Hmm...strange consists

They use a caboose when there is a long back up move that needs to be done. It gives a place for the brakeman to stand during the move instead of hanging on the side.

I believe that if there is someone on the side of a car directing the move then the speed has to be 5 mph. It the person is inside a platform then they can go 10-25 mph.

Donald

That would make sense- what remaining industries there are along that line are very much off of the main line TG

That was one of the locals based in LaMirada. More than likely, the one that comes down to my back door in Tustin. Most BNSF local jobs do still have cabooses, believe it or not.

The Southwest Chief.....those "hi-cubes" are "Amtrak express" cars, and usually, nowadays, haul US Mail (as do the intermodl trucks which are called "RoadRailers". The Amtrak Express cars were being used to haul less-than-carload shipments that had to get across the country rapidly, and on somewhat of a set schedule. Believe it or not, they were hauling strawberries in them from California to eastern markets. It was a lot quicker (and smoother) on Amtrak than on a freight railroad.

South of Fullerton station (just north of where the line goes under the 91 Freeway) there is a switch going off to a siding between the plants there. They can actually stay on that line and weave through all the back streets and get back to the mainline out in Placentia. One of the industries along this line is Cargill Foods, which is the Knott's Berry Farm jelly plant, off of Placentia Avenue.

Also, the local that serves Tustin travels on a branch that's now only about 3 miles off the mainline, but at its greatest, could go about 10 miles off the main, all the way to the I-405 and Von Karmann Avenue in Irvine. Used to be furniture manufacturers using the rails, beer distributors, lots of other types of industry.

Crossing at grade south of Fullerton....do you mean down by Ball Road/Cerritos Avenue on the Surfliner route? That would be the former SP "Marlboro" branch which runs over to Orange. It used to go all the way to Tustin when there were fruit packing houses and Tustin Lumber. The UP Costa Mesa local nowadays runs on the Amtrak line from there south to Santa Ana, where it takes off to its own branch once again, to service industries such as the Los Angeles Times printing plant in Costa Mesa, also Behr Paints in southern Santa Ana. Lots of tank cars, and all the Golden West Industries boxcars usually contain huge rolls of newsprint for the Times. That must be the local you're talking about, lately it has had an older SP unit with the UP logos slapped on, plus a UP GP15-1.

If you would like to contact me via e-mail, remove one "h" from the return address. That keeps a lot of junk out of my mailbox!!

Always lots of possibilities.....