Driving back from City of Hope on Monday about 1pm we counted 5+ eastbound trains "tied down" east of Barstow with a westbound "tied down" near an overpass 20 or so miles further east. There did appear to be a tie project going on in the area but not enough westbound traffic to keep that many eastbound trains stopped. When we got to Williams we got called back to CofH for additional tests and got to see the whole thing again on Tuesday afternon (about 29 hours later). There were similar but not the same trains "tied down". Since we needed to get back to the shop we could not get off to investigate. Anybody know exactly what the situation was?
Nothing new here and not likely an emergency. With double track on the BNSF main from Barstow to Cajon Pass and now three tracks over the main in Cajon...well...see my explanation below. What you may not know is Santa Fe had and BNSF still has, a policy of stacking trains up when room in the yard is at a premium. This applies to both Hobart and the Barstow Classification Yard. Run through's or trains headed north and south would simply skirt around the others and keep on going. Those train needing to be reclassified would be given orders to tie-up east of Barstow, including the old yard, and tracks west and east of Daggett. Union Pacific was known to the same thing east of Yermo, with it's coal trains. I believe you can still find their trains tied down waiting orders to move forward. Not saying there wasn't an emergency or accident as I can testify that does happen...to this day.
All well and good but as noted the trains were eastbound and appeared to be tied down. Not westbound.
