Pictured here is a switch move that took place in the morning when three Amtrak trains became one at the Union Pacific depot in Salt Lake City. A UP switch engine assists the inbound Desert Wind, train #36 along UP's passenger mainline at First South street. Soon the 1260 will tack these inbound cars to the tail end of outbound train #6, the California Zephyr. The Pioneer train #26 had already arrived with its cars coupled to the outbound #6. If you were standing in this same spot today, you would be inside the Clark Planetarium observing galactic formations set to music in the Gateway Mall.
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.
