AMTK 222 SB at Redondo 11-78x4 (11363307455)

Redondo Junction, California is the site of an

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

maintenance facility. It is located south of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

, southwest of

Boyle Heights Boyle is an English, Irish and Scottish surname of Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon or Norman origin. In the northwest of Ireland it is one of the most common family names. Notable people with the surname include: Disambiguation *Adam Boyle (disambiguation), ...

near Washington Boulevard and the

Los Angeles River , name_etymology = , image = File:Los Angeles River from Fletcher Drive Bridge 2019.jpg , image_caption = L.A. River from Fletcher Drive Bridge , image_size = 300 , map = LARmap.jpg , map_size ...

. Redondo Junction services Amtrak's long distance trains: ''

Southwest Chief The ''Southwest Chief'' (formerly the ''Southwest Limited'' and ''Super Chief'') is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on a route between Chicago and Los Angeles through the Midwest and Southwest via Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff ...

'', ''

Coast Starlight The ''Coast Starlight'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, which has operated continuously since Amtrak's formati ...

'', ''

Sunset Limited The ''Sunset Limited'' is an Amtrak passenger train that for most of its history has operated between New Orleans and Los Angeles, over the nation's second transcontinental route. However, up until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it operated betwe ...

'' and ''

Texas Eagle The ''Texas Eagle'' is a daily passenger train route operated by Amtrak between Chicago and San Antonio in the central and western United States. Prior to 1988, the train was known as the ''Eagle''. Trains #21 (southbound) and 22 (northbound) ...

'', and the

regional train Regional rail, also known as local trains and stopping trains, are passenger rail services that operate between towns and cities. These trains operate with more stops over shorter distances than inter-city rail, but fewer stops and faster servi ...

the ''

Pacific Surfliner The ''Pacific Surfliner'' is a passenger train service serving the communities on the coast of Southern California between San Diego and San Luis Obispo. The service carried 2,924,117 passengers during fiscal year 2016, a 3.4% increase from F ...

''.

Wikimapia Redondo Junction roundhouse aerial

History

California Central Railway - Santa Fe 1888 map

The

California Central Railway The California Central Railway was incorporated on April 23, 1887, with headquarters in San Bernardino, California. George O. Manchester was the President of the corporation. At its peak it operated of rail line with 14 steam locomotives, 14 ...

built and ran a 13-mile line from

Port Ballona Port Ballona is an archaic place name for an area near the center of Santa Monica Bay in coastal Los Angeles County, where Playa Del Rey and Del Rey Lagoon are located today. Port Ballona was a planned harbor and town site from circa 1859 to 19 ...

(what is now

Playa del Rey, Los Angeles Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...

) to Redondo Junction. The line opened in September 1887. Redondo Junction became a major train maintenance facility. The California Central Railway ran a line from Redondo Junction to

La Grande Station La Grande Station was the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's (Santa Fe) main passenger terminal in Los Angeles, California from 1893 until the opening of Union Station in 1939. The station was located at 2nd Street and Santa Fe Avenue on the ...

. The

Redondo Beach Railway The California Central Railway was incorporated on April 23, 1887, with headquarters in San Bernardino, California. George O. Manchester was the President of the corporation. At its peak it operated of rail line with 14 steam locomotives, 14 ...

also connected to Redondo Junction. The Redondo Beach Railway was incorporated in April 1888, Henry E. Huntington controlled and owned much of the Redondo Beach Railway. The Redondo Beach Railway line started operations on September 1, 1888. The California Central Railway operated on, but did not own the Railway. This line ran from Redondo Beach to

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

. In 1890, the

Hotel Redondo Hotel Redondo was a hotel in Redondo Beach, California, that opened in 1890 and was demolished in 1925. The hotel, which had 225 rooms in three stories, was built in a High Victorian style. Construction cost approximately $500,000. At the tim ...

opened. The rail line helped make Redondo "the place" for tourists. The first train ran on April 16, 1888, from Inglewood to downtown Los Angeles on California Central Railway tracks through Redondo Junction. The California Central Railway completed a line started by the

San Bernardino and San Diego Railway The California Central Railway was incorporated on April 23, 1887, with headquarters in San Bernardino, California. George O. Manchester was the President of the corporation. At its peak it operated of rail line with 14 steam locomotives, 14 ...

. The line ran from Redondo Junction to

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

and continued to

Anaheim Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

San Juan Capistrano San Juan Capistrano (Spanish for "St. John of Capistrano") is a city in Orange County, California, located along the Orange Coast. The population was 34,593 at the 2010 census. San Juan Capistrano was founded by the Spanish in 1776, when St. ...

and then to Oceanside and

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. The

still runs on this line from San Diego to Santa Ana. On November 7, 1889, California Central Railway was consolidated into the

Southern California Railway Southern California Railway was formed on November 7, 1889. it was formed by consolidation of California Southern Railroad Company, the California Central Railway Company, and the Redondo Beach Railway Company. A second consolidation and reformi ...

Company. On June 30, 1888, it started operations as a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

of the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

. In 1914 Santa Fe built a 25-track roundhouse there to service trains. The

railway turntable In rail terminology, a railway turntable or wheelhouse is a device for turning railway rolling stock, usually locomotives, so that they can be moved back in the direction from which they came. Naturally, it is especially used in areas where e ...

was a through plate girder design. The

Redondo Junction train wreck The Redondo Junction train wreck occurred at 17:42 on the evening of January 22, 1956, on the Santa Fe Railroad in Los Angeles. The accident happened at Redondo Junction, California, just southwest of Boyle Heights near Washington Boulevard and t ...

came on January 22, 1956. It was a deadly wreck involving the Santa Fe RDCs. It was the first major disaster in the Los Angeles area covered on live television, and the worst train wreck in the city's history. The train comprised two RDCs (

Budd Rail Diesel Car The Budd Rail Diesel Car, RDC, Budd car or Buddliner is a self-propelled diesel multiple unit (DMU) railcar. Between 1949 and 1962, 398 RDCs were built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The cars were primarily adop ...

s) which ran two return trips daily on the '' San Diegan'' (train numbers 80-83) between the more conventional

streamliner A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating wikt:streamline, streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "High-speed rail, bullet trai ...

s. The RDCs overturned on a sharp curve near the tower, killing 30 and injuring 117. Redondo Junction was sold to Amtrak in January 1977. In May 1999, Amtrak built new facilities just north of the 1914 roundhouse. The 1914 roundhouse was demolished in August 2000 to make space for a future servicing area. The railway turntable is still on the site.

Redondo Junction project

In 2002 the Redondo Junction project was completed. The project separates passenger rail from freight rail by elevating Amtrak and Metrolink railroad lines over the

Alameda Corridor The Alameda Corridor is a freight rail "expressway" owned by the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority that connects the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach with the transcontinental mainlines of the BNSF Railway and the Union Pacific Rail ...

in Los Angeles at Redondo Junction.

References

{{reflist

Sources

* ICCbr>Report No.3675

Rail transportation in California Rail yards in the United States South Los Angeles Transportation in Los Angeles Amtrak facilities Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway

History

Redondo Junction project

See also

References

Sources