Sunset Limited route from LA to Palm Springs

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Geordie405

Train Attendant
Joined
Oct 2, 2017
Messages
19
Hello all,

I am hoping someone can help with a routing query. I took the Texas Eagle from Los Angeles on Friday 5/22 and went to bed shortly after we departed Pomona. By the time we got to Tucson, AZ we were about two hours behind schedule. The conductor announced that this was because we'd had to back up at some point and then detour via an alternate route to Palm Springs.

Hence my question. Does anyone know what is the normal route that the SL / TE takes and what the diversionary route would have been? The only "alternate" route that I can see on the Alhambra sub would be via Riverside but I am not sure if that's the normal route or not.

Thanks!
 
Normally the train takes the UP double-tracked mainline that parallels I-10. AFAIK that's the only trackage through Palm Springs, so I'm not sure how they'd get back to it if diverting to another railroad between there and Pomona. It might be simply that one track was blocked and they had to back up to the closest switch to the alternate track, all while waiting for traffic to clear. That could easily account for 2 hours. As well as missing Palm Springs, it would seem that any major reroute would have taken a lot longer.
 

Thanks! Not the most intuitive map I've ever used but it did seem to have what I was looking for. It would appear we most likely set back to Ontario, and then took the Metrolink route via Riverside, rejoining the normal route at Colton. Total speculation of course as I was asleep, and the conductor on board at Tucson didn't know which way we went other than that we were diverted.
 
Thanks! Not the most intuitive map I've ever used but it did seem to have what I was looking for. It would appear we most likely set back to Ontario, and then took the Metrolink route via Riverside, rejoining the normal route at Colton. Total speculation of course as I was asleep, and the conductor on board at Tucson didn't know which way we went other than that we were diverted.
It looks like you are correct.
 

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Thanks!! Really appreciate the confirmation.

As you can see from the historic times, we incurred a further delay in AZ. The reason for this was a classic car on the tracks at Willcox, AZ. It was the town's Classic Car Rally and one of the drivers was apparently doing doughnuts on the grade crossing, lost control of the car, spun out, and ended up wedged between tracks 1 and 2. We were doing line speed (80 mph) when I felt the brakes come on hard, lots of blowing of the horn, then felt the engineer put the train into emergency. We came to a stop with the classic car adjacent to one of the coach cars. Obviously local police were involved, and a tow truck showed up to pull the car clear of the tracks. From what I could hear on the scanner the driver was on the crossing waving at the train to stop, and had to be dragged clear by other onlookers!!!

Train comes within inches of striking stuck vehicle gives the story!
 
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Thanks! Not the most intuitive map I've ever used but it did seem to have what I was looking for. It would appear we most likely set back to Ontario, and then took the Metrolink route via Riverside, rejoining the normal route at Colton. Total speculation of course as I was asleep, and the conductor on board at Tucson didn't know which way we went other than that we were diverted.
There is normally a crew change at Maricopa so the conductor you talked to in Tuscon was not the same one that was aboard from LA through Pomona, Palm Springs, etc.
 
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