West Texas doesn't have much going for it, scenery wise. There are some Grand Vistas but after grand vista number 37 you don't pay as much attention. It doesn't have much in the way of train passengers either. The small town of Sanderson, TX used to be a crew base for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Freight trains would come in and stop long enough for one crew to get off and the next one to board. Many of the engineers and conductors that were based in Sanderson really enjoyed the small town life. But UP took over the SP and dropped Sanderson as a crew base and train folks there either made a really long commute or moved to El Paso. The depot, which had been a fine place in it's day, was still maintained by some longtime residents for the use of Amtrak passengers but it fell into further disrepair and became a safety hazard. UP finally tore it down and as we stopped in Sanderson I could see no sign of it not even a slab. And since we had no passengers to pick up or drop off, our stop was very short, “toot and scoot” I heard the conductor say on the radio.
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