Seal Beach NWS

[Myfordbrowning]

There is a report that the Navy may abandon the in base railroad operation at Seal Beach soon. I know that there has been little freight interchanged with the UP in recent years. Does anyone know of any car delivered to the base recently.



Cliff

[SLOCONDR]

Myfordbrowning Wrote:There is a report that the Navy may abandon the in base railroad operation at Seal Beach soon. I know that there has been little freight interchanged with the UP in recent years. Does anyone know of any car delivered to the base recently.



Cliff

The last time any cars were delivered was about 4 or 5 years ago......



V

SLOCONDR

[erielackawanna]

I think they still use the little GEs to shove the munitions into the bunkers (and to pull them out).

I used to have a Navy buddy (an officer) who said he'd take me in there one day and let me take pictures... but we lost touch and last time I tried to find him, he had moved and didn't leave a forwarding address. Kicking myself now.

[tmengineman]

If I recall, didn't I see that the line to the base was severed somewhere? I know that all of the crossings leading to the base have had the gates dismantled and removed. I keep looking for the little switch engine and haven't seen it in awhile. As of several years ago I would still see it out past PCH. Everything changed as of about last summer??

Tom Meatzie

[davidcurlee]

erielackawanna Wrote:I think they still use the little GEs to shove the munitions into the bunkers (and to pull them out).

I used to have a Navy buddy (an officer) who said he'd take me in there one day and let me take pictures... but we lost touch and last time I tried to find him, he had moved and didn't leave a forwarding address. Kicking myself now.

My father used to work at Seal Beach NWS. He contacted the proper people to arrange for photography of the base railroad, but there were so many bureaucratic obstacles to overcome that it never worked out. I think the rule was that a specific Navy officer would have to be present to approve each and every photograph. This was more than 10 years ago, so it's anybody's guess what the rules are today.

They had four GE 80-tonners until recently. Two of them were rebuilt in the 80's with Caterpillar engines, while the other two were not. The unrebuilt units were kept serviceable in case of an emergency but were rarely (almost never) used. The rebuilt unitswere used on an alternating basis, usually for a week at a time, to keep from wearing them out. Iwas toldthe unrebuilt units disappeared a year or two ago,but I have no idea how they departed from the base.

The last significant interchanges with the UPwere the sand loads in the late-90's.The Navy, however,did not handle these cars. Coast Rail Servicesswitched the sand hoppers with their GP9 #1965. I believe the CRSX caboose stored at Fullerton spent a couple years in Seal Beach as their "office" of sorts while the sand unloading was going on.

[chris_wlkr]

I could have sworn we had a thread about Seal Beach on here. Perhaps it was over on SCRF from a few years ago before I stopped contribuiting there.

I searched for it here, but could not come up with the thread, though I do have the images that were sent to me from Steve D to post.

Figure it wont be no big thing to post them here as well.. so here they are.

Steve - If any of these need to be removed, please let me know and also feel free to offer up captions for them in a post and I will edit them into the image postings.

Before that however.. my only recollection of UP on the Seal Beach branch was when they were running sand trains. I was in Arnies Model Train store in Westminster and the branch runs right next to their building on Edwards... the train came through shaking the store.

Looking back at it now .. I should have gone out and chased them for some photos.

Anyways, at least I saw one of them.

Onto the photos.

This one is titled - AmmoJunction_Dutch Hendrick (Steve Donaldson Collection)

If I recall correctly ..

This was taken at Ammo Junction when the Navy would come out to meet the SP near todays junction of the SP (UP) and the Seal Beach Branch. The track was later reconfigured to connect from the north instead of the south as seen in this image.

The SP local is on the HB Branch coming from the north.

[chris_wlkr]

Jesa Workin Man is the title on this one. (Steve Donaldson Collection)

[chris_wlkr]

Lined Locked... (Steve Donaldson Collection)

[chris_wlkr]

NumeroUno .. (Steve Donaldson Collection)

[chris_wlkr]

OnPad .. (Steve Donaldson Collection)