Barstow to San Bernardino
History: The route north from San Bernardino to the Victor Valley and Mojave Desert is known as the Cajon Pass. It is a mountain pass with an elevation of 1,277 meters (4,190ft.). Created by the San Andreas Fault thousands of years ago, it provides one of the many important economic links to the Los Angeles Basin. Construction of the Cajon Pass began in 1882 from San Bernardino and reached Barstow in 1885 having suffered several delays along the way. A total length of 81.4 miles filling the final gap in the Southern Pacific transcontinental railroad from San Diego to Chicago. The Cajon Subdivision mainline is the busiest within Southern California. The mainline is mostly double track with some sections of triple track. With a 2.2% gradient on Track 1 and 3% of Track 2 as the route twists though the mountain terrain, maximum freight speed is restricted to 55mph. As the line journeys between San Bernardino and Barstow it passes through more than a dozen settlements that all owe their existence to the presence of the pass over the mountains. Verdemont, Devore, Keenbrook, Blue Cut, Cajon, Alray, Summit, Lugo, Hisperia, Frost, Victorville, Oro Grande, Hodge and Lenwood before arriving in Barstow. Sullivan's Curve is located at MP 62.5, where the original Santa Fe mainline passed through Mormon Rocks. This line followed a 10 degree curve which turned out to be too sharp for today's rolling stock. Thus it was realigned in the early 1980's to 6.5 degrees. Arriving in San Bernardino the line features a $30million 135 acre Intermodal Facility (one of two facilities in the Los Angeles Basin). Construction began in 1993 to build the 6 loading/unloading tracks and 7 storage tracks, 2,500 parking spaces for trailers is available and the site has roughly 420,000 containers pass though it each year. Focus Time Period: This vital artery in the transcontinental movement of freight in America is represented in a modern day setting. The line has been modelled to 2007 reference material and even features the brand new signalling system recently installed throughout - consisting of 3 aspect hooded signal heads. |