Western Railroad Discussion > Duarte, CA former ATSF track removal Complete....

Since it's been almost a month since my last update:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2916164

I headed over to Duarte this morning to see if the remaining 1/2 miles stretch of former Santa Fe rail and ties were still standing. Upon arriving at Buena Vista Ave., I saw that the tracks are now gone between there and Mountain Ave. (on the Monrovia border).

So now the furthest west 4-mile segment of the original LA Second District track between Claremont and Arcadia that was left after the line was cut in 1994 is gone. It survived from '94 to 2012 despite having only one customer, a corn silo in Monrovia (which closed in 2007).

Now the current end of track is at Highland Ave. in Duarte, about 1/4 mile west of the 605 freeway overpass and about 1.5 miles west of the Miller Coors brewery in Irwindale. This track will likely be spared for at least a little while, as crews are using it to bring in and stockpile new concrete ties and rail (for the MTA Gold Line Foothill Extension) in a storage yard just south of the right-of-way here.

Moving from east to west:

1-2) A little bit west of Buena Vista. The white building in the background has been used to construct floats for the Rose Parade in Pasadena in recent years.

3) Looking west from the same spot.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/12 14:02 by PasadenaSub.

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4-5) Stacks of ties and the old dragging equipment detector, the only one on the Second District/Pasadena Sub.

6) Looking west towards Mountain Avenue.

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7) A piece of rail turned sideways at Mountain Ave.

8) Looking beyond Mountain, where the track has been gone for a couple months now.

With the trackage now gone in the section, I probably won't drop by too often to keep tabs on the rubble until I hear word of the new Gold Line rails going in.

Rich

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In your second shot it looks like some one else is surveying the demise of the once vital and vibrant mainline. At least it's going to be used for trains again. Great coverage as usual, Rich.-BMT

BTW Rich, next time you see your dad, tell him Mike Pollock says hi. He remembers him well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/12 14:37 by UPNW2-1083.

The only saving grace is that this route will once again see passenger movements,but I still get a lump in my throat when I think of the name streamliners and later Amtrak that once plied these tangents and contributed to the overall history of the L.A area rail scene for literally decades. Many memories are here ,but we look to the future with hope, but never with the glory that once was. RIP AT&SF former L.A Second District..

Phil Blommendahl
Getzville, NY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/12 16:31 by Phil1.

A truly sad sight.
JB

PasadenaSub Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 7) A piece of rail turned sideways at Mountain
> Ave.
>
> 8) Looking beyond Mountain, where the track has
> been gone for a couple months now.
>
> With the trackage now gone in the section, I
> probably won't drop by too often to keep tabs on
> the rubble until I hear word of the new Gold Line
> rails going in.
>
> Rich


I see the back side of a NABI Bus. What Metro Bus Line

goes by this spot?

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

Here's another pic from today, featuring the Metro Line 264 sign along Duarte Road across from the detector.

GP25 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I see the back side of a NABI Bus. What Metro Bus
> Line
>
> goes by this spot?

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PasadenaSub Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here's another pic from today, featuring the Metro
> Line 264 sign along Duarte Road across from the
> detector.
>
> GP25 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I see the back side of a NABI Bus. What Metro
> Bus
> > Line
> >
> > goes by this spot?


I havent ridden that line in years.

That part of the 264 was the old 188 line. And Maybe a part of
the old 177 line. And I would think there was a few people here.
That would remember these two bus lines.

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

As I recall, the 177 line (or a predecessor) went from City of Hope north on Highland and west on Royal Oaks. It ran through Monrovia, Arcadia, Pasadena and La Canada, and wound up in Glendale. I have a vague recollection from the 1970's of my younger daughter and a friend riding this line from Duarte (where we lived at the time) to Glendale to visit the Galleria. Unlike most Southern California suburban children, my daughters had quite a bit of experience with public transit, and buses were not considered "exotic transport" to us.

Getting back to rail transportation, construction has started on the Gold Line Operations Center (that's right, gun fans, GLOC) between California and Shamrock in Monrovia (a block west of Mountain). When I went by Miller-Coors this morning en route to OERM, there were four or five carloads of concrete ties and a load of rail waiting to be moved across the river.

My daughters had their first mainline passenger train experience back in 1965, when we rode the Chief from Los Angeles to Pomona, and returned to Duarte on the RTD 64 bus. When my older daughter started "getting serious" about the young man who is now her husband, we found that he had never ridden an Amtrak train. I advised him that if he wanted to be part of our family, we would give him a ceremonial train ride to remedy this oversight. So we drove out to Pomona in my old pickup, rode #3 from Pomona to Pasadena, took the 440 bus back to Duarte (I stayed on to Pomona to retrieve the truck). This was in 1978 or 79, when the RTD was running all manner of second hand motor coaches; I think we had a TDH 5105 from Kansas City, giving us extra points for an "old look" bus. (watch for posting on the Nostalgia board about more 2nd District memories.)

Don't know what bus line runs there, but you could try looking it up at:
www.metro.net.
The road is Duarte Road in Duarte, California.

--Jim Baker

Back in the 1980's here is a shot of a bus at City of Hope.

Later I think the 177 line ended here but not on C of H property.

I'm with Bob D here, I remember the line 64 but I believe that was on Huntington/Foothill in Duarte


Jay
I do love those TDH-4801 OLDLOOK buses

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