IIRC, it was some time around mid 1973? I worked Indio-Yuma the summer of 1972 off of the extra board, while they were still building Indio.

I also seem to recall working down there again in Spring of 73, I was working out of Indio, but living in LA, and one of the last trains I caught on the Indio Yuma pool was the Smokey. They had a good idea when something was coming from LA, so I arranged to get a "long" call. I remember driving past the Smokey at 1000 Palms, and parked, signed in and walked out to the train, as it pulled up. Can you imagine being able to drive from Echo Park to Indio in 2 hours today? I hit a triple that summer, out of Indio eastbound to Yuma, out of rested mean at Yuma, caught a westbound back to Indio, out of rested men, back to Yuma....no time on the HOS left to work. Under the old 16 hour limit, I knew folks who hit "home runs"....at around 2:30 minutes, switch to switch with greens on the east pool out of Indio, you could do that back then.

That was real close to when they moved the pool jobs from Indio to WC in 73. And, I seem recall we started running haulers to WC out of LA early that summer. Actual dedication of WC was in the summer of 1973.

WC was a total clusterf##k at first, and the LA Hump routinely put more cars over the hump everyday than WC. The "meltdown" was very real that summer. I was called to relieve a train that had died on the law at Mainline tower (north of Dayton, where the crossovers on the ML and the entrance to the A yard was (westbound), waiting to yard the train in the A yard. I was called on an extra yard job. And, me and 3 switchmen died right there at Mainline tower, 12 hours later, without turning a wheel. The 12 hour law, and the meltdown, made me a lot of money that year.