Nostalgia & History > SP Freight Action on the Burbank Branch

Rolling westward through Reseda in 1984 this segment had about six years left when this image was recorded.The SP Burbank Branch extended from Burbank Junction to Chatsworth.Serving mostly lumber yards in the later years, it was abandoned in segments, with the first to go the mid portion from Van Nuys to about a mile east of Chatworth.The eastern portion from Burbank Junction to Van Nuys lasted until the late nineties.All was not lost however, the LAMTA converted the most of the  right of way into a rapid bus corridor named the Orange Line.There is even talk of returning it back to rail in the form of light rail due to capacity restraints imposed by the buses.Bill Webb 

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Interesting, thanks for sharing.
sd-45
 

That was one of the reasons they built the busway, to see if there was a market. The busway is much cheaper to build and if they do convert it to light rail the major grading is done.

Super interesting thanks for sharing! 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/20 20:58 by Fiftyfooter.

Cool image - thanks for sharing, Bill. I lived up there one summer and went over these tracks every morning and evening, but it was 1985 and I was new to LA and had no idea when (or even if) they ran. I never caught anything on there.

Awesome catch!
JB

PHall Wrote:
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> That was one of the reasons they built the busway,
> to see if there was a market. The busway is much
> cheaper to build and if they do convert it to
> light rail the major grading is done.

It was Mayor Richard Riordan's plan to save money. The Orange Line was to be but the first. He was going to convert all future Metro lines to BRT lines (he had visited some city in Brazil that was using BRT and was convinced it was the new sliced bread). The cost of building BRT first and then converting to light rail is far more than just building light rail would have been.

erielackawanna Wrote:
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> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > That was one of the reasons they built the
> busway,
> > to see if there was a market. The busway is
> much
> > cheaper to build and if they do convert it to
> > light rail the major grading is done.
>
> It was Mayor Richard Riordan's plan to save money.
> The Orange Line was to be but the first. He was
> going to convert all future Metro lines to BRT
> lines (he had visited some city in Brazil that was
> using BRT and was convinced it was the new sliced
> bread). The cost of building BRT first and then
> converting to light rail is far more than just
> building light rail would have been.

There was a real debate when the Busway was built if it would have any traffic or not.

I recall the choice of bus vs. light rail was up to voters before it was built.   It was one of the first things I could legally vote for, so I do recall that.    Obviously, people voted for bus.
As far as the SP, it was really hard concentrating in class at Pierce College when SW1500's were tooting across Winnetka.   I mean that in a good way of course.





 

I like how that SP train is rolling right along--dust in the air, cars swaying a bit.  SP seemed to run at higher speeds on such branches that today's UP, which seems to think 10 mph is the only speed possible for any branch line.

Great shot!

The Red Line subway was supposed to be routed from downtown LA out to the San Fernando Valley on an elevated ROW past the Hollywood hills but NIMBY voters out there voted it down and got buses instead.

coach Wrote:
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> I like how that SP train is rolling right
> along--dust in the air, cars swaying a bit.  SP
> seemed to run at higher speeds on such branches
> that today's UP, which seems to think 10 mph is
> the only speed possible for any branch line.

Speed limit on the Burbank Branch in 1976 was 30 mph with large sections of 25, 20 15 and 10 mph.

Is that caboose in the middle of the cars? Great photo! I didn’t really start poking around LA until the early 00’s so I missed some of the good stuff!

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

trackplanner Wrote:
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> The Red Line subway was supposed to be routed from
> downtown LA out to the San Fernando Valley on an
> elevated ROW past the Hollywood hills but NIMBY
> voters out there voted it down and got buses
> instead.
At one time the subway rails actually connected to the remanents of the Chandler SP ROW in North Hollywood.

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