CAJON PASS N GAUGE 1967-1972

Cajon, Spanish for "big box," first saw trains struggle us this Southern California mountain pass in 1885, when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (AT&SF) built the 3 percent "south" track.  In 1905, the Los Angeles, San Pedro and Salt Lake Railroad, the predecessor to the Union Pacific Railroad (UP), gained trackage rights from Los Angeles over Cajon Pass.  With traffic density increasing on the steep single track, the second mainline, or "north" track, was built in 1913. The north mainline parallels the south main from San Bernardino to Blue Cut and Cajon (mile post 64), where the new line swings left on a 2.2 percent grade. After swinging around the famous Sullivan's Curve, the line bores through tunnels east of Alray before rejoining the south mainline at summit (mile post 56).

Summit had three passing sidings, a wye with stock pens, depot, post office, and houses for railroad employees.  The depot at Summit was closed in 1967, and the buildings gradually dismantled. In April 1966, the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), looking for a way to move trains from San Joaquin Valley to eastern markets and bypass the congested Los Angeles area, began construction of a new line from Colton over Cajon pass to Palmdale. The new line passed a few hundred yards to the north of Summit, with the Southern Pacific naming the location "Hiland."

Our model assumes that all  the buildings at Summit are still intact and that the SP line at Hiland has been completed, also that the wye and stock pens have been dismantled. We have modelled the line from Blue Cut, through Cajon, past Sullivan's Curve and Mormon Rocks, then past Alray, and through the tunnels to Summit. Naturally a great deal of compression has been applied. After summit our model enters a fictitious section that allows us to complete  a circuit back to Blue Cut, via storage sidings.