Looking west from Rancho Ave. one sees a newly graded area in the vicinity of CP SP937 EAST WYE BYPASS.
With the Pepper Ave. Bridge in the background, the OLD Main 2 track (third from the bottom) ends, with its new alignment replacement just above it. On that new Main 2 replacement, the very long crossover between Mains 1 and 2 is seen rising. The future CP should start at that left switch and come all the way to beyond (behind) the overpass where the camera is on.
Looking the other way again, east, an overview is shown. Note the thin, possibly rebar stacked up on the lower left by the yellow grader and barely visible blue portable restroom facility.
Closer views:
It is unknown for what purpose those miniature rebar stacks are for, but it may have something to do with the large piping that is buried in the area.
At this point in time K.P. returned to his auto and headed home. However, after going over Rancho Ave. and getting on the eastbound lanes of I-10, Colton Crossing could easily be seen, and also the flyover’s early stage of construction just east of the diamonds. What a spectacular view of the early stage of construction could be had from the freeway! Unfortunately, one cannot take photos and drive too! So, off the freeway K.P. went and over to Valley Blvd. and the BNSF.
The early stages of flyover construction could actually be seen now taking place from ground level between La Cadena Dr. and the BNSF.
While right off Valley Blvd in the diamonds area, K.P. looked that whole area over.
Looking westbound (south) on the BNSF Transcon to where the Sunset Route crosses it: West Colton Yard and Los Angeles are to the right.
In the above photo, note the makeshift, no crossing gates dirt road grade crossing just this side of the cross Sunset Route. Concrete grade crossing panels are present. Also, the two color light signal masts are visible in the background. What is NOT present anymore is the old, late 1950’s / early 1960’s signal bridge, as seen in the below previously shown May 23, 2012 photo.
An overview from Valley Blvd. that looks southward towards Interstate 10 and the Colton Crossing:
(1) The Colton Signal Dept. was driven by, but there was nothing that popped out as newsworthy.
(2) Finally, the Waterman Ave. overpass and the Hunts Lane grade crossing were traversed by also …
… but, as previously shown in the above photo, the cantilever horizontal cross section on the west side of CP SP542 LOMA LINDA still has not been attached to the vertical part, nor has it even been brought to the site.
The Summer issue of “The ACE Report,” an official news document of the Alameda Corridor East Construction Authority in Southern California, has publically been circulated. Therein, in the second paragraph of the main letter, it mentions ACE anticipating issuing “design and engineering” contracts for three grade separations, (1) LA&SL Fullerton Rd.(City of Industry), (2) LA&SL and SP Hamilton Blvd. (Pomona), and LA&SL Durfee Ave. in Pico Rivera. A fourth, the curved SP flyover at Fairway Drive (City of Industry), is merely waiting for UP’s “concurrence.”
A couple of weeks ago you asked if the Union Pacific had removed all the rail from the former line that ran over and under I-10 between Marsh Station Road and Empirita Road west of Benson, Arizona.
The rail, ties, and ballast have been removed from the old, low bridge near what used to be the Marsh Station Road I-10 exit on the west end of the project site, so the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) can have the old bridge removed, but the rest of the line is intact. ADOT has made no announcement of when they plan to remove the old bridge.
The UP has reinstalled a switch at the east end of the rerouted track near the Empirita Road exit and is using the old line to store a long string of excess grain hoppers.
With the prolonged drought in the midwest that has destroyed this year’s corn and soybean crops, all of the major railroads probably have many hundreds of surplus grain hoppers to put into storage until next spring’s w
The attached notice from the Surface Transportation Board should be of at least tangential interest to those following the upgrading of the Sunset Route.
Essentially, the UP wants to re-acquire the former EP&SW / SP / UP branch line from Benson, AZ to Naco, AZ, for reasons unknown. The line, largely abandoned, connected with the Mexican railway system at Naco, Sonora which adjoins Naco, AZ at the U.S. - Mexican border.
K.P. posted a photo of the connection at Benson on 9/1/12. The only remaining segment of the line runs to a chemical plant a few miles south of Benson and is operated by the San Pedro Operating Company, the same short line that serves the Casa Grande industrial park.
One minor correction to Desertdog’s message, above: Naco is south of Bisbee, not Douglas. Douglas is another 20 miles east of Bisbee.
I think UP’s ultimate goal is to reconnect with the Mexican rail system at Naco. There used to be a border crossing there many years ago, with a rail yard on the U.S. side of the border. The San Pedro & Southwestern LLC still owns the right-of-way from Benson to Naco.
The plant at Curtiss is currently called Apache Nitrogen Products, and was previously known as Apache Powder. They made gunpowder and dynamite during WW2 and perhaps as late as the 1950’s. Today, I think they produce only dry agricultural nitrogen fertilizer that is shipped out in covered hoppers, though they do receive and ship out quite a few tank cars.
Surprisingly enough, you will note that the UP seems to be saying that they are not interested in connecting with the Mexican rail system. So what, really, are they up to? Renewed mining activity in the area, perhaps? Or, is this just a preliminary step in re-establishing a connection at some later date?
Bisbee, incidentally, is a great place to visit, with a very colorful history and some colorful current residents, as well.
I have heard that re-connecting to the Mexican rail system is an ultimate goal. The driving factor is moving Powder River Basin coal to a Mexican port for export.
That would allow UP to get that business going without the legal fighting and delays starting to take shape in initiatives to ship PRB coal out of Pacific northwest ports. Of course UP could always ship that coal via Long Beach or LA, if the coal handling facilities are still there and can handle the volume of traffic.
Otherwise, I think this may be a pretty slick decision to get the jump on moving PRB coal to export markets while avoiding the roadblocks that BNSF and the Canadian lines are going to have to deal with.
What a long route this would be - perhaps via BNSF to Stratford, TX , then via Golden Gate route to El Paso, then Sunset route to Benson and then to Naco and to ???. Or their transcon to Ogden, then LA & SL to Colton, then Sunset to Benson. Think about the turn around time for each train set just to get to Naco. Then the Mexican system is not known for expeditous movement. The old joke about the slowest thing in Mexico. " A funeral procession with only one set of jumper cables".
ok route speculation ---- joint line denver - trinidad ; over Raton by take over of line that BNSF is not using ; then to French NM ; then re lay rail on old SP ( DAW – Dawson railway ) ; then to Tucumcari then on the UP. Not likely but ---- what the heck ??
BNSF does not operate any freight trains south from Trinidad to Belen. In fact the State of NM owns the track between Lamy and Belen. The BNSF coal loads go to Pueblo, then east to Las Animas Jct, then to Amarillo through Stratford where they intersect the UP Golden State route. BNSF emptys go from Amarillo to Trinidad and then north through Pueblo.
K.P.’s Assessment of the Curtiss Branch STB Filing
In reviewing the filed agreement between the parties involved, it was noted in Section 8 of the filing that the laws of Arizona would govern. So, perceiving an International or a multi-state aspect to the situation is probably reading more into the matter than is warranted. UP seems to want, not trackage rights, but haulage rights over what is now owned by a short line operator, with UP having THE ABILITY TO ASSIGN the haulage rights to whomever it chose, and whoever was chosen would also operate some or all of the now unused route to Naco by the Mexico border.
So, for some reason, UP sees some shipper or shippers being able to make money adjacent to the old SP branch, and wants to be able to accommodate that shipper or those shippers, with THEM hauling whatever is shipped to the UP connection to the Sunset Route at Benson, AZ.
Please remember that this is only K.P.’s ‘assessment’ of the situation as it is perceived and conjectured with sketchy and limited facts.
As far as theorizing about long distance coal haulage possibilities, which is probably totally unrelated to the STB filing mentioned above, UP does have a long distance haul operation from either the Powder River Basin or from Colorado that currently goes through Las Vegas, NV on the LA&SL, over haulage rights on the BNSF to Mojave, CA, and up the Lone Pine Branch. In SP days, that coal went west from Utah, over Donner Pass in Northern California, down the Central Valley, up and over Tehachapi to the current end point on the Lone Pine Branch. It would seem UP, after the SP-UP merger and rerouting the coal away from Donner, has made out like a bandit on that business!
Unexpected person business brought K.P. through both Ontario and Colton with a little spare time to photograph the current scenes. The Ontario visit was very successful!
Since the last visit the future Main 1 flyover on the east side had dramatic construction progress, going from just flat ground to rising concrete-work.
On the west side, much less progress had been made.
