Engines 5119, 5336, 5318, and 5968 ease train 168 out of the west end of double track at Scholle on December 26, 1985. On the headend is a large block of auto racks for Pico Rivera. Disk 61

From Scholle, it was single track down the narrow winding canyon for six miles to Sais. Even though this stretch may seem like it was a bottle neck on this mostly double track mainline, the real bottle neck was at Belen. All trains must be refueled and get a 1,000 mile inspection. You may wonder why the dispatcher would be holding several westbound piggyback trains at Scholle while a lowly eastbound mixed freight grinds uphill. The real reason was there was no room at Belen to take the westbound trains. By bunching up the westbounds, he could then fleet them through the canyon and keep this part of the railroad fluid. The BNSF recently completed a double track project through this canyon and has added additional tracks at Belen for refueling locomotives.

Index

Abo Canyon Bridges