Deep in the Mojave Desert, BNSF Railway train L-CAL1161-13, a local operating from Barstow to Cadiz (pronounced "KAY-Deez") and return, and known colloquially as the Cadiz Turn, arrives at the Arizona & California (ARZC) interchange just as the sun is setting behind the mountains to the west. Today's Cadiz Turn is powered by four former Santa Fe GP60M locomotives, led by BNSF 144. Santa Fe GP60M 144 was wrecked on Cajon Pass on December 14, 1994, leaving a void in these engines' numbering. When consolidating the roster of GP60Ms in 2014 in order to accommodate the renumbering of the GP60s (those with "standard" noses), four available numbers were assigned to other GP60Ms, with BNSF 160 (the former ATSF 160) becoming BNSF 144 on April 22 of that year. Cadiz is where the ATSF's Cadiz District diverged from the Santa Fe's Needles District) and headed southeast to Parker, Arizona. This line was sold to the new ARZC, which began operating on May 9, 1991.
Fun fact: Early Santa Fe employees did some interesting things with station names along the line through the Mojave Desert, such as naming stations Klondike and Siberia (they either had a sense of humor, or the desert heat was getting to them), and they named the stations along a stretch of this line in alphabetical order: Amboy, Bolo, Cadiz, Danby, Essex, Fenner, Goffs and Homer. Perhaps it was boredom, or an uncreative streak, or a belief that this might help train crews more clearly understand where they are along the line.
