Page 9 - Edwards AFB Desert Wings 7-31-15

July 31, 2015 Desert Wings

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Railway company boards Edwards’ tracks

If you travelled through the North Gate airplane. Sometime after that, a portion rail, with a wooden propeller disguising RI¿FLDOVWRPRYHWKHWUDFNVL[PLOHVQRUWK
recently, you may have seen a BNSF Rail- of the Muroc Dry Lake north of the Santa of the main base. This enabled the Air
way locomotive coming on base. Fe Railroad was designated for exclusive its jet propulsion. The XP-59A’s maiden Force to take advantage of a 65 square-
use of the Materiel Center personnel who ÀLJKWZDV2FW mile natural landing area.
The engine was here to pick up a bar- had been directed to proceed to Muroc,
etable train that was stored on base. The California, to take charge of the “Mate- The Santa Fe Railroad tracks originally Until commercial trucking became
train was made up of 25 intermodal cars riel Center Flight Test Site.” In September more cost effective, certain supplies and
stretching 6,300 feet. 1942, the XP-59A arrived to Murroc by bisected Rogers Dry Lake, which limited fuel were railed in up until the mid-1990s.
WKHXVHRIWKHGU\ODNHDVDODQGLQJ¿HOG
BNSF Railway periodically uses Ed-
wards’ tracks to store train cars when they In December 1951, an agreement was
are not in use. When they are picked up,
the trainmaster will verify that each in- reached between railroad and government
dividual car’s brakes can set and release
properly prior to leaving. Air Force photograph by Rebecca Amber

8QWLOWKH6RXWKHUQ3DFL¿F5DLOURDGDU- $%16)ORFRPRWLYHFRQQHFWVWRDEDUHWDEOHWUDLQWREHUHPRYHGIURPWKH(GZDUGV$)%WUDLQWUDFNV-XO\3ULRUWRGHSDUWXUHHDFKLQGLYLGXDO
rived in 1876, the desert was populated car’s brakes are checked.
mostly by occasional prospectors drifting
endlessly in pursuit of elusive mineral
wealth. In 1882, Santa Fe Railroad ran
a line westward out of Barstow toward
Mojave and built a water stop at the edge
of an immense dry lakebed, roughly 20
miles southeast of Mojave. The lonely
water stop was known simply as “Rod,”
and the lakebed was then called Rodri-
guez Dry Lake.

By the early 1900s, “Rodriguez” had
been anglicized into “Rodgers,” which
was then shortened to “Rogers.”

In 1942, Muroc Dry Lake was selected
as the location to test the Bell XP-59 jet

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