I remember well reading the story of the California Livestock Special that arrived in Yermo with an EMPTY hog car. The CLS schedule was designed to traverse the hottest desert sections at night, to afford the hogs a cooler final ride. It seems one of the cars had a door malfunction enroute which allowed the doomed porkers to trot off into the night. When asked about the missing hogs in Yermo, the conductor replied : " Well -- those hogs don't MAKE ANY SPARKS WHEN THEY HIT THE GROUND !!! I'm guessing the local coyote & vulture population ate good for a while...