El Garces Depot West, Needles Live Cam

Brick platforms, black lamp posts and BNSF tracks run west from the El Garces depot in Needles, California. A signal bridge and a ridge of desert mountains close the view in the distance.

El Garces was built in 1908 by the Santa Fe Railway as a station, restaurant and hotel, and today the city of Needles owns the restored building. It is the Amtrak stop for the Southwest Chief between Los Angeles and Chicago. The BNSF Needles Subdivision passes right below, part of the Southern Transcon, and Needles has long been a division point and crew-change location.

The camera looks from the upper level of the depot, with a palm trunk in the foreground. The side and island platforms lie in the middle of the frame, and freights, from brown gondolas to double-stack container trains, roll along the nearest tracks. A second camera on the same building looks east.