Dave's Depots-Union Pacific (LA&SL) Cedar City, Utah

 David writes.....

Last Thursday, I and a friend headed south from the Salt Lake Valley. Our destination was St. George, Utah, roughly 250 miles away. We were heading for a few days of operating model trains in Southern Utah. Ron suggested that instead of heading south on I-15, we take the "long way" which entailed following a lot of the former Los Angeles & Salt Lake mainline. The LA&SL managed to avoid any real population centers most of its entire journey to Los Angeles, so we were often really out in the middle of nowhere. Here's a train we caught south of Delta, Utah:

We rejoined civilization in Cedar City, Utah. Cedar City is at the end of a branch line. The original purpose of the branch was primarily to get passengers as close to southern Utah's national parks as possible. Union Pacific was an early promoter of rail travel to the national parks, and the company operated hotels at Zion, Bryce Canyon, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Your national park tour on the Union Pacific began with a train to Cedar City, where you overnighted in another UP hotel, beginning your bus tour of the parks the next day. Passenger business was so brisk that the railroad built a giant two track loop around the station, which allowed passenger trains to reverse back to the mainline with ease.

The branch is still active, though the trackage east of I-15 has been abandoned for quite some time. The branch now serves a growing industrial base in Cedar City. The depot also still exists. The station is in good condition, housing a Chinese restaurant and a bakery. 

Once down in St. George, we were able to operate on a couple of 2 rail O scale layouts. I brought my pair of brass 2-8-4s, both U.S. Hobbies/Max Gray imports. I also got to see this model, built from a LaBelle kit, a Sacramento Northern combine. It was complete with an interior and lighting. I figure frequent blog reader and IRM Member, Ted Miles would enjoy this!