Railroaders' Nostalgia > Tuesday Track & Time: A Bit of the Pacific Electric goe

Here is a look at the retirement of the crossing of the old Pacific Electric San Bernardino line (at this time the Baldwin Park Branch of the Southern Pacific) over the Santa Fe Pasadena Subdivision at Claremont on July 19, 1977. On that day SP trains on the Baldwin Park Branch would begin using turnout connections to the Santa Fe on the east and west sides of Claremont so as to abandon street trackage in downtown. What had been desirable back in the days of interurban passenger service had become a liability when real estate property developers and traffic engineers encountered embedded rails and local freight trains. A remnant of the old line remained to a team track just east of downtown, but I think it was rarely used.

The Santa Fe shared track lasted until 1992 when Metrolink purchased both the Santa Fe and SP lines. The through route of the old Santa Fe was abandoned in 1994 with the completion of double tracking of the route through Fullerton and Riverside. The Santa Fe line here remains as an active Metrolink passenger line to San Bernardino with a daily “San Dimas Local” BNSF freight. The old Santa Fe line from Los Angeles to Pasadena became the Pasadena Blue Line with LRT trains and from Pasadena to Glendora it is being shifted on the right of way to make room for the eastward extension of the Blue Line. Future stages of the Blue Line are to work through here on the way to Montclair and perhaps further east. West of here the old PE is the Metrolink line to Los Angeles and east of here it is a recreational trail except for two miles on the east end at Rialto.

The images:

First is the crossing diamond. It would be removed by Santa Fe track crews. We are looking west, towards Los Angeles.

Second is the PE paving gang after the PE tracks were removed from Cambridge Ave. This crew was a relic of the old days on the PE when repairing streets was a part of right of way maintenance. They did good work and were frequently sent to the “shops” piggy-back terminal but in later years they were abolished and any paving was contracted out. I remember an amusing encounter with them one day at lunch time. They had set up traffic barricades in a busy street for some repair and when it was time to eat they stayed put, even setting up a checkerboard on a drum so as to have their customary game while traffic roared by on both sides.

Third is an eastbound Santa Fe freight, you can see the now-abandoned PE line in the foreground. Not vital to the story but the Santa Fe folks will like the two versions of blue paint and the open auto racks. We're all here for fun after all.

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Didn't SP also employ "Brush" gangs for clearing bushes and undergrowth around signal lines?

Just a note that the "Blue Line" designation was changed to "Gold Line" before the line was opened.

Herbicides were used mostly to keep areas free of all vegetation.
Many places vegetation was tolerated or encouraged to resist erosion, or simply to avoid the cost of removal.
Gangs, or later, contractors, were used where needed to keep brush and small trees out of the right of way.
In some cattle country clean bladed earth firebreaks were refreshed each spring to prevent small right of way fires or sparks from locomotives from spreading onto the ranches. Parts of the Salinas Valley had firebreaks.

Over the years government regulations changed. When the Palmdale cutoff was built in 1966-67 on US Forest Dept. land their requirement was for "bare mineral earth" for (IIRC) 100 feet each side of the track, requiring us to place equipment on the tops of the ridges and basically slide down on their blade as a fire suppression tactic. In the late 70s, when the SP extended Canyon Siding as a part of the CTC project they had changed their mind and wanted the roadway and track to be weed-free but we had to apply mulch with native plant seeds and fertilizer to attempt to replace the natural slopes. I can only image that the recent BNSF third track work had even more elaborate requirements.

Track to right in photo number one , was ATSF access to Claremont packing houses.Great post. Thank you.Sure brings back a lot of memories.We lived near the Baldwin Park Branch in Alta Loma so I took a lot of pics of that line.Looking at the pics is not so much the trains ,but the surrounding area has changed so much.Bill Webb

This crossing was also known as Claremont Tower.
Today it is known 'CP Cambridge' after the street that crossed the area.

--Jim Baker

You're bringin' tears to my eyes, Mike. Photo #1 sure brings back great memories of working the Rialto local out of Baldwin Park eons ago.


V

SLOCONDR

Even though I cannot find mention of it in an April '79 Santa Fe TT I have, IF I remember correctly, Claremont was a bit of an anomaly as the Santa Fe Second District where this crossing was located was all ABS signals San Bernardino to Broadway with number plates EXCEPT the signals governing movement over these two hand throw switches which were considered absolute signals even though they were ABS. Confused? So were we if we got a red either direction and you couldn't get hold of the DS, you sat.
JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/14 21:19 by 3rdswitch.

Here's how the crossing looked from the PE side while riding a electric freight motor in 1951. The two
oil storage tanks were still present when you did the removal in 1977 albeit painted black and your photo
shows how far west the interchange track extended. Needless to say the tower structure had also disappeared
but there is evidence in your pic something probably related to its being at the diamond. Thanks Mike.

On second look maybe the track to the right was not really interchange but merely to allow Santa Fe access
to the packing houses as Bill Webb mentioned. Notice that the trolley wire stops adjacent to the west car so PE would not have gone very far beyond that point.

Charlie



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/14 18:10 by cewherry.

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Thanks for sharing... This very spot is where I grew up loving trains (Especially the SP). Used to ride my bicycle down here from "uptown" Claremont to hang out where I loved to be. 10 to 17 years old, 1972 to 1979. I remember the removal of the crossing well. The remains of Claremont tower was still visible as a foundation in the ground during this time.

Mark

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> Even though I cannot find mention of it in an
> April '79 Santa Fe TT I have, IF I remember
> correctly, Claremont was a bit of an anomaly as
> the Santa Fe Second District where this crossing
> was located was all ABS signals San Bernardino to
> Broadway with number plates EXCEPT the signals
> governing movement over these two hand throw
> switches which were considered absolute signals
> even though they were ABS. Confused? So were we if
> we got a red either direction and you couldn't get
> hold of the DS, you sat.
> JB
The crossing was protected by ABS signals that were governed by timetable special instructions that required crew to observe rules 98-B and 320-A if the signals displayed stop. These rules covered flagging and proceeding past the red signal at restricted speed. This allowed AT&SF trains to pass red signals that were not working as intended and there was not conflicting movements. The DS did not have direct control over the signals. This type of signaling for PE crossings was used at Upland, San Dimas, Kincaid and Arcadia where the PE crew was required to activate a time release and line a derail to cross the Santa Fe.

After the SP started using trackage rights on the ATSF at Claremont, yard limits were established at Claremont. A length of the connecting track at the east side of Claremont still exists.

Cliff

Here's a couple of images showing the line in November, 1991 with the SP joining the ATSF line just west of Cambridge. This was an empty SP rail train that had just dropped some of the first rail for the Metrolink rehab of the line in San Dimas, and was on its way back to West Colton via the Santa Fe in San Bernardino.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/attachments/fullsize/163000/SP6337CLAREMONT110191ATO.jpg

2nd photo is passing the Santa Fe Claremont depot, with the track in the foreground being the Santa Fe siding.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/attachments/fullsize/163000/SP6337CLAREMONT110191CTO.jpg

These were from a TO thread I posted about 7 years ago:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1271045

Rich

MyfordBrowning: Thanks for the note about PE lines crossing Santa Fe. I was wondering what kind of protection the Arcadia crossing had after the PE main line was pulled out in 1952, but the former SP Duarte Branch remained in service via the Rivas Cutoff (which, until about 1967, crossed ATSF at Kincaid with a time-release interlocker). The crossing was in the middle of the street intersection at First and Santa Clara Aves. in Arcadia, and would have been in service until 1960 or 61. I wasn't sure whether there was some type of simple interlocker, or the PE crew just went to the nearby Santa Fe station and had the agent get clearance from the DS. When the intersection was dug up for the new Gold Line crossing, some very rusty rail was pulled out.

Photo: presumed remnants of the PE (not electrified) line in Arcadia, one block south of the Monrovia Glendora Line.

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Claremont Tower and Crossing 1951.

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