Harbor Subdivision (BNSF)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The BNSF Harbor Subdivision is a historic single-track main line of the BNSF Railway which stretches 26 miles/42km between the rail yards of downtown Los Angeles and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach across southwestern Los Angeles County. It was the primary link between two of the world's busiest harbors and the transcontinental rail network. Mostly displaced with the April 15, 2002 opening of the more direct Alameda Corridor, the "Harbor Sub" takes a far more circuitous route from origin to destination, owing to its growth in segments over the decades. The subdivision was built in this fashion beginning in the early 1880s to serve the ports and the various businesses that developed along it.
First built to serve Port Ballona, located at what is now Playa del Rey, the construction of a larger, better port at Redondo Beach brought an extension to that city in 1888. The early 1900s would see that project eclipsed with the coming of the San Pedro Outer Breakwater and the Port of Los Angeles. By the early 1920s, owing to the development of the area's oil fields, the Harbor Sub was extended through Torrance, Wilmington and on to Long Beach. Development of Watson Yard in Wilmington completed the line. Other than sidings at "Lairport" (along the eastern edge of Los Angeles International Airport next to Aviation Boulevard), "Ironsides" in Torrance and the line's longest siding at the Alcoa plant, also in Torrance, the Harbor Sub is completely single-track without signals, compensated with track warrant control via a local dispatcher.
Early operations on the line meant one or more daily freight trains and, prior to the Second World War, an occasional passenger train. From the 1950s to the early 1990s, this line saw one or two through trains each way daily. A number of locals worked the line including the Wilmington Turn out of Hobart Yard in Vernon and the Hobart Turn out of the aforementioned Watson Yard. Other locals were assigned to Watson Yard and Vernon's Malabar Yard. Though operations on the Hobart Turn ceased in the early 1980s, the Watson (near Wilmington) and Malabar switch jobs remained to serve industries along the route. The Malabar Yard area is the site of one of the few Magnetic Flagman grade crossing signals remaining in active use. The lone signal guards a crossing with nine separate tracks on 49th Street.
Rumors of the abandonment of the Harbor Subdivision abounded during the construction of the Alameda Corridor. BNSF has stated that, although the entire line is now within so-called yard limits and a segment between mileposts 8 in Inglewood and 14 in El Segundo "mothballed," the line will remain open to service businesses on the route and as an alternate route should the Alameda Corridor suffer an accident or derailment. Local freights continue to work the line on either side of the closed area. Major customers include a ChevronTexaco refinery in El Segundo, an Interstate Bakeries Corporation bakery in Inglewood, an ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance and the aforementioned Alcoa processing plant. Since the line is somewhat unusual insofar as it passes through residential as well as commercial districts, especially through Torrance and Redondo Beach, it is a popular destination for railfans and photographers despite reduced traffic. Track warrant control via radio dispatch makes it easy for railfans with portable scanners to follow train movement.
The line is currently under control of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and is used by both the BNSF and the Union Pacific. Despite the closure of the Inglewood/El Segundo segment and the reduction in the number of trains from roughly 20 one-way trains per day to about six two-way trains, growth in local freight traffic is projected to be roughly two percent per year. A study conducted by the MTA examined the feasibilities of extending the Green Line to Torrance via the Harbor Sub, the creation of a new light rail transit line and even the possibility of a maglev high-speed rail system. The study also examines the possibilities abandonment would create, although the scenarios remain highly unlikely.
