Rogue Columnist

More Arizona railroad images

In addition to my popular column and gallery on Phoenix Union Station, I've written about the Ghost Railroads of Arizona, the many lines that helped build the state that have mostly disappeared. Another column detailed the difficult enterprise of building railroads to Phoenix, ending its isolation. And most recently photographer Jack Delano's trip across northern Arizona during World War II. Many of these have additional photos, so check them out even if you read the text.

Now, a grab bag of railroad photos from the 1950s to today. A reminder: Phoenix is by far the largest city in North America without intercity passenger trains, mostly a failure of state government.

Click on the photo for a larger image:

The arrival of the first locomotive to Arizona Territory, Yuma 1877 (Library of Congress).

The Sunset Limited, premier train of the Southern Pacific, on its way to Phoenix in 1950.

The only Southern Pacific passenger train that didn't take the Northern Main Line through Phoenix was the Argonaut, shown above with three "Black Widow" diesels up front and plenty of mail and express cars. The Argonaut passed through Casa Grande. The Black Widows were usually reserved for freight service.

Baggage carts are waiting as the Argonaut arrives in Tucson in the 1960s (Bob Knoll photo).

In 1970, a year before the inception of Amtrak, Southern Pacific's Sunset awaits the highball at Tucson. Operating only every other day, the train was a shell of the former premier passenger train of the SP.

A Santa Fe train hauling a block of refrigerated boxcars ("reefers") near the Colorado River crossing at Topock in 1953. These cars also hauled Salt River Valley produce by the trainload when Phoenix was an agricultural empire.

When Williams was still on the Santa Fe main line, it had a busy yard with a roundhouse, as well as a Harvey House passenger station. A line rerouting around 1960 left the town on the "Peavine" to Phoenix, losing the fleet of mainline passenger trains.

Santa Fe freight action on the double-track main line near Holbrook in 1962. The lead locomotive is a new U25B, General Electric's first independent entry into the American diesel market. It was nicknamed the U-Boat.

Amtrak's returning to Phoenix

Or so go some headlines and social-media posts I've read. In today's denuded newspaper environment, with thousands of reporters laid off and spreading news deserts, in-depth reporting is hard to find. Anyway, this salutary news was reported by KJZZ, KPHO/KTVK, and other outlets.

As it turns out, Amtrak isn't returning anytime soon. The origin of the stories was a presentation in September to the Rail Passengers Association by an Amtrak official. It proposed establishing new corridors for intercity rail that would potentially reach Phoenix in ... 2035. If that's not bad enough, the plan is mostly aspirational. No funding is available for the expansion. That might change under President "Amtrak Joe." But 2035. Really? Another plan in 2010 went nowhere.

As late as the 1960s, Phoenix Union Station was served by multiple passenger trains of the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads. They gradually died off, the casualty of decades of national transportation policies that subsidized automobiles and airliners while strangling railroads with regulations and high taxes. When the Postal Service ended mail contracts in September 1967, it left Phoenix with only an every-other-day Sunset on the SP Northern Main Line. This continued when Amtrak took over national passenger trains May 1st, 1971 (killing almost 200 trains that still ran).

Deliverance *

Whatever else, we had to defeat Donald Trump this year or it was curtains for the republic. And Joe Biden is now President-elect of the United States and Kamala Harris is Vice President-elect. As with climate change and the science of the pandemic, reality doesn't care what Trump and his cult "believe." A Supreme Court trick or other attempt to reverse the results would bring Civil War 2.0. But I don't think that will happen. At least not yet. Come January 20th, our long national nightmare will be over and America will trend back toward normality.

It was closer than it should have been, considering Trump's corruption, tens of thousands of lies, damage to the rule of law, antagonizing allies, and breaking norms. This wasn't Biden vs. Jerry Ford or even George W. Bush. But that was a different Republican Party. The Party of Lincoln is now the Cult of Trump.

The close election was partly the result of the "woke" extreme left. Every night of violence, looting, and arson in blue cities such as Seattle and Portland scared low-information voters in the Midwest and South into voting for Trump as the lesser of two evils. In their minds, a Biden victory would mean defunding the police! Reparations! Open borders! D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood! An immediate end to fossil fuels and confiscation of guns! Implementation of policies to favor BIPOC and LGBTQ-plus instead of equality and fairness and viewing people as individuals. And the drumbeat of America's "systemic racism," ignoring the huge leaps we've made or that every multiracial nation faces these challenges.

Judgment days

Carl Muecke illustration

We are heading into an election like no other. So rather than writing an essay on another topic — which few would read because of the voting — or putting up a history gallery...here's a revolving open thread. Older but still relevant links will fall below the jump.

I'll be putting up election stories and links, while you can have the comments section to weigh in. The Front Page will have links to non-election stories. You can follow my Twitter comments @jontalton

Now we're at Friday and it appears "all over but the shouting" — and lawsuits, recounts, and damage Trump might do until January. Biden is President-elect. It's fitting that Philadelphia, especially, propelled Biden over the top. The city where the Constitution was born is where it was saved. Four years ago, I could not have imagined Joe Biden as a world historical figure. But here we are. And I am satisfied. Next week, I'll examine this nail-biter in more detail.

The New York Times: A Traditionalist Who Ran As Himself: "In many ways, he ran as the politician he has always been. And for one extraordinary election, that was enough."

The Washington Post: Kamala Harris, daughter of Jamaican and Indian parents, elected nation's first female vice president: "Black women helped propel Harris and president-elect Joe Biden to victory by elevating turnout in places like Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Those women will finally see themselves represented in the White House as Biden and Harris replace President Trump, who started his political career by perpetuating a racist birther lie about President Barack Obama and has a long track record of making misogynistic comments."

The Washington Post: Five Takeaways of the Election: Winners and losers.

The Atlantic: America Won: "If, in 2016, Americans rewarded anger and extremism, in 2020 they handed victory to a man of moderation, one who stands up for progressive ideals without looking down on conservatives, and who believes that it is possible both to be honest about the country’s flaws and to take pride in its strengths. Biden won because he recognized that most Americans have far less appetite for political extremism than the country’s cable-news hosts and social-media celebrities seem to think."