Wow, what can I say but “Don’t get K.P. started on one of his fantastical sidetracks”. [(-D]
The BNSF would save minimal mileage for its direct traffic between SoCal and the PNW by a ‘Barstow Cutoff’. A Devore LH connection says ‘oops, we built that expensive third track up Cajon Pass for nothin’. A LH connection with the UP at Summit will be very difficult and expensive to build. At any rate, UP won’t want them on Their cutoff even with some 2MT. Bottom line is, this traffic will stay routed on the 2/3MT transcon via Barstow.
The main traffic bottlenecks are in the Tehachapi mountains where improvements may be funded by Caltrans (ha ha) and BNSF - see the map for details. UP can’t even justify spending $$ on its own railway there!
Your “L[eft] H[and] crossover at Silverwood, anyone?” question is thought provoking.
As you know, the present Silverwood transition track in Cajon Pass was put in by UP after the merger with SP, and uses RIGHT handed turnouts. I don’t really think UP is interested in a transition track that would use LEFT handed turnouts.
Who might be interested, though, is likely BNSF, who I’m sure would love to save 40 miles between Mojave and Cajon Pass with a trackage rights deal on the Palmdale Cutoff, and thus avoid Barstow.
That possibility is why, in my humble opinion, BNSF erected an old style THREE-track signal bridge on their TWO-track 2.2% line between Silverwood and Walker …
… which signal bridge likely was originally located east of Barstow, at BNSF’s Daggett, where the LA&SL cuts in.
THAT type of long Silverwood area transition track would probably extend all the way from Silverwood to Alray (see the reply to Vern Moore that follows), if ever put in, and would use LEFT hand switches.
A suchlike long transition track is used by BNSF between their lines in the Barstow area (the far left track in each of the below photos).
For years and years I thought like you, Vern, that such a BNSF eastbound to UP northbound transition track (and vice versa) in Devore would be ideal. But, as in the memo to MikeF90 above, I don’t think UP would initiate such. Nor do I think BNSF would do such either. All the present signals, on both the BNSF and UP, are in the wrong places in the Devore area for a transition track.
Interestingly, color light signals were very recently erected but not activated yet at UP’s Dike siding in Devore, the transition area you spoke of. (The below view is of the railroad north end.)
(BNSF’s Transcon is barely visible between NEW masts on the left in the above photo.)
I think the Alray …
… to Silverwood area (See reply to MikeF90) is the general location to watch. That location would allow a train to be temporarily parked BETWEEN the BNSF and UP lines and not block either. But, at this point in time, I see no incentive for UP to hand competitor BNSF a shortcut in its north-south traversing of Southern California, which traversing crosses the Sunset Route at Colton …
K.P. visited one of his trusty, knowledgeable sources, who happened to have Scotty of Star Trek fame visiting (who on earth brought him back from the dead?), and Scotty ‘beamed’ all of us over to Tucson, AZ. Unfortunately, K.P. didn’t have his camera with him, so a word report to the forum will have to suffice …
There are currently three key control points (CP’s) in Tucson. From east to west, there are CP SP988 36TH STREET (at the east end of the yard), CP SP967 22ND STREET (west of the west end of the yard, which yard is LESS than a mile long, and the CP only involves Main 2), and CP SP985 CHERRY AVE (about a half a mile further west). K.P., his source friend, and Scotty visited the Kino Ave. overpass that afforded a westward, partial view of CP SP985 CHERRY AVE.
The source advised that the old CP SP985 CHERRY AVE with only a single-crossover between Mains 1 and 2 had been redone, and the extended CP was now a universal crossovers arrangement. As we could see, the old mast signals had been replaced with signals on cantilever structures, one on each side of the Kino Ave. overpass. The crossovers utilize 30 M.P.H. switches.
Looking at the terrain profile there, it seems like the best place for a long LH crossover. However, I think that it would be far more useful for UP and in the distant future. If I-5 corridor traffic increases Andifsome Tehachapi bottlenecks are removed, UP could use the BNSF west of Summit for a ‘second main’.
UP’s other dilemma with Tehachapi is with ‘double stack’ trains - if they want to run them, they will have to pay back their share of the costly tunnel lowering project that BNSF funded some time ago.
Now back to the Sunset Route. Tucson was visited but not the Marsh Station Road or the Stockham siding areas? Inquiring minds want to know … [8-|]
Nothing at all is happening at Marsh Station Road. The new rail line has been operational for several months, now, with nothing being done about removal of the old, low railroad bridge over I-10.
The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) is in charge of this project site, and may be waiting for more federal funds. The Union Pacific railroad removed their rail from the bridge in early July.
ADOT has a call out for bids to rebuild I-10 from the Empirita Road exit to the Route 83 exit, and will probably include bridge removal within this contract when it is let.
Expect tomorrow a multipart posting series under the above title, about the situation in the Loma Linda / Colton, CA area. The holdout of old target signals in the Loma Linda area is having ‘something’ happening there that may be surprising to the forum
In the late afternoon of Friday, August 17, 2012, the CP SP542 LOMA LINDA (technically in San Bernardino) to Colton, CA area was checked out. Trains were operating everywhere, and going every which way.
The eastern end of the area had more happening than just the Hunts Lane overpass construction taking place, and it is probably best described as strange.
The west end of CP SP542 LOMA LINDA (M.P. 541.3) was found, unbelievably, to have had the vertical part of a cantilever signal structure erected (right).
Because of the trees on the left, it may not have been possible for the signal between the tracks to become a LEFT signal (as so often the railroad converts to).
Looking east still, the background east end of the CP (but this side of the Waterman Ave. overpass) did not seem to have anything ‘new’ per se.
However, after studying the above photo for a while, it dawned on K.P. that the background RIGHT signal was NOT between the two mains anymore!
A previously posted photo taken almost a month and a half ago, on July 9, 2012, showed that the back right signal was also on the outside of the two mains.
However, in reviewing past photo files, two previously shown August 1, 2009 photos were found that had the back mast between the two mains as it had been for decades!
All the above photos in Parts A and B were shot eastwardly from Hunts Lane, where an overpass is now (August 2012) in the early stages of being constructed. So, a cantilever signal structure is being erected that will be BETWEEN two relatively close overpasses!
Longtime visitors to this thread will undoubtedly remember that a relatively new signal bridge at CP AL532 SIERRA became sort of blocked by the newly built Cypress Ave. overpass in Fontana.
Over a mile WEST of that new cantilever structure being erected is CP SP541 ICE DECK, where an old, full signal bridge is located. The below views look west … Note the turned away SEARCHLIGHT TARGET HEADS on the NEW mast!
A view looking east from the west side of the Santa Ana River: An auto is seen crossing the tracks at the Hunts Lane grade crossing in the distance.
That above mast looks somewhat awkwardly wrong. The situation appears to be a jerry-rigged color light mast with target signal heads on it!
While it is too early to tell for sure, all this signal-work MAY be only temporary in nature, explaining the presence of new target signals when color light signals are the in-thing. Also, Hunts Lane is supposed to be open for vehicle traffic for the first year of overpass construc
Looking west from the Mt. Vernon Ave overpass area: A DPU is seen pushing towards the background. Cross rods and poured cement are observed within the getting higher flyover.
From 9th Street now, an eastward view.
Side walling sections are now stacked up next to the flyover.
The below June 19, 2012 crane photo is reshown. Of special interest is the ALL silver paint of the lower signal head.
On August 17, the lower head was NOT all painted silver! Perhaps the signal had been wiped out or otherwise knocked down by the heavy construction equipment in the area.
From the Rancho Ave. overpass, looking east, allot of train traffic is in the area.
A BNSF westbound from the north (railroad east, left) suddenly transitions onto the Sunset Route and heads west, probably to West Colton’s Receiving Yard.
A westward view from Rancho Ave.: A UP eastbound waits at a red signal. Its loaded well cars are on the recently relocated Main 2. Main 1 is on the right, and goes back to the upper right.
That BNSF heads west on the recently relocated Main 1:
By Hunts Lane, eastward views in this series showed a parked UP train in the distance with a dark lead locomotive. It was UP 2001, one of two blue Salt Lake City Olympic units from ten years ago … Has it really been that long?
The below previously shown July 18, 2012 photo showed how the flyover’s side walling was getting higher and starting to block the view of seeing residential houses.
Now, one cannot even see the residential houses on the south side of the tracks.
Reference the new cantilever signal vertical structure that was pointed out in Part “A”: For comparison, another August 17, 2012 CP SP542 LOMA LINDA photo is also presented (before the Olympic unit went by).
The Milliken Ave. Flyover … and the Track That Is No More
Ontario, CA
Part I (of I-V)
Throughout the distance of the now in service flyover, the old ground level mainline has been totally removed, and the grade crossing has been paved over. Before and after eastward views:
In the just above photo center, where piers are to be erected, there is no new pavement.
