Western Railroad Discussion > Vasona Branch Survived by Weekly Lumber Load

The ex-Southern Pacific Vasona Branch in the south San Francisco Bay Area is filled with history! The line swung off of the coast line in San Jose and ran southwest towards Campbell and Los Gatos. The line then swung northwest at Los Gatos and towards the Lehigh/Permanente Cement Plant in the foothills of Cupertino. Following WWII, the cement plan kept the line plenty busy along with several packing houses and farm stops that the Southern Pacific serviced. Following the Union Pacific takeover and the massive technological boom of the late 1990's, The Vasona Branch lost customer after customer as the south bay traded fruit orchards for suburban sprawl. By 2001, the only two industries on the entire branch line, Economy Lumber in Campbell and Lehigh Cement remained. In 2022, the cement plant formally shut down, eliminating any active rail west (railroad east) of Campbell. 

In the age of PSR and shareholder greed, it is hard to believe that Union Pacific keeps the branch active. Especially when the last remaining customer is only good for one loaded centerbeam of lumber each week. With a local originating in Warm Springs Yard and traveling nearly 50 miles round trip, its hard to believe that the lovely Vasona Branch will last much longer. 

The local has been making the run to Economy Lumber on Friday afternoons. The local mission bay hauler power, 2 SD59MXs, meander through the south bay to Campbell, drop the load, and then complete a unique switching puzzle that is called, "running around without running around" 

1. After waiting for a slough of commuters to clear Downtown San Jose, the local takes it shot at coming off of the Warm Springs Sub, onto the Coast Sub, and onto the Vasona Branch. The train with lonely lumber car can be seen ducking under the San Carlos Bridge with downtown San Jose in the distance. Just to the right of the bridge was the famous Del Monte Packing plant which was responsible for the world's supply of fruit cocktail until 2001 when the plant shut down. Today it is all high density condos.

2. The Vasona Branch parallels the VTA lightrail extension to downtown Campbell which uses the old SP Right of Way. The cars are crossing the tracks on Campbell Ave and entering the historical Downtown Campbell. 

3. The crew has already dropped the loaded centerbeam and is now in the process of breaking the power and rearranging it with the empty before heading back to San Jose

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4. The Brakemen is kept busy at the switch as the non runaround runaround takes place. 

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Even further back in history, this line included commuter service from Santa Cruz, through the Santa Cruz mountains and Los Gatos, as well as past the cement plant to join the now-Caltrain line somewhere around Palo Alto.  The Santa Cruz and Big Trees runs on remnants of this line from Felton to Santa Cruz.  Every so often some dreamer wants to resurect this service, but much of the former right of way through the Los Gatos area has been built over.

Also, from the split just south of Diridon Station to the crossing of Winchester Blvd in Los Gatos, the line is now owned by the Valley Transportation Authority.  Someday, maybe, the Green Line light rail will continue further south along Winchester Blvd parallel to the existing tracks.

Good coverage.  Few fans take the time to document these fast-disappearing branch lines and industrial spurs in CA.

Splitting the power is totally legit. A lot of young crews think it's some sort of imagined rule violation, but...it's legit!

UP is worried about costs, but sends 2 SD-59's on a run with 1 car, for 50 miles!!!

Please explain the logic to me, if there is any.

Just a show while sending hourly letters to the customer begging him to do something else ie a team track. Or
you can take the SP route that they did to W-O Lumber on the Placerville branch (for only 5 miles) slap a $1200
per car tariff on the inbounds. W-O was outbound and had just rebuilt the mill to increase shipments.

Out 

Great narrative, and thanks for sharing. That second shot is classic with that persons labrador eyeballing you down the tracks.

My old stomping ground back in the 50's-80's.  Thanks for sharing.

Kent in CArmel Valley

Great series and yes, surprised that Branch is still  in service!

Enjoyed the write up and the photos! Second SPgoletablock on the labrador in the 2nd shot.

First time I watched the "runaround without the runaround" was with the LRM54 local working the rebar business near Livermore. The same LRM54 worked Economy Lumber 2+ years ago with Geeps, and LRM54 was abolished after that.

While riding Caltrain this month, I spotted an empty center beam at Pine Cone Lumber in Sunnyvale. Don't know if the South City Local is still handling lumber cars, but let's hope these 3 lumber businesses continue to get stuff by rail.

coach Wrote:
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> UP is worried about costs, but sends 2 SD-59's on
> a run with 1 car, for 50 miles!!!
>
> Please explain the logic to me, if there is any.

Vasona Branch has seen some interesting lashups before PSR. For example, how about a SD9043MAC/SD9043MAC/GP15/GP38-2? 

I'm pretty sure Geeps are still used out of Warm Springs Yard, to service the Milpitas Industrial Lead, Oakland Sub to Union City, the street running (Rogers Ave.) in North San Jose, and so forth. Probably a case of the crew grabbing "whatever that's available now" and the Geeps were probably used elsewhere.

You want to rant against the greed when you catch UP doing something REALLY stupid. (like driving crews in vans across subdivisions to fib crew starts)

Many thanks for the Pics and bringing us up todate on UP ex[-SP braanchloine History!

coach Wrote:
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> UP is worried about costs, but sends 2 SD-59's on
> a run with 1 car, for 50 miles!!!
>
> Please explain the logic to me, if there is any.

Because that power set does other things the other six days a week and it's easier to not mess with it for this one day.

PHall Wrote:
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> coach Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > UP is worried about costs, but sends 2 SD-59's
> on
> > a run with 1 car, for 50 miles!!!
> >
> > Please explain the logic to me, if there is
> any.
>
> Because that power set does other things the other
> six days a week and it's easier to not mess with
> it for this one day.

That is correct. Warm Springs yard usually has three pairs of resident locomotives, two pairs of geeps and this pair of SD59's. The SD59s are consistently the mission bay power for the run up the SF Peninsula. On fridays, they make the run on the Vasona Branch and then go to Redwood City to pick up cars as well. 

I live a half mile from that lumberyard, and the day it runs has changed a bunch since I moved here 2.5 years ago.

I hear the horn for the Camden grade crossing and I don't think they get a centerbeam every week.