MSTS -  Addon - SP West Colton Route

Includes:

Route:
West Colton Route

Trains:
DW - Southern Pacific Packs 1 - 4
DW - UP_MP15

Free Acitvity pack


Info:

SP West Colton Route is all about the operations in and around a huge classification yard. 
In this case, SP's West Colton Yard which is one of the largest on the west coast. 
Our route encompasses about 40 square miles and includes sections of four different Subdivisions. 

They are: 
1) The SP Alhambra Sub which starts at West Colton and runs west to LA. 
2) The SP Mojave Sub which starts at West Colton and runs north over the Palmdale Cutoff towards Mojave and Bakersfield. 
3) The SP Yuma Sub which starts at West Colton and runs eastward towards Indio and Yuma. 
4) The ATSF San Bernardino Sub which starts at San Bernardino and runs south/west towards West Redondo.





The circa is from the late 70's to the mid 90's, and the track charts we used were dated 1996 which is the pre merger period 
before Union Pacific merged with Southern Pacific, and Burlington Northern merged with Santa Fe.

And finally, the entire route is situated next to the San Gabrial and San Bernardino mountain ranges to the north and 
northeast of the area which provides beautiful vistas and a dramatic backdrop for this MSTS project.

History

West Colton was built by Southern Pacific in 1972 at the junction of the lines west into Los Angeles and north over the 
Colton-Palmdale Cutoff (which opened in 1968) to replace the classification yard in Los Angeles that was no longer on the 
main route between the Sunset Route and the San Joaquin Valley line. 

The yard is nearly six miles long and the recieving tracks can hold 180 car trains and the classification tracks are 
between 2200 ft and 3200 ft. long. 

The departure tracks can hold approximately 2000 cars. 
All departures leave from the east end of the yard, 
however, there is a balloon track that can turn trains west if they are headed in that direction.

The actual yard location is on the south side of the Sunset Route main line and on the south side of I-10, some 45 miles east of Los Angeles. 
A diesel locomotive maintenance facility is also located at West Colton. 
The large yard is laid out along the south side of the main track. 
Beginning at Sierra Avenue, one sees the receiving yard (where cars are inspected and checked against wheel reports). 
Then, just east of Cedar Avenue the receiving tracks lead to the hump crest and the hump tower (administrative offices are also located south 
of the hump crest) followed by the classification bowl tracks which narrow down to pass under Riverside Avenue. 
Southwest of the Riverside Avenue overpass is the locomotive facility and the engineering headquarters. 
East of Riverside Avenue are the departure tracks stretching to Pepper Avenue.