On the High Plains Division of the Panhandle & Santa Fe Railway Company, there was not much activity today, at Caprock, Texas. Yesterday, Christmas Eve, 1953, the Second District Local set out Alco-GE S2 2358 at the locomotive facility, fresh from classified inspection and a paint job at Albuquerque. The Mechanical forces were greatly reduced for Christmas, and the switcher will not be set up for service until later in the week.
There was another, rather interesting, movement on Christmas Eve. No.75 set out a sleeping car at Caprock Yard, for the High Plains Red Hat Ladies' charter trip to the Pasadena Rose Parade. Every fifth year, they and their husbands head west on the Santa Fe to Pasadena's Greene Hotel, for a day of shopping in Pasadena's upscale shops, a Grey Line Tour of homes of movie stars, and reserved bleacher seating along the parade route. An enticement for the husbands is choice ticketing to the Rose Bowl football game. A boiler-equipped GP7 that has been working in Caprock yard, in place of the Alco which just arrived, will couple onto the car, provide steam to it, and spot it in the passenger passing track for early occupancy by the ladies. Upon arrival, on December 27, No.53 will stand in the station while the geep couples the Pullman onto the rear, and then they'll be off to Clovis. No. 123, the Grand Canyon, will forward them to Pasadena.
