trona railway in the searles valley with SP tunnel motors

in this video we cover the trona railway between the trona pinnacles and Searles California. constructed in 1913 because people were tired of using mule trains to get the minerals to searles and the union pacific. the trona railway is a 30 mile long class III shortline railroad. it hauls minerals such as borax soda ash potash ect from the Searles valley minerals processing plant in trona to the Union Pacific interchange at Searles where the cars will be sent to the port of long beach for exporting to other countries. every once in a while the TRC brings down a load of coal from west elk mine in Colorado or skyline Utah which is used to power the coal plant and keep SVM running. the trona railway rosters 5 active locomotives 2 being former union pacific standard cab SD60s 2159 and 2160 both built in 1986. 1 former union pacific widecab SD60M 2493 built in 1992 and 2 former southern pacific EMD SD40T-2s 2004 and 2005. 2004 was built in 1978 and 2005 was built in 1979. enjoy these classic EMDs working upgrade in the barren but beautiful desert.