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SOLEDAD

It should be noted that
Soledad Canyon aligns CANYON
westbound trains-west
being toward San Fran- LINE
cisco, via Bakersfield-into
eastward motion between
Saugus and Vincent, thus
confusing railfans and rail-
roaders alike.
Distributed into this
slim, two-trains-per-day
schedule (plus the over-
night activity) are two des-
ignated symbol runs.
Anthony Adams, public I
z
relations manager at SP's
Los Angeles headquarters,
reports that today's
LABRF (Los Angeles-
Brooklyn Yard, Portland) contains assorted forwarder
loadings to and from the Pacific Northwest. The
LAPTT (Los Angeles- Portland Trailers) has replaced
the LABR T on Southern Pacific's train sheet. This
purely TOFC/ COFC train originates at SP's LATC-
Los Angeles Transportation Center, an all-piggyback
yard fanning out east from the L.A. River at Mission
Tower. In fact, the Saugus Line physically terminates
at LATC, giving over to the Alhambra Line, which is
SP's main track linking L.A. and West Colton. A
common sight in Soledad Canyon is the combined
operation of both piggyback and forwarder freight as
one train.
From a CTC panel in Bakersfield the chief dispatcher
exerts his sovereignty throughout the heavily used
Colton Line from Mojave to Palmdale to West Colton.
Such a realm of precise pushbutton control ceases at
Vincent Summit for there are just too few trains over
this crest to warrant CTC, and so Automatic Block Sig-
nals meter the flow of trains on the Saugus Line. Just as
the Palmdale-to-Colton route is a veritable bridge for
east-west long hauls, the Saugus Line is an equally vital
shortcut for parallel traffic arriving or departing down-
town Los Angeles. The modest fleet of trains now
using the Saugus Line might present a major problem
if they instead rolled east from L.A. to enter the busy
track up Cajon Pass.
Having once been the sole route north of the metro-
politan basin, the Soledad Canyon route continues its

12 • APRIL 1984