Parked at Milepost 7 on the BNSF Railway’s Cajon Sub is train Q-LACLPC6-23 (Guaranteed Service Intermodal; Los Angeles CA to Logistics Park Chicago IL). On this day, we saw 13 trains (and, we suspect, missed several others between Victorville and Cajon Pass’ Summit) at a dead stop while generally following the mainline for 70 miles, from Barstow to Devore. This train was the third in line of five waiting to get into Barstow. The stopped trains were headed both eastbound and westbound. It is extremely unusual to follow the Cajon Sub for its entire length and see so many trains not moving – we did spot two eastbound moving at the bottom of Cajon Pass, near Devore and we assumed they would come to a stop somewhere as well. And BNSF employees we talked to said this is the new normal, and they had no idea why so many trains were sitting for so long. One posited that perhaps lower priority trains were stopped to allow the hot Q trains to get through faster – but this is a Q train, and we saw other Q trains as well. It remains a mystery…. (Lenwood, California – November 23, 2021)
