Highball the Roll-by... Dusk has settled in and the temperature drops at the summit of Goffs Hill; located in the eastern Mojave Desert. Here, a Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, CA intermodal train waits in the siding to let a higher priority train (Alliance, TX to San Bernardino, CA) pass by as it kicks the speed up to nearly 70 MPH down the hill. This is a common moved done by the Needles Sub dispatcher as Goffs provides a 12,500' long siding to stash trains off the mainline. Unfortunately, this can result in long wait times if there's a fleet of hot shot trains leaving Needles.
On the ground, the conductor of the stopped train performs a "roll-by inspection". When it is possible, the conductor will do a visual inspection of a passing trains. They're looking for locked brakes, dragging equipment, or anything that else that could be a safety issue for the train. Even though there are mechanical defects detectors located along the tracks, a visual inspection can help alert a train of an issue before arriving to a detector, or find issues that a detector wouldn't have (open container doors or people riding the train).
Once the passing train is cleared, the conductor gives the "highball" over the radio and then they patiently wait for the dispatcher (located in San Bernardino) to click a button on their computer screen to line the switch for them. Once they get the green signal, they'll process west to the crew changing location of Barstow; 135 miles to the west.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
