El Garces Depot East, Needles Live Cam

This fixed view looks east from the upper level of the El Garces depot in Needles, California, over the station platform. Two palm trunks frame the brick walkway, and a sign reading Needles, CA marks the stop.

The depot was built in 1908 as a Santa Fe station, restaurant and hotel, and the Southwest Chief still calls here on its run between Los Angeles and Chicago. Needles was founded in 1883 and became a railroad division point and crew-change location on what is now the BNSF Needles Subdivision.

Past the platform edge the tracks spread into the yard, with low railway buildings, orange BNSF locomotives and ridges of desert hills in the distance. A balcony of the depot fills the right side of the frame, and a passing freight can hide the platform tracks.