Throwback Thursday; Alamogordo and Sacramento Railroad (Cloud Climbing Railroad) on US 82

Back in 2012 I took a trip up US 82 from US 70/54 in Alamogordo which occupies much of the former right-of-way of the Alamogordo and Sacramento Railroad.

The A&S Railroad was a 32 mile spur of the El Paso and Northeast Railroad which was in operation from 1898 to 1947. The A&S Railroad was primarily in service haul freight from the sawmills in Cloudcroft and Russia. The A&S Railroad was known as the "Cloud Climber" due to it having a starting elevation at 4,320 feet above sea level and an ending elevation of 9,076 feet above sea level. The A&S had grades as high as 6.4% and was generally considered to be an engineering marvel. After freight service ended in 1947 the A&S rails were dismantled, only the Cloudcroft trestle remains in place to this day.

Much of the former right-of-way of the A&S Railroad was used by US Route 82 when it was extended to Las Cruces in 1963. The climb east into Cloudcroft from Alamogordo is fast but not as steep as might be suspect due to the low grades. Cloudcroft at 8,600 feet above sea level is one of the highest all-year settlements in the United States.

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Cajon Pass; Cajon Pass Toll Road, National Old Trails Road, US Route 66/91/395 and Interstate 15

This past weekend I spent some time in Cajon Pass traversing the many historic road alignments. Cajon Pass is located in San Bernardino County, California along the San Andreas Fault. Cajon Pass serves the boundary line between the Mojave Desert, the San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains and San Bernardino Valley. Cajon Pass is historically one of the most traveled transportation corridors in American California and presently is served by four rail lines, Interstate 15 and California State Route 138. While Cajon Pass is known mostly for carrying US Route 66 it has carried numerous other signed highways that have had a significant impact on regional and national road travel. While this is my best attempt to compile everything from the best sources I could find into one single transportation history blog regarding road travel in Cajon Pass I suspect as time goes on this article will be frequently updated. If you have any information that you ...

Pardee Dam Road

Pardee Dam is a 358-foot-high concrete structure located near Campo Seco at the Calaveras County and Amador County Line. Pardee Dam impounds the Mokelumne River which forms the namesake Pardee Reservoir. Pardee Dam was completed during 1929 and is part of the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Pardee Dam is accessed by the namesake Pardee Dam Road which crosses the structure via the one-lane road seen as the blog cover photo. Part 1; the history of Pardee Dam Road The closest community to Pardee Dam is that of Campo Seco on the Calaveras County side of the Mokelumne River. Campo Seco was founded in 1850 by Mexican Miners who worked placer claims in Oregon Gulch during the height of the California Gold Rush. Campo Seco would reach a population of about three hundred by 1860 spurred by the numerous mining claims in the area. Main Street of Campo Seco flowed directly into the Campo Seco Turnpike which had been authorized by the California L...

Ghost Town Tuesday; The Packard Plant and Michigan Central Station

A couple years back I was in Metro Detroit, against my better judgement I decided on a ruins hunt in the City. Why am I featuring a city of 673,000 approximate residents on a Ghost Town Tuesday? The reason is two fold; back in 1950 the City of Detroit had an approximate population of 1,850,000 residents at the height of the Domestic Automotive Industry. A common definition of a "ghost town" is either an abandoned place or a place that has lost the vast majority of it's population. With a almost 63.6% population decline the City of Detroit would certainly meet the criteria of a place that has lost most of it's population. The second reason is simply that Detroit is the City I was born in and the truth is that I don't have many photos from when it wasn't a civic corpse. For whatever reason the day I picked to go to downtown Detroit had to be one of the most gloomy late summer days I've ever seen in Michigan. The rain was coming down pretty hard ...

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