Freelance 2011

[Russ Bellinis]

Is my understanding correct that UP did not play an active role in serving single industries in that area in 1980? That was SP and ATSF county and UP did only serve the LA basin with long distance trains from the east but had no local network.

Thanks for posting the pic, Reinhard. I originally tried to post about 4 or 5 pics, but I just could not seem to figure out how to get a street view screen shot posted from Bing or Google maps. I don't have a Photo Bucket or similar account. If you go South on Soto to the West side of the plant the mural is of a farm with "Farmer John" in a field with a bunch of pigs running around.

I'm not sure about the U.P. I never liked U.P. I think that armour yellow is about the ugliest color ever put on anything. Their actions since the mergers and copyright issues with regard to model railroads, have made my dislike intensify. I think all three of the major railroads in Los Angeles preferred to use LAJ to do their switching for them in the area that LAJ served. HIstorically U.P. was the last of the major railroads to enter the Southern California market. S.P. had the Coast Lines (route of the Daylight) and the Valley lines running down the center of California's Central Valley. They entered Los Angeles from the coast on a right of way that roughly paralleled highway 101, and the valley lines entered L.A. from Tehachapi through Diablo Canyon just East of where Interstate 5 goes over the "ridge route" through Gorman to Bakersfield. Their Southern route enters the L.A. area from the Imperial Valley over Whitewater Pass through San Timateo Canyon. The Santa Fe built over Cajon Pass, and had to fight the S.P. to get into the the L.A. area from San Bernardino. The U.P. never built any right of way over any of the passes into Los Angeles. They built a line through the desert from Las Vegas to Yermal just outside of Barstow, and then negotiated trackage rights from the Santa Fe to use Cajon Pass. The U.P. had a large yard across Washington Blvd from Santa Fe's Hobart Yard. The U.P. main roughly parallels the S.P. main from San Bernardino through Pomona, and then turns South in Pomona to run through the city of Industry to the Washington Street Yard. Going out of the Wahsington Street yard they cross the diamond at Hobart Tower and go South along Downey Road. The U.P. had a few customers in East L.A., most of the business in L.A. was divided between Santa Fe and S.P. I think the U.P.'s major customer base was around South Gate, Cudahy, Maywood, and Bell and then continued south to the Harbor area. I don't remember seeing a lot of U.P. activity outside of those areas until after the takeover of the S.P.

Regarding the use of small switchers, the U.P. and S.P. liked to use the various Sw units for local switching. The U.P. even rebuilt some switchers using the end of a Gp7 or 9 long hood grafted to the front of the Sw. Santa Fe had a fleet of Sw units in the early days of the steam to diesel transition, but after the did the Cf7 rebuild program, they started replacing the Sw's as they started wearing out with the Cf7 units and chop nosed Gp7's & 9's. Eventually the Cf7's were replaced with Gp20's (turbo chargers removed), Gp30's (had been rebuilt to Gp35 specs), & Gp 35's. Since about 1980 or so, the only Cf7's left in service after that time were the 4 units used by the LAJ. Since the advent of the newest big Ge and EMD Sd power, the Gp39-2's, Gp 40x's and Gp50's and 60's have been moved into local service. The latest thing they have been doing is putting refurbished cabs on the Gp60b units for local switching, and also buying Gensets, I think because of government incentives to reduce smog. I think the attitude of the S.F. was that it was cheaper to repurpose obsolete, lower powered, road locomotives for local switching duties than it was to buy new Sw or Mp units.