Another where is It

[Myfordbrowning]

This photo was taken on 10-7-72

[SLOCONDR]

Sorta reminds me of the area towards the east end of the Santa Paula branch....

V

SLOCONDR

[espeefoamer]

Looks like Pallisade canyon,Nevada to me.

[Myfordbrowning]

SLOCONDR Wrote:Sorta reminds me of the area towards the east end of the Santa Paula branch....

V

SLOCONDR

Of course, V knows his railroad. The train is the LA/OLA heading [westward]*- correct direction is eastward - on the Santa Paula Branch. It is crossing the Santa Clara River Bridge near Magic Mountain. It is interesting that the Santa Clara River is not near Santa Clara County or the city of Santa Clara. The train is running on the Santa Paula Branch because of a tunnel project between Chatsworth and Santa Susana on 10-7-72.

The train will get help from the local at Saugus (a SW1500 plus its short train) for the grade to the Tunnel, however they either broke-in-two or an air hose came apart as they rolled through Newhall and went into emergency.

Cliff


*The train is headed eastward as V corrected in a following post

[TC Smith]

Got any more ?



TCS -

[SLOCONDR]

Cliff, are you sure he is headed west? Looks to me likehe is east bound from Santa Paula heading towards Saugus.

V

SLOCONDR

Myfordbrowning[/user Wrote:wrote: [/b]

Quote:[b][user=213]SLOCONDR]Sorta reminds me of the area towards the east end of the Santa Paula branch....

V

SLOCONDR

Of course, V knows his railroad. The train is the LA/OLA heading westward on the Santa Paula Branch. It is crossing the Santa Clara River Bridge near Magic Mountain. It is interesting that the Santa Clara River is not near Santa Clara County or the city of Santa Clara. The train is running on the Santa Paula Branch because of a tunnel project between Chatsworth and Santa Susana on 10-7-72.

The train will get help from the local at Saugus (a SW1500 plus its short train) for the grade to the Tunnel, however they either broke-in-two or an air hose came apart as they rolled through Newhall and went into emergency.

Cliff

[Myfordbrowning]

V is absolutely correct, the train is eastbound. I knew that but wrote it without thinking. The train is a bay area-Los Angeles Manifest.

SLOCONDR[/user Wrote:wrote: [/b]

Quote:Cliff, are you sure he is headed west? Looks to me likehe is east bound from Santa Paula heading towards Saugus.

V

SLOCONDR





[user=74]Myfordbrowning[/user] wrote:

Quote:[b][user=213]SLOCONDR]Sorta reminds me of the area towards the east end of the Santa Paula branch....

V

SLOCONDR

Of course, V knows his railroad. The train is the LA/OLA heading westward on the Santa Paula Branch. It is crossing the Santa Clara River Bridge near Magic Mountain. It is interesting that the Santa Clara River is not near Santa Clara County or the city of Santa Clara. The train is running on the Santa Paula Branch because of a tunnel project between Chatsworth and Santa Susana on 10-7-72.

The train will get help from the local at Saugus (a SW1500 plus its short train) for the grade to the Tunnel, however they either broke-in-two or an air hose came apart as they rolled through Newhall and went into emergency.

Cliff

[erielackawanna]

I can't believe that I missed this thread (of course it wasn't nearly as important to me when posted, as I worked in Westwood then). Now that I work in Valencia, I drive by that bridge on a daily basis.

Question for either Cliff or Virlon, where did the ROW run from Cliff's image run to Saugus? I have been scouting the area on my lunch breaks, and have learned from Clark and Karl that the track went behind the Saugus Cafe... but from there it's tough to find. Obviously the bridge there is gone... About a block west or two west of Saugus, there is a think parking lot running for a few blocks north of Magic Mountain Parkway, and I'm guessing that is the ROW. From about Town Center on, however, I got nothing. I'm wondering if it was where the road was itself?

Just prior to getting to where Cliff's shot was taken however, there is a small section where it looks like the ROW was on the south side of Magic Mountain.

Anyway, curious minds want to know.

Thanks,

Charles

[SLOCONDR]

(09-21-2010 04:21 PM)erielackawanna Wrote:  I can't believe that I missed this thread (of course it wasn't nearly as important to me when posted, as I worked in Westwood then). Now that I work in Valencia, I drive by that bridge on a daily basis.

Question for either Cliff or Virlon, where did the ROW run from Cliff's image run to Saugus? I have been scouting the area on my lunch breaks, and have learned from Clark and Karl that the track went behind the Saugus Cafe... but from there it's tough to find. Obviously the bridge there is gone... About a block west or two west of Saugus, there is a think parking lot running for a few blocks north of Magic Mountain Parkway, and I'm guessing that is the ROW. From about Town Center on, however, I got nothing. I'm wondering if it was where the road was itself?


Just prior to getting to where Cliff's shot was taken however, there is a small section where it looks like the ROW was on the south side of Magic Mountain.

Anyway, curious minds want to know.

Thanks,

Charles

Charles,
I don't remember the Santa Paula brach coming in behind the Saugus cafe. If I remember correctly, it came in just to the north of the cafe. But it has been a lot of years since I worked that branch my memory may have failed a little on this.

V

SLOCONDR
(BOCM1)

[DeserTBoB]

(09-21-2010 05:33 PM)SLOCONDR Wrote:  Charles,
I don't remember the Santa Paula brach coming in behind the Saugus cafe. If I remember correctly, it came in just to the north of the cafe. But it has been a lot of years since I worked that branch my memory may have failed a little on this.

V

SLOCONDR

Virlon's right (as usual!)...the bridge over the south fork of the Santa Clara River washed out in the big floods in '83 and SP didn't want to have anything to do with repairing it, since the whole east end of the branch on and off since the '70s was plugged with old 40'ers, most of them old DF loaders and such. The branch (which was the main, before the Montalvo Cutoff was completed in 1904) paralleled what became Magic Mountain Parkway to the north, and was the first piece of right-of-way to be sold off, to make a parking lot for that shopping center there, along with several car dealerships. As he said, the switch for the Santa Paula was JUST north of the Saugus Cafe.

The tracks along The Old Road stayed pretty much intact until they started salvaging in the '90s. They pulled it all up almost to Piru, and then the rest was sold off. The line of stored cars on that branch years before that was VERY long. Sometime later after the rail came up, the fairly large wooden trestle over by the KOA campground was pulled down, but they left most of the smaller trestles above 126, most of which burned in a later fire. The wig-wag at the one crossing near Piru was famous for being tripped often and would swing away for days at a time, usually due to a rotten pole falling down.

Fillmore & Western operates what's left last time I saw it, and they had an F7 and some pax cars gingerly padding down the skinny 90 lb. rail at around 5 MPH, max. At one time, F&W had an old Tehachapi regular painted up to look like an NYC unit, an SP 7000, which were Alco RS-12s. Before the bridge washed out, the whole branch was in pretty rough shape on the east end. Prior to that, it did handle quite a bit of reefer traffic to Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru until the big Sunkist house at Montalvo Jct. was built. (I'm sure Virlon worked that one a time or two!) After that, the only use for the branch was an occasional lumber load to Santa Paula or Fillmore, or use as a bypass as seen in this great picture.

By the time the easternmost bridge was washed out, though, this was, at best, a 5 MPH branch from Piru to Saugus, regardless of what the timetable said. Even back in my day, right around when this shot was captured, I'd heard that this was not a fun branch to work all the way across, although it allowed 20 MPH on the better parts, except for bridges. Grades were pretty stiff on the east end, requiring lots of power, curvature was everywhere, and the rail was pretty darned skinny, rivaling the Exeter Branch. One trip over that, and Harriman's expenditure to build the Montalvo Cutoff made immediate sense!