Nostalgia & History > ATSF Pasadena Sub: Amtrak and noteworthy detours?

Hello all,

Got a couple questions prompted by a recent Pasadena, CA thread on this forum.

First, did any Amtrak trains especially those powered by SDP40F's ever use the old alignment in Pasadena before Santa Fe cut over to the new 210 trackage? Or how about any trains at all with Amtrak markings/striping? I've never come across any photos of such. Even photos of more modern Amtrak trains using the 210 trackage during the 80's and 90's are rare. Anyway I would be most interested in seeing these if anyone has any that they can share.

Secondly, did any noteaworthy detours ever run on this line, especially during the 1970's and 1980's? For instance did UP ever detour any freights via Pasadena? How about Super Bowl or Rose Bowl specials other than those operated by Santa Fe? And the question I've had for the longest time but could never find an answer, did Santa Fe's own Super C ever make a trip over the Pasadena Sub? I would think that this one would be very possible and even likely that it happened at least once, but I have never seen it documented as such. Anything that you guys know or even heard "through the grapevine" back in the day would be of interest!

Thanks for any responses!

Jim

Great topics, I've always wondered about other RR detours as well.

Posted from iPhone

I hired out with Santa Fe signal dept in Feb. of 1974. My first day on the job was working on the 210 relocation project. Yes, Amtrak did run the old route thru Pasadena during this construction. The Amtrak 500's came on in 1973.

Amtrak ran down the old mainline for several years through Pasadena, well into 1974. However, by 1971 construction had already started on the current 210 between Orange Grove and Michillinda. All of the houses on the north side of the Santa Fe right-of-way had been razed between Marengo and Wilson. At Wilson the right of way curved (if traveling east) in a southeasterly direction toward Walnut to Holliston, where it paralleled (more or less) Walnut to Sunnyslope, where Walnut then dead ended. The mainline then went through a tunnel into the median of the 210 at Chapman, where it had been located since 1970.

The dates of each segment of the freeway opening to traffic can be found at this web site: http://www.aaroads.com/california/i-210_ca.html. However, the mainline opened down the median on both segments (Chapman to Arcadia and Pasadena to Chapman) well before these segments of the freeway were open to traffic. I rode #4 to Chicago in late 1974 (I believe it was in October/November) and the train was still on the old main through Pasadena then.

The westbound lanes of the 210 were temporarily opened to Orange Grove for the 1976 Rose Bowl game, although it had not yet been completely striped. The freeway segment opened a couple of months later.

As to what ran there, I used to have breakfast at the restaurant across the street from the depot
and aside from the 2nd District stuff, you would see pig traffic on occasion.

Out

Until about 1988, Santa Fe used the "Second district" for most Westbound freight trains to LA. Freight crews were home at San Bernardino and worked to Barstow and LA. By using the 2nd district and running the freight crews through LA (Hobart Yard) then back to San Bdno over the Third District thru Fullerton , the crews earned about 135 miles versus 200 miles if they tied up in LA.
I have ridden many freight trains Westbound over the Second District - in fact I "qualified" as an engineer on the 2nd District with road foremen Mike Mulligan.
All the freight traffic ended when Santa Fe made the big sale of its line West or South of San Bdno to Metrolink in about 1989.

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

Actually, freight traffic continued until the end of the Pasadena Sub as a through route in January 1994. In 1993, Metrolink trains, Amtrak, and through Santa Fe freights (mostly westbound intermodal) all shared the eastern half of the line from San Berdoo to Claremont.

Here's a westbound morning pigtrain in downtown Pasadena on November 28, 1992.

Rich


aronco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Until about 1988, Santa Fe used the "Second
> district" for most Westbound freight trains to LA.
> Freight crews were home at San Bernardino and
> worked to Barstow and LA. By using the 2nd
> district and running the freight crews through LA
> (Hobart Yard) then back to San Bdno over the Third
> District thru Fullerton , the crews earned about
> 135 miles versus 200 miles if they tied up in LA.
> I have ridden many freight trains Westbound over
> the Second District - in fact I "qualified" as an
> engineer on the 2nd District with road foremen
> Mike Mulligan.
> All the freight traffic ended when Santa Fe made
> the big sale of its line West or South of San Bdno
> to Metrolink in about 1989.
>
> Norm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/14 14:15 by PasadenaSub.

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FWIW, circa 1994 I was on a N/S residential side street, probably .25 miles East of Lake St, and South of I210.
On the pavement was a very faded RXR warning.
Alas, I had no camera.
...Lorenzo

The crossing on Colorado was pretty interesting as Eastbound the train just popped
out from between two buildings, like zero notice. It took several years for all the
street markings to finally disappear.

Out