SoCal railroad yards

Hi All,

From time to time, I swing by the Colton Yards, the Montclair Yards, and of course, the area around LATC, (LAUS), is always a great spot to do some railfanning and train watching. Since UP took over SP, you see all sorts of motive power at the Colton Yards, and the Montclair Yards as well. You also see lots of Metrolink activity at LATC and San Bernardino.

Just keep a wary eye out for the RR Bulls and you should be okay. I spoke to one the other day, I got too close to the tracks in Pomona, and he said that I can look all I want, just stay off the ROW.

Hi Allan,

I can verify what you're sayin' about the Southern California yards. The bulls tend to be no non-sense.

At West Colton, when I've railfanned there, all the other railfan, like I would hang out at Pepper Avenue.

Hi SP,

Pretty much correct. However, every now and again you find a RR Bull that is human. That is, he also enjoys trains, maybe not a railfan, but he enjoys being around RR's and ROW. In such a case you can get friendly with him and he will tell you of the really Hot Spots. I found such a fellow recently in Pomona, where the old SP tracks diverge from the UP tracks. Of course they are all UP tracks now. The fellow wanted to know why he keeps stopping people from crossing the tracks, including women with baby carriages, right at the spot we were at, where the moveable points and frog switches were. ie. the high speed switches. I laughed and pointed to what was across the tracks, St. Joseph's Cathedral. I said, the people are using the tracks as a short cut, across the field towards the Church. He was amazed. He said, we are going to have to put up fences. I told him, don't be surprised if the fences are quickly breached. The people have been doing this for many years. Have never heard of an accident at that spot.