoe followed in her footsteps two years later.

Riding the train to and from college was the only way to ”fly” in 1947, and the Santa Fe had a depot right there. In order to get from Pomona to Phoenix in a timely manner took some careful planning.

Here’s how it worked: Three days a week the Chief (one of the named passenger trains of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway), would pull out of Union Station with one, sometimes two, extra passenger cars bound for Phoenix. Picking up passengers along the way, these cars stayed attached to the Chief through San Bernardino, up Cajon Pass, through Barstow then east into the desert to a little dot on the map named “Cadiz Jct”. The cars headed to Phoenix were uncoupled from the rear of the Chief and parked on a siding to be picked up by the next train headed into Arizona. This line is still in use today, operated by the Arizona & California Railroad, headquartered in Parker, AZ. and reconnects to the BNSF at Congress Jct., west of Wickenburg.

Sometimes this system didn’t always run smoothly.

Aunt Zoe was finished with classes for the year and waited impatiently on the platform for the Chief and cars bound for Phoenix. It was a Saturday in mid June of 1950. Thank God there was air conditioning on the train. Unforeseen problems delayed the Chief’s departure from Union Station and was well behind schedule by the time it stopped in Pomona. Getting into San Bernardino and up Cajon seemed to take forever. The two cars loaded with passengers were set out on the siding at Cadiz later than was usual.

Early summer was quite toasty in the Mojave this year and the air conditioner required the car to be moving to function, same with the pulley driven generator for charging the batteries of the electrical system. It was getting dark and the passengers were getting worried. The freight train that always picked them up was nowhere to be seen. Luckily there was plenty of water on board and the restrooms worked. After a very uncomfortable and sleepless night, they awaited the yard crew that worked at the junction to show up.

Since it was now Sunday, there would be no one showing up to work the yard until the following day. Being miles away from anything that resembled civilization, it was decided to ration the rest of the water, gather anything edible or drinkable from the lounge and hunker down and wait.

Zoe claimed it was the most miserable two days of her life. They all made the best of it, playing cards, reading and singing to entertain themselves. Monday morning, a surprised yard crew showed up and informed the group that the connection to Phoenix had arrived early, the Chief was late and the other train left without them. They were coupled to the next Phoenix bound train and arrived that evening, two days late.

By the time Zoe got to Phoenix, she needed a bath, a nap and wine with dinner.