Nostalgia & History > The End of the Line for SP's Baldwin Park Branch - 1991

Here's a few from October 30 - November 1, 1991 when I discovered a Southern Pacific work train dropping rail on the Baldwin Park branch in San Dimas, CA. The line was previously a huge chunk of the Pacific Electric San Bernardino line, and was reconfigured to connect with SP's LA Basin main in Bassett (near Industry) at the west end, and the Palmdale cutoff line at Bench in Rialto/San Bernardino on the east end. I had heard of the SCRRA (Southern California Regional Rail Authority) purchasing several main and other lines in Southern California for ultimate use by what would be the Metrolink commuter trains of today. But my first realization of the changing times occured about a week prior, when I drove over the Baldwin Park branch at Valley Center Ave. in San Dimas and saw the rails and ties torn asunder and awaiting removal (Photo #9 below).

A week later while returning from work in Ontario in the afternoon, I could see an SP work train on the line as I crossed over on the 210 freeway in San Dimas. I quickly exited and made my way trackside to get as many pictures as possible before dark. The rail train, powered by GP35R 6337 and SSW GP60 9644, was dropping rail around the 210 freeway overpass just west of Cataract Avenue. I found out from talking with the crew that the train had come west from San Bernardino on Santa Fe's Pasadena Sub to Pomona, where the power was run around the train. It was then taken back east the mile or two to Claremont, where it was backed onto the Baldwin Park branch at what is now Metrolink's CP Cambridge (the BP branch used trackage rights on the ATSF through downtown Claremont for about 1 mile). That must have been quite a sight to see the heavy rail train backing the 5 miles from Claremont to San Dimas on the rickety 10mph branch.

As my schedule at work and college would allow in the next two days, I returned for more pictures of the rail train. On the morning of Nov. 1, I discovered that the train (now empty) had moved east to Claremont, and was waiting to get onto the Santa Fe to head east to San Bernardino (and ultimately Espee-land at Colton). After waiting for a westbound ATSF local, they were on the move, where I caught him passing the soon-to-be restored Santa Fe Claremont depot.

I'm not sure if San Dimas was where the first new rail was dropped for what would become Metrolink's San Gabriel Sub, as I believe crews were working from the west end near Baldwin Park also. However, it's a bit ironic that my best chance for pictures of SP trains on the line would come just as it was being torn up. SP (and now UP) still would have access to the few remaining customers between Baldwin Park and La Verne (just east of San Dimas) over the Metrolink line, but there would be no more easy photos, as they now are switched at night usually only once or twice a week.

The eastern portion of the Baldwin Park branch would be mostly abandoned (between Claremont and Rialto), as Metrolink opted to use the Santa Fe between San Bernardino and Claremont.

Pic 1) Stopped just west of Cataract on 10/31/91. The tank car customer Aeropress is on the other side of the locomotives.

Pics 2&3) The rail train, going back and forth (as dictated by the MOW crews) between Cataract and San Dimas Avenues on 10/31/91. The steep embankments on either side of the rail here have been somewhat filled in when the line was rebuilt.

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Pic 4) Grand Trunk Western rail flatcars with brand new steel, east of Cataract on Halloween, 1991.

Pics 5&6) The eastbound empty rail train sitting just west of Cambridge Ave. in Claremont, waiting to get on the Santa Fe Pasadena Sub (seen to the right) on 11/1/91.

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Pics 7&8) Passing the Santa Fe Claremont depot heading for San Bernardino. Previously, eastbound SP trains would exit Santa Fe trackage onto home rails to the north via a turnout just east of College Avenue. But by 1991, the Baldwin Park branch was usually worked from both ends - with the middle section around Claremont embargoed due to poor track conditions. For a few months after these photos, SP did run a local to serve their customers in Pomona and La Verne via the Santa Fe from San Bernardino to Claremont - as they could not be reached from the west again until the new ROW was constructed.

Pic 9) The view looking east from Valley Center Ave. in San Dimas one week prior on 10/23/91. The 210 freeway overpass can be seen in the distance. This is about 1 mile west of the previous San Dimas photos.

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Pic 10) Lastly, a comparison photo of Metrolink 14 years later - very close to the same view in Pic #2 between Cataract and San Dimas Avenues.

Thanks for looking,

Rich

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Great as always.
Just a question, was this rail being laid for the new Metrolink tracks?

Yes, absolutely.

rms492 Wrote:
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> Great as always.
> Just a question, was this rail being laid for the
> new Metrolink tracks?

Great sequence Rich. I didn't get near enough of the SP at the time.
—Mac

Rich

A super sequence. Thank-you very much for creating this post.

I didn't back to that area until Sept 1992 so only saw the new and as yet barely and rarely used new Metrolink rail on that ROW in LaVerne and San Dimas. I was startled at the transformation
as I remember all that old rail and rickety ROW.

I'd wondered how the transition had unfolded and you provided some answers. I couldn't believe how dreadful the ROW was on that one scene. There had to have been some camera distortion but even so,
oh my. But no doubt those were rails used under catenary. It would have been interesting to check
the original steel mill roller dates on those rails.

Well, at least the easement has been brought up to date and used productively rather than disappear
forever.

Hi Bob, thanks for the kind words. Actually, the rail in the photo from Valley Center had already been pulled from the ties as 'prep work' before removal. There were some rough spots on the line, but there's no way a train could have navigated that stretch <G>.

Rich

The story in one of the RR news magazines was that the old Baldwin Park Branch "Looked like the TGV". Not too far off the mark.
There is still UP local freight business to Aeropress (LNG tanks) and a plastics company in La Verne (covered hoppers), plus several customers in Bassett and further up the Azuza lead, including Miller Brewing.

While I don't know the rail date on the tracks thru San Dimas, but the Baldwin Park Branch thru Fontana, about 30 miles to the east, had rail dated "1905".

If anyone has some photos of the former tower at Cambridge, please post or pass on a link. I left Claremont in 1960 for a four-year stint in the USAF. When I returned, the only thing left was parts of the foundation and some remnants. I grabbed a toilet seat as a souvenir. Once upon a time, that was a hot spot with the Pacific Electric and the ATSF track and all those ice-cooled box cars full of wonderful Claremont citrus hand-packed in wooden boxes with brilliant labels. So much another era.

Thank for the photos and background.


Isn't it interesting how the welded rail is continuouis on the racks of flat cars as the train like this negotiates curves. I'm wondering if it creaks or groans while the train is negotiating curves. I assume there is a speed restriction on the mainline?

The is one hair raising story of a train like that ran away on the Horse Shoe Curve in Pennsylvania and stayed on the track!

Reportedly, here out my way in northern Indiana when they pulled up rail (abandoned) from the N&W Gary District, they put in the new yard for the GM truck plant in Roanoke, Indiana.

Of course, in dialogues on this subject, I always feel compelled to point out that the west end of the Baldwin Park Branch truly began as an S.P. Branch, namely the Covina, running from Bassett to the town of that name, opened in 1895, then on thru San Dimas and Lordsburg to Pomona the following year P.E. built its San Bernardino Line parallel/adjacent to the S.P. Branch in 1910, coming in from L.A., El Monte, and namesake Baldwin Park, crossing the S.P. branch at Vineland and Lone Hill(the P.E. was not completed from Upland to San Bernardino[Bench] until 1914). As early as 1932 and continuing thru the 1940s, the two companies shared S.P.'s Covina Branch between the pairs of crossing points (i.e., Baldwin Park to Irwindale, and Lone Hill to Ganesha Junction, both sections being controlled by staff systems, so the old rail may have dated to 19th century when first laid by S.P.

frcanyonsub Wrote:
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> If anyone has some photos of the former tower at
> Cambridge, please post or pass on a link. I left
> Claremont in 1960 for a four-year stint in the
> USAF. When I returned, the only thing left was
> parts of the foundation and some remnants. I
> grabbed a toilet seat as a souvenir. Once upon a
> time, that was a hot spot with the Pacific
> Electric and the ATSF track and all those
> ice-cooled box cars full of wonderful Claremont
> citrus hand-packed in wooden boxes with brilliant
> labels. So much another era.
The book Pacific Electric in color volume 2 has a picture of the tower on the cover and in the book. This is a great series of books that I highly recommend for anyone even vaguely interested in the PE.-BMT

Here's a couple more photos of the right-of-way shortly after the above photos were taken.

1) At Valley Center Ave. on 11/8/91, with the rails and ties hauled away.

2) Further west, in Covina on 11/8/91, with the ROW cleaned up and graded some.

Rich

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The Covina branch has always been special to me as I grew up in Covina until 1967. The SP Covina branch ran right behind my grade school (Griswald Elementary) which was at the north end of my street. And at the south end, three houses away was the old PE right of way, which is now Badillo ave. I didn't know that it was the PE r-o-w until just a few years ago when I became interested in the PE. There had been some old ties scattered around the area that had been left behind after they tore the rail out. The area was pretty much obliterated when they put an underground wash through there in the early 60's. Then just before we moved away in '67, they paved Badillo and made it a through street between Covina and Baldwin Park.
As to the SP branch, I remember black and orange tiger striped units running along behind the school while playing at recess. Later in the early '70's while searching for anything around the old Covina depot sight I got a couple of 1909 date nails, which are the oldest one that i have found.
Thanks for the pics and jogging the old memory cells (I only wish I could remember more details).-BMT