A little UP Switching action near where I grew up. Happened to spot the train from the 110 freeway near my old neighborhood and got off the freeway to investigate. This particular line was part of the Pacific Electric branch that ran down through Gardena (with a little street running) and headed to Redondo Beach, Torrance and San Pedro. SP has run freight on this branch for decades; UP continues.
Is there a map showing all those rail lines in that area? Or in general is there a way to show railroads on any of the online maps like Google, Bing etc...? Other than zooming in tight on the satellite view?
When I'm searching, I use maps.google.com and switch to the "map" view. It shows active rail lines. The satellite view is good once you've narrowed down the area because it shows the "scars" where the tracks have been removed.
The area in the photo is just east of the intersection of Figueroa and Rosecrans in Gardena, CA. The street-running section (1 block) is at 164th and Vermont in Gardena, CA. The tracks hit Vermont just north of Redondo Beach Blvd and run down the median until 164th. It used to be a 2-track section, but the west track has since been removed. There used to be wig-wags on the line but they're long gone, though on still remains at Denker south of 166th street on the old Redondo Beach branch (ends in a lumber yard at Western and 166th.
I was going to model that branch years ago, but its layout was too difficult for me to lay out in model form at the time. It is actually part of a larger section of the PE/SP that branched out from the Watts Junction which included the old Santa Ana Branch (long gone), and the El Segundo Branch (still active). Since I moved away from the area some time ago and don't model SP, I hadn't thought that much about modelling the branch, though I may build a model of the Pacific Electric Bridge in Torrance.
I'm frequently very close to that intersection (will be there next week). How far is that from Angels Gate Hi-Railers? Thanks for the map info, I see the rail lines better in map mode. You have a lot of cool stuff to model around there like the PE Bridge.
