Nostalgia & History > Costa Mesa Local in '90

In Nov '90, SP's Costa Mesa local was southbound along Olive Street in Anaheim, CA, headed for the Santa Fe San Diego Sub and via trackage rights, eventually the SP's Costa Mesa branch.
JB

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Great shot. I have always been confused as to if this line continued northward past Santa Ana St. and onto the UP into Fullerton or if the trackage continued East on Santa Ana to connect with the then-ATSF. I have seen maps that convey both options. Either way, there sure were a lot of interchange points...wonder if there was that much interchange?

Marlboro always seemed like an SP affair with the SP-served industries surrounding the crossing with a possible northwest quadrant connection. Then there was the crossing at Santa Ana and Olive Sts, the crossing just West of State College and Basta. Were there many more??

I just got all of the trackage in Tustin Villa park straightened out and put onto a current Thomas Bros map, eventually it'll all go onto a wall-size map when I have the rest of the Santa Ana branch and the PE stuff figured out.

Martin

Actually the line continued EAST down Santa Ana Street and made a connection to the UP's Anaheim branch up into the '70's and Santa Fe interchanged traffic to the SP at that point [old Anaheim]. Further south at what is now CP College, and again further south at the old Santa Fe Santa Ana depot in Santa Ana.
JB

myyoungwisc's comment about Marlboro being an "SP" affair is true, and still is ( I live about aone mile from there). But there was no connection in any quadrant of the crossing; each line had a siding to serve indusry in the area, but did not connect. The same went on two miles north; AT&SF had a long branch come off from the Orange-Olive line. The line went due west, crossed Glassell, and served some industries. The line was removed a few yours ago, although an ex-AT&SF private car is still on some rails. The SP branches off south of Taft from the Tustin line, heads north into the same industrial area. The two companies did not interchange in that area (I'm not sure the lines even crossed).

The main interchange between the two was in Santa Ana where the two stations were within 500 feet of each other.

SP regularly dropped cars at the Anaheim interchange track [old Anaheim station at the connection with the UP Anaheim branch] in the '70's, mostly hoppers for the outfit [I forgot the name?] on the "Alcohol spur" off the San Diego Sub at MP 1, and, at the interchange tracks at current CP College [near the New Anaheim station where State College Blvd crosses] they left mostly boxcars for General Foods, and, at Santa Ana, it was mostly boxcars of furniture bound for the big RB Funiture outfit near the end of the line in the "Irvine Industrial Complex" at Harbor Blvd. So, in the '70's at least, there were no less than THREE stations where SP interchanged with the Santa Fe on the San Diego Sub.
JB

Very interesting indeed. I found the old ATSF spur off of Orange-Olive and followed all the way to the lumber co. where it looks like it dead ended. The SP served an industry directly behind that lumber yard but it looks as though the track would not have been at the right angles to connect, switch or not.

AS I was helping my brother move out of Anaheim today, I ran across a building on the Center and Atchison that looked like a station with some additions. Was this an old or ATSF station? I was lost and late so I wasnt able to do much nosing around.

Martin

The old Santa Fe Anaheim station was somewhere between Sycamore and Lincoln, there used to be a passing siding there. I believe Lincoln is now an under pass? There used to be quite a few switches and spurs in the area.
JB

Unfortunately the Santa Fe's Anaheim station was razed, however the UP station in Anaheim has been saved and has another uses. It sit on about the site of the AT&SF station and there is a block wall between it and the tracks. I think that is the station you saw.
Interestingly, the UP and SP did not have an connection at Anaheim until Nov. 1971, when the SP started to serve Hunts Foods at Basta from Anaheim, rather than La Habra with UP trackage rights. The General Foods and Whirlpool facilities at South Anaheim were jointly served by the Santa Fe and SP with the SP doing the actual switching. The SP had an area east of Red Hill Avrnue in the Irvine Industrial complex that was joint with the Santa Fe, but the Santa Fe did all the switching with the cars usually interchanged at Santa Ana. The SP call the area South Irvine on their maps. The Santa fe kept records of the handling of the cars, including any required turning of the cars on the Tustin wye, so that they could bill the SP for the service.