Two-month-old Amtrak 50 is the first of a pair of P42DCs pulling a seven-car Desert Wind (train 35) around a curve in the Mojave Desert as the train heads toward Los Angeles from Ogden. The two Horizon cars, a café car and a coach, are always in the consist, and the four Superliners (a combination of coaches and sleepers) are added from train 5, the westbound California Zephyr, in Ogden. (Hodge, California – March 22, 1997)
Depicts Amtrak's "Desert Wind" service, which operated from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, via Las Vegas. Its discontinuance in 1997 left the lower Intermountain region, including Las Vegas, without any passenger rail service since.
California-bound rail travelers from the east have three choices to reach the Golden State: California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle. A look back through the years including the now-defunct Desert Wind