| The train rolls around the bend. Faster and faster it | | | | siding; it has a red light and waits in the hole. The |
| glides. Ahead lie the Tehacapis. The brown grass | | | | refrigerated train passes. The crews give a friendly |
| blows in the spring wind the train rolls towards | | | | wave. |
| Barstow. | | | | That is working on the railroad. It is a dangerous job. It |
| The freight train now grinds upward, over the mountain. | | | | is a rigorous job, yet there is always a friendly salute |
| Towards the summit roll refrigerated loads of lettuce | | | | to a fellow railroader, to a passing kid. That is working |
| from the Salinas valley bound for eastern markets. In a | | | | on the railroad, always a wave, yet always alert. |
| week these loads will be salads on Fifth Avenue. | | | | The train rolls onward. Through the town of Tehachapi, |
| I watch the growling locomotives and will follow the | | | | it has conquered the Tehachapi Loop on its climb of |
| train on the climb. The locomotives growl with one | | | | the mountains. Downward into the Mojave, the train |
| hundred cars. It is a fight to keep the perishable train on | | | | rolls to the lonely desert. As night falls, the train will get |
| schedule. A refrigerated train stays in front of the | | | | a fresh crew in Barstow and continue its trek towards |
| pack. It has priority on the railroad. | | | | Kansas City. Its trek eastward, delivering California's |
| I watch as the piggybacked trailers climbed the | | | | freshness to Fifth Avenue. |
| Tehachapi Grade. A steel train sits on the secondary | | | | |