The Huntington Beach Local curves off the wye in Anaheim with badly graffittied SW1500 1095 in the lead.
This is just before the train crosses Beach Blvd. This was taken before the closure of the Paramount Branch, and the Huntington Beach job would run down the HB Branch a short ways and couple up to a string of oil tank cars parked on the branch in Anaheim. They would then shove the tank cars up to Stanton Junction and leave them at the wye, proceeding down the Huntington Beach Branch to complete their switching duties there. They would then return in the late afternoon, couple up to the tank cars, and run down the Paramount Branch to a refinery in Paramount. A new rail connection was recently built there, eliminating the need for the Huntington Beach local to make this circuitous detour. Alas, I was never able to get photos of this operation.
The local curves of the wye at Stanton Junction heading towards Huntington Beach. At one time, this was a very busy junction, with branches to Paramount, Los Alamitos and Orange as well. The tracks to Los Alamitos and Orange have long been severed, although remnants of the roadbeds of these lines can be seen in a number of OC cities.
The local backs out of the Garden Gove industrial complex, one of its two major switching duties on the line.
The local is shown here having just crossed Edinger Ave. in Huntington Beach.
Crossing Nutwood Ave.
Crossing Beach Blvd.
Switching in the Garden Grove industrial complex.
The brakeman gets out to flag a crossing along Hoover St. in Westminster. Recently, new continuously welded rail was installed all along this line and the crossings were temporarily deactivated. The old jointed rail can be seen to the left of the brakeman.
