Several
years ago, I went on a camping trip with my brother Phil, who recalled
a fond memory of a remote valley in the Mojave
Desert of southeastern California.
He described massive freight trains being hauled by relentless, muscling
locomotives in the searing, radiant heat of summer, where
nearby Death Valley temperatures are commonly above 110 degrees.
We decided to detour and visit this isolated terrain. The valley is
a vast, bleak, moribund pool of sand; a concave depression guarded
by the Providence Mountains, whose lifeless brown peaks join together
and conspire like kilns to trap every last ray of heat and blast them
back down upon the defenseless, oven-like surface below.
It is Nature's Bowl of Torture. As one cruises through the stark,
burning solitude, the baking heat of the sun and stereophonic silence
of the desert are occasionally shattered by the roaring thunder of
locomotive giants.
We had the good luck to end up driving alongside one of these meandering
snakes of alien steel: five Union Pacific
diesels, laden with an ungodly amount of military hardware, as they
groaned through the valley on their way to the abandoned Union
Pacific Depot in Kelso,
California.
At once both abjectly servile and unforgiving, these pounding machines
strain incessantly to defy megatons of resistance with their inexorable
might, obediently trekking with nonnegotiable attitude along the scorching
furnace of the desert floor.
The power of these locomotives is both reassuring and intimidating.
You have to see them for yourself.
Between the locomotives and the crews that operate them, one thing
is assured: Things are getting done. No whining. Let's go. Want to
go somewhere a bit cooler? Hop on up then, but hurry... we're leaving
now.
And
if you're listening to Peter Gabriel's 'Passion' (details in link
below) while driving through the desert, you'll start seeing things
too. I was, and before I knew it, I had this animation mapped out
to the soundtrack "Of these, hope" from 'Passion'.
It's
not finished - I don't think it ever will be. I've not even had time
yet to put the engineer in. That and many other improvements will
have to wait to appear in Kelso Locomotive Animation III.
Oh,
and turn the volume up or you won't get it. :-)
-Peter
Technical notes on this animation are here.
Feedback & suggestions welcome; E-mail
here.
