Railroad Crossings of the UP ex-SP Tustin Branchline
The UP ex-SP Tustin branchline is a 2-mile industrial branchline serving the industrials in Anaheim and Orange running from the UP Santa Ana Industrial Lead branchline and a small spur in Orange where a couple more industries are located. The line was originally built in 1888, which ran for about 12 miles coming off the UP Santa Ana Industrial Lead to downtown Tustin passing through Anaheim, Orange, Villa Park, and El Modena which is noe part of Orange. When it was first built, it was actually used to serve the Pacific Electric from the early 1910s to the 1930s. However, their freight service lasted until the 1980s as a "Pacific Electric orphan", serving an industrial on a spur near the Marlboro diamond going into a warehouse by ex-ATSF now Metrolink Orange Depot.This line's demise actually started in early 1969 when the bridge at Santiago Creek was destroyed in a washout during a huge rain. That section from there of Villa Park/Orange to Tustin was completely abandoned as the bridge was never rebuilt. The Marlboro to Villa Park was then abandoned soon after, and became a plant nursery with the diamond at Marlboro being removed, only leaving the 2-mile line west of the removed diamond we see today since at least the 1990s. Today, this line is served by the UP LOA32 Marlboro local, named after the area where the diamond once was, going into a spur where it serves one more customer, being the FXI Chemicals in Orange. It also serves the Crenshaw Lumber yard and the Ganalh Lumber yard both west and east off Lewis Street.
As for the crossings, this line offers a mixture of older SP installs with modernized upgrades and a couple of UP installs. Most of the crossings still feature mechanical bells with Sunkist Street and Cerritos Avenue being the only two crossings retaining their 8" lights, although they have been LED'd. Phoenix Club Drive got its signals in the mid-late 2000s, replacing either crossbucks or gateless signals, but one of the bells was immediately replaced for some reason. Lewis Street has the same story where its signals replaced some crossbucks in the 80s to early 90s.
Line originally had a a few of EMs signals at two crossings being Sunkist and Batavia Street, but both crossings had them replaced around late 2012 to 2013 with the other EM at Sunkist getting replaced prior to 2005.
Batavia Street originally sported two Griswold EM signals with 8" Griswold lights with Electro Tech LEDs and Griswold mechanical bells. Nothing has actually changed more recently, outside of some old gate barriers getting replaced or redone, and a NEG electronic bell removed that was originally at Sunkist Street which was installed on the mast replacing the EM mast.
I've recorded all core seven crossings in the span of 7 months. I'm not counting the ones at the spur near Marlboro because it's technically a different track, so I only focused on the crossings in the same right-of way.
Enjoy this compilation of all seven crossings on this line from east to west!
Timestamps
00:00 Batavia Street, Orange, CA
1:49 Main Street, Orange, CA
3:47 Pheonix Club Drive, Anaheim, CA
5:07 Sunkist Street, Anaheim, CA
6:27 Cerritos Avenue, Anaheim, CA
8:57 State College Boulevard, Anaheim, CA
11:08 Lewis Street, Anaheim, CA