Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe at Santa Fe Springs in '85

Twenty years ago, in Jan '85, an eastbound Santa Fe train was passing under the intermediate signal bridge at Lakeland Ave, MP 155 on the Santa Fe San Bernardino Sub, in Santa Fe Springs, CA, with a, then, familiar landmark oil derrick, in the distance.
JB

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When did oil derricks disappear from the scene?
I can remember back in the mid-late '40s riding the Frisco into Tulsa and Oklahoma City and it looked like a forest of them. I think there was even one on the Oklahoma capital building grounds.
I haven't seen one in years.

Still a fair number of derricks in Brea Canyon in Orange County, CA. Most are visible from the 57 Freeway west of Tonner Canyon.

A lot of drill rigs are mobile these days and it's cheaper to use them while needed then erect a semi-permanent structure and then leave it there when it probably is not going to be used too often if at all.

Thanks for the shot JB. Interestingly enough, the same signal bridge houses the Westbound Control Signals at SF Springs. It is slated for removal sometime this year for the third main expansion. Get your pics now if you are a fan of these old signal bridges. Also the cantilever at Basta is history in the next month or two.

n6nvr Wrote:
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> Still a fair number of derricks in Brea Canyon in
> Orange County, CA. Most are visible from the 57
> Freeway west of Tonner Canyon.
>
> A lot of drill rigs are mobile these days and it's
> cheaper to use them while needed then erect a
> semi-permanent structure and then leave it there
> when it probably is not going to be used too often
> if at all.


Actually, the truck mounted drill rigs you see are for performaning maintenance on the wells. Most of the wells on both Brea Canon Oil and Unocal are shut down because the cost to retreave a barral of oil is more than the cost of imported oil.

Thanks for the info on this signal bridge.
JB

Glad you captured that scene and bothered to share it now. I worked at Powerine Oil Company, an independent refiner at that location in 80s and was instrumental in installing tank car loading facility on opposite side of Lakeland plus petcoke load out facility just to left of main lines there. Santa Fe brought a small fleet of hoppers out from midwest just to move the Powerine coke and wanted assurance beforehand that company would not switch to highway mode afterword. fterI left P.O.C. I believe they did switch to trucks eventually. The whole refinery is gone now.

I remember spotting the LPG rack at Powerine in '79. That coke business traveled the Harbor Sub regularly in the '80's. Too bad it ended.
JB