Trains – September 2019

Pacific Sunset Route between Los Angeles
and New Orleans via Tucson, El Paso, and
Houston. Geographically, the pass separates
the San Bernardino Mountains on the
north with the San Jacinto Mountains on
the south, and takes its name from Rancho
San Gorgonio, a 4,440-acre Mexican land
grant that encompassed the area around
the railroad’s summit. Railroaders, howev-
er, refer to that summit — located just east
of the junction of I-10 and State Route 79
— as Beaumont Hill.

IN THE BEGINNING
The route from Southern California east
to Arizona and New Mexico was part of an
aggressive railroad expansion blanketing
the state, with lines already in place or in
the throes of construction throughout the
San Joaquin Valley, into San Diego, and up
and down the Pacific Coast. Many merged
in the rapidly expanding Los Angeles area.
San Gorgonio Pass entered the list of active
rail lines by the late 1870s.
Traffic patterns on this line have always
been straightforward: move an ever-
increasing amount of east-west tonnage as
quickly and efficiency as possible. Today,
the Sunset Route is one of the key West
Coast actors moving containers to and
from the twin ports of Los Angeles and
Long Beach, as well as agriculture from the
San Joaquin Valley.
What Beaumont lacks in the physical
ferocity of nearby Tehachapi and Cajon,
it more than makes up for in twists and
curves, high winds, the occasional wash-

out, bone-chilling cold, and throat-parch-

ing heat. Mother Nature threw everything

she could at experienced surveyors and

track gangs on this route in the 19th cen-

tury, and train crews and station operators

during the steam era. She still does today.

There is something else about Beau-

mont that may pique your curiosity: the

sharp difference in terrain as the railroad

traverses the mountains. A train ascending

eastbound from the giant Union Pacific

yard at nearby West Colton, Calif., soon

finds itself at the end of the sprawling

Southern California suburbs

butting against the

mountains.

As the ascent begins

in earnest, it turns into

horse-and-farm country

with a rustic

atmosphere. By the

time the train reaches

the summit, the

landscape has

become sandier

until you realize

you’re following

trains in the

desert. Ahead

lay Palm

Springs, Yuma,

and Tucson.

There are

gobs of yel-

low-and-gray

diesels, as — except for a brief flirtation

with Amtrak’s triweekly Sunset Limited —

this is strictly a Union Pacific show. The

line is populated by a seemingly never-

ending roster of big six-axle General

Electric and EMD road-switchers in

multiple, with many trains operating with

distributed power. It is a parade of raw

power fighting nature.

ONCE, NOT SO LONG AGO

Watching this endless parade will

lead many to ponder what this

line looked liked in steam days.

Thanks to earlier genera-

tions of fans, there are

good answers.

Prolific author and

photographer Don

Sims, a legend who

graciously mentored

me on practical-

ly everything

in Southern

California

SD70M No. 4316 is on the point as a west-

bound string of auto racks rolls out of San

Timoteo Canyon and enters East Redlands,

Calif., on Sept. 15, 2015. Elrond Lawrence