Revisiting Southwestern Arizona
Part I (of I-XI)
This series will highlight findings on a roundtrip from California to southwestern Arizona and back in one day, on Friday, March 2, 2018.
In another thread, there has been some questionable discussion of reopening the San Diego & Arizona Eastern (SD&AE) route to San Diego, via Carrizo Gorge and over the high wooden trestle Goat Canyon Bridge, with a stint actually in the Country of Mexico. K.P. made it a point to re-photograph the sharp east wye at Niland (CA) on the Sunset Route, which wye said traffic from Mexico would have to traverse.
Above, when Niland was two-tracked a few years ago the target signals gave way to color lights, with two-lamp heads (red and lunar, assumedly) for going south into dark territory towards Mexico.
Continued in Part II
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
Part II (of I-XI)
In recent times Intermodal containers have been offloaded or loaded at a looping circle track south of Calipatria (CA), on that dark Calexico Sub (to Mexico) off the Sunset Route. This trip, instead of Intermodal, regular grain cars were on the loop, with UP and Canadian National units, which makes one wonder where all these cars are coming from.
Continued in Part III
Part III (of I-XI)
The Colorado River is finally crossed, and a first important stop is made at CP SP743 FORTUNA, and the new switch trackside last time …
January 5, 2018
… was found to have been installed.
The rail was replaced too, stamped with a May 2017 date.
Continued in Part IV
Part IV (of I-XI)
The old target signals were disappointingly still standing, and color lights signals were NOT even laying trackside.
Insulated joints were a light blue 136 pounds per yard rail and NOT the white 141 pounds per yard as elsewhere in Arizona, like in Casa Grande.
It has to be wondered if now that the trackwork is winding down at the CP if new color light mast signals will soon be brought to the site.
Continued in Part V
Part V (of I-XI)
We next focus on the Kinter siding, specifically the western end of at CP SP749 KINTER, where there are Anschutz era circular tri-lights, with the east side westbound main signal having a color light turned aside lower head. Notice the stem is a different metal shade than the mast.
Such type CP boxes were used on the Palmdale Cutoff here in California circa 1980. When that line in the last year or two was upgraded to color lights, the old boxes remained. When Metrolink put a track alongside the SP line in the Palmdale-Lancaster area, SP put in circular tri-lights that are still there.
Photo previously shown
It is unclear if those Palmdale area tri-lights will be upgraded to the UP vertical type, but such tri-lights in the Kinter area and their electrical boxes might remain.
Continued in Part VI
Part VI (of I-XI)
Some miles eastward, but still between Fortuna and Wellton, we come to erected, un-activated color light signals.
On the lower photo, note the bottom canal-like water flow that parallels the tracks here.
A young border patrol gentlemen was curious what I was doing. He seemed to know of railfans, and offered to escort me to a place to cross the canal. He was super friendly and seemed to enjoy meeting someone non-hostile for a change.
Continued in Part VII
Part VII (of I-XI)
Just east of Ave 29E in Wellton, AZ proper, three new CP boxes were now on site.
Above, if you look carefully, the closest right box has uneven paint, with darker patches. It is unknown if the ‘new’ box is a recycled one, has a pore paint job, or if it was repainted because of perhaps graffiti.
Masts stacked and low, medium size and large electrical boxes are present:
Surprisingly, multiple new, lower, old style electrical boxes were onsite.
Were such low boxes being installed on the Phoenix Line? We divert for a moment to see, sort of anyway.
Continued in Part VIII
Part VIII (of I-XI)
At Avenue 41-1/2 (what a crazy street numbering system) NO new or old masts were present.
West:
East:
So, where are those low boxes being used at is unknown … kind of mysterious, really!
Continued in Part IX
Part IX (of I-XI)
Back at Wellton, by those electrical boxes …
… there was a flatbed trailer rig, with a friendly guy in it. He said he picked up his load in Tennessee or Kentucky, drove to here in Arizona, and delivered some rapped items to the Wellton site.
He was going to overnight here (in his truck with a sleeper cab), and in a few days deliver insulated joints to West Colton Yard, in Bloomington, CA .
He also said he made deliveries to the BNSF too! I never asked him if he was married, but what a cool job for a single or married person that is a railfan!
Continued in Part X
Part X (of I-XI)
By CP SP771 WELLTON that new CP box was still NOT installed.
Just to the west, an eastward overview looking towards that CP box (right) and CP, and the present end of two-tracks, which K.P. believes the CP will be realigned from a wye switch to a right handed turnout.
K.P. did see about where the above photo was taken that one of the small line side electrical boxes was X’d out.
So, that box being X’d out suggests that there is much more than meets the eyes in a signal conversion and relocation project.
K.P. now headed west, with the objective of getting back to the Niland-Salton Sea area to photograph a bridge replacement project before the sunlight failed.
Continued in Part XI
Part XI (of I-XI)
The bridge that will be replaced (right) with new bridge parts waiting to be installed (left):
Above, note the new, second track (background) that was installed several years ago has metal hand railings for a concrete bridge!
Equipment on site:
It would be interesting to know if the bridge to be replaced is a newer one that had auditing value until now, so wasn’t replaced for some tax reason.
So, there we have it … signal conversions at a snail paced progress
This will end the series. However …
A Related Reply Memo to ccltrains (3-2):
Yes, this thread is not about bridge installations per se, but when two-tracking is proceeding forward and a single-track bridge is left not upgraded it sticks out like a sore thumb! Mention is made of a sore thumb being upgraded fulfills the two-tracking at that particular location, at least in K.P.’s opinion.
K.P.
Tonight, my phone's google news page showed a video (link below) of what it said there were nearly 300 stored UP loco's on about three miles of track between Tucson and Benson that could be seen from I-10. It said they were stored and being maintained for future recall. Looking on Google maps doesn't show any surplus sidings beteen those two locations, just two mains albeit with what I believe is called the natural underpass where the tracks cross over each other. So my questions are: 1) Where are they, 2) are they on one of the two mains (which doesn't seen likely) and 3) has UP stopped using Daggett for storage?
https://jalopnik.com/three-miles-of-unused-locomotives-is-undeniably-hauntin-1823659965
Thanks.
That track at 31°58'15.04" N 110°31'57.62" W has been used for storage of either cars or locomotives since UP bypassed it with a straight shot north of I-10 in the area six or seven years ago. KP and others provided shots of some of the new construction, which shots have probably disappeared into the Photobucket black hole that afflicts many earlier posts in this thread.
Electroliner 1935 (3-10/11):
ChuckCobleigh linked well where the location of those stored units are, and if you slide the view downward I-10 and the reroute track to the north comes into view on top of the screen.
Stored units:
The reroute:
All views March 31, 2016
Just above, note on the photo left the I-10 Freeway dips down out of view before rising in the far background. That dip is where the old track was, on a bridge over the freeway.
Concerning your numbered questions:
(1) The units are in the Marsh Station Road / Empirita Road area between Tucson and Benson, AZ, and south of the I-10 Freeway.
(2) No. They are on the old Main 2, not used anymore track severed on the west end.
(3) Daggett is in California on the BNSF, where UP’s LA&SL from Utah and the Central Corridor cuts in. UP Main 1 there (next to BNSF Main 1) is NOT used for long term storage, though it has been used for short term store a few times.
Hope that answers your inquiries sufficiently.
Chuck and K.P., Thank You! With the Lat & Lon, from Chuck, I found them and learned that my old SPV Railroad Atlas ('96) is out of date. It does show a dashed line for the former SP (EPSW) ROW which may be the new track 2 between what it lists as Irene and Amole. Looks like a lonely area with not much population which reducs the possibility of vandalism. Lot of Capital tied up awaiting traffic needs.
When was this track bypassed with the new track along I-10? Looks like there is no bridge at the west end of this track where it would have crossed I-10, but there is a bridge at the East end where it goes under I-10. Seems funny the highway powers would pay for one and not a second or that the railroad would insist on only one and keep the dead-ended track with no reason for its retention.
From K.P.’s pictures it looks like a lot of SD60Ms and C41-8W units, although there are probably many models in the 300 or so stored there.
Electroliner 1935 When was this track bypassed with the new track along I-10? Looks like there is no bridge at the west end of this track where it would have crossed I-10, but there is a bridge at the East end where it goes under I-10. Seems funny the highway powers would pay for one and not a second or that the railroad would insist on only one and keep the dead-ended track with no reason for its retention.
That section of track was bypassed around 2011 or so. The reason this was done was that the bridge on the west end was a railroad overpass (rail over road) with extremely bad clearances, but in height and width. Any oversized loads on I-10 would have to take a LONG detour that wasn't the safest route for oversized loads either.
The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) found it would be cheaper to build the railroad realignment than build a new railroad overpass and lower the highway (which would have been complicated given a nearby wash and highway grade). At the east end, the highway goes over the tracks so there is no clearance issues at that location. I would imagine in the future, when those highway bridges over the tracks at the east end are up for replacement, they will simply demolish the bridges and rebuild the highway at ground level.
Electroliner 1935 (3-11A):
Headway 1 (1 of 2)
As to when the reroute in the Marsh Station Road / I-10 Freeway area was being put in and finished, it is not immediately known. However, the following two photos during the construction were shot on November 5, 2011. Wow! It’s been that long ago?
Just above, note the leftward moving train on the then Main 2 going behind the left hill and going over the I-10 Freeway unseen.
On June 13, 2013 the following view was shot, and the railroad bridge and abutments had already been cleared away. Note the sloping dirt on each side of I-10 IN THE DIP.
It would have been nice back then during the rail reroute construction to photograph the railroad bridge over I-10. But, in looking back I think the reason it wasn’t photographed is being the OLD Marsh Station Road bridge over I-10 blocked the view.
As far as your confusion about why the west bridge wasn’t replaced while the east overpass was left to remain, there was no need to re-bridge I-10 on the west end. That was the purpose of the reroute. The east end, the railroad overpass is in conjunction with the overpass for Empirita Road, so letting it remain just made sense. Plus, UP uses the now dead-end track for storage.
Above, note the then in service track on the photo bottom.
It seems as though a photo of the dead track coming out from under the I-10 overpass was taken, but if it was shot it is tucked away in a bunch of folders somewhere unknown.
Continued in Headway 2
Headway 2 (2 of 2)
With all that power stored in the Marsh Station Road area off the Sunset Route in Arizona, and elsewhere around the UP system, I suppose it is a good time for the CAT affiliate to be having problem turning out power, as UP’s lingering order for SD70ACe-T4s, No. 3027 at Mojave, CA, coming off a branch job on Decemer 29, 2017.
And, of course, a Metrolink commuter speedster F125 before dawn in San Bernardino, CA on October 20, 2017, which fleet and not deliver yet fleet is still NOT in service.
The hooded interior of the F125 is all lit up, something unlikely that UP would ever possess.
Maybe if Metrolink gets too many F125’s in storage, UP may (“may,” NOT that they will, and super unlikely) lease a few track spots by Marsh Station Road in Arizona! Now, wouldn’t that cause a stir among train watchers!
Take care,
The 2006 SPV AZ & NM shows a line relocation. Also have heard that SPV will not be issuing new updated atlasas.
Electroliner 1935When was this track bypassed with the new track along I-10?
Looking through past posts on this thread, I would surmise that the new alignment went into service right around the beginning of 2012.
http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/120779.aspx?page=76#2203706
There's a couple of things I'd like to say about the reroute myself. The old track contained a "horseshoe" curve in it and I've always assumed that was a primary reason for the reroute. The old track also had a number of lower quadrant semaphores - among the very last active on the SP. I think some of them may have remained active until the track was bypassed but I don't know that for sure.
You used to be able to see on set of semaphores from I-10 right at the dicussed overpass where the line went over I-10 (former U.S. 80).
Regards,
Fred M. Cain
Replies
usmc1401 (3-11):
I know of nothing concerning a reroute that would have been mentioned in the SPV in 2006. Might that have been a typo, perhaps 2016 instead, covering a reroute in 2012 as below?
ChuckCobleigh (3-12):
You are undoubtedly right. A very reliable source checked his old records for me based on your input, and something (“something”) took place on January 16, 2012. Included in that something was a NEW ‘milepost equation,’ that M.P. 1017.3 = M.P. 1019.0. If that wasn’t the date of the Cienega Creek area-reroute cutover, we are living in the Twilight Zone!
Fred M. Cain (3-12):
I doubt the ‘horseshoe curve’ had anything to do with inspiring the reroute in the Cienega Creek area of Arizona. What did, though, was the LOW railroad bridge over the I-10 Freeway in the old (not the new) Marsh Station Road area, that caused high trucks to detour for miles and miles. THAT was the inspiration for the reroute.
It was most interesting about semaphores near that old railroad bridge over the I-10 Freeway. But, time may have escaped you, like it does me so often. Tri-lights (circular patterned color lights, as BELOW) were installed probably in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s during Southern Pacific’s Anschutz era, likely in conjunction with Anschutz’s two-tracking of the Mescal and Benson, AZ areas.
In Benson, AZ:
CP S1035 FENNER, with 30 M.P.H. crossovers. They may ("may”) have been 25 M.P.H. crossovers under Anschutz.
Neither an absolute nor an intermediate signal, but an SP ‘Entrance Signal’:
UP now probably (“probably”) considers WHERE Anschutz and SP got the rail from a major sin! From single-tracking a section of the two-track Donner Pass!
OK, Fred, enough about ancient history (sort of, anyway) …
K.P.,
I stand by my statement that the semaphores "were among the last active on the SP" but I do not know the exact year they were replaced.
But I do know this: I rode over the line (eastbound) on Amtrak in the summer of 1989. By that time SP had installed CTC on the former westbound track. These were all the "Anschutz Trilights" you mention. Even though we were headed eastbound, the D.S. routed us over the former westbound track so I was cheated out of one last ride over the old eastbound track. However, I saw an eastbound freight on the eastbound track and clearly saw that the semaphores were STILL in place on the eastbound track.
Since UP would've hedged over their replacement on a track that they had long-range plans to bypass, I GUESSED that they might've survived that long. But your photos indicated otherwise.
Anybody know when the semaphores were taken out? I know there were a few in New Mexico on the former Rio Grande sub that survived up until the UP takeover so those might've been the very last ones. (The semaphores in Oregon had been turned over to CORP by then and are also now all gone).
Big P.S. here. Here is an interesting YouTube scene from 2012 that shows the track in action and speculated that it might've been shot around 1990. The presence of double stacks indicates it had to be from the late SP period (post 1985 or so). One guy posted a response that he thought the semaphores lasted 'til "the late '90s" which would've been post UP takeover.
Again, does anybody Know for sure?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P76fKsx_HBw
-FMC
My copy of the SPV atlas has a copyright date of 1995--and I do not recall seeing a later edition advertised. It shows a relocation of track two between Mescal and Amole--which relocation introduced two curves; one is longer than the other.
Johnny
Power Stored
NorthWest (in samfp1943’s thread ‘UPRR in Arizona—Three Miles of Parked Power’ in the Locomotives forum) replied …
NorthWest Many of them have probably been cleared out recently. Most of the Dash-8s have been sold back to GE and many are now on lease, most of the Dash-9s are probably back in service, and many of the SD60Ms as well. I've been seeing a lot more of them lately, and even managed to find a standard cab SD60.
Many of them have probably been cleared out recently. Most of the Dash-8s have been sold back to GE and many are now on lease, most of the Dash-9s are probably back in service, and many of the SD60Ms as well. I've been seeing a lot more of them lately, and even managed to find a standard cab SD60.
That makes one wonder just how many of those stored units have been returned to service, or pulled from the line and retired. Did K.P. miss the boat by not spending an extra day in Arizona and photo-checking out that long line of power by Marsh Station Road? Anybody been out that way very recently?
Milepost 947 (3-11):
Ah, your post popped out of thin air … and late too, way after you submitted it
If AZDOT someday rebuilds the Empirita Road layout on the east end of that line relocation, making it level would mean AZDOT would have to buy that three miles or so dead-end track! I think UP likes it as it is, and AZDOT would likely rebuild the freeway at present grade separation levels. After all, aerial mapping show dirt roads lead to that freeway access.
Turnouts … and Visions of the Future!
All the tracks in the Fortuna-Wellton, AZ area seems to have wooden ties. Hence, the future 40 M.P.H. switch at CP SP771 WELLTON likely will have wooden ties as well! And, wooden ties seem to be an indication of temporary installations. But, it could be five, ten, or twenty years before two-tracking will come to the area.
It is difficult to speculate what UP may do here. BNSF, on the other hand, is going gun-ho on triple-tracking about 10 miles the section west of Belen, NM. TRAINS money guy, Fred Frailey, really needs to do a piece on the Sunset Route and what is (or will be) going on.
Fred M Cain Anybody know when the semaphores were taken out? I know there were a few in New Mexico on the former Rio Grande sub that survived up until the UP takeover so those might've been the very last ones. (The semaphores in Oregon had been turned over to CORP by then and are also now all gone).
The eastbound semaphores between Vail and Mescal were replaced at the same time that Southern Pacific double tracked between Mescal and Dragoon (plus a section west of Lordsburg). This was in 1995. These were not the last semaphores on the SP. The semaphores between El Paso and Tucumcari in New Mexico remained until 1999 before the UP replaced them with CTC.
M.P. 947,
Thanks !
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