Union Pacific Azusa Branch action with UP City of Industry Local LOS28! 11/4/2021

The sleepy rails of the Union Pacific Azusa Branch, formally the Azusa Industrial Lead, lie dormant during the day void of any trains. However at night this is a different story, when a few times a week, a local makes its way up from the City of Industry, in this case LOS28, winding through the Alhambra Subdivision, San Gabriel Subdivision, and finally the branch as it does work along many industries along the way. Built in 1951, as a connector to the now out of service Pacific Electric Monrovia-Glendora line, it was used for Southern Pacific freights to access what was left of the line following its abandonment, to prevent traffic from diverting to the nearby ATSF Second District, SPs main rival in the San Gabriel Valley. Hosting local freights and the occasional MoW run, this continued from the SP days to the UP days, where much of the line retains classic equipment and rails. From Orange Avenue Junction in Irwindale, it extends to the foothills in Azusa, now incorporating a small segment of the former PE line with 1906 dated Carnegie 70lb rails. Metrolink bought the line in the 1990s as part of a package with the nearby former Covina Branch but never started any service on it, and owns the land and dispatching while UP operates and maintains it. An original plan for the Metrolink San Bernardino Line was to use this to get trains up to Azusa and Irwindale and use the Pasadena Subdivision down to CP Cambridge but this plan was not to be, currently the line sees a local out of Industry a few times a week. I chased the LOS28 from the Orange Avenue Junction at Azusa Canyon Ave in Irwindale on the San Gabriel Subdivision, to all active crossings on the branch at Cypress Ave, Arrow Highway, and First Street at the former Miller Coors Brewery. North of here the line is out of service (north of I-210), including the portion with two artificial tunnels when the customer on the former PE portion discontinued rail service early 2020. So I caught the train going as far as it goes, where it switched out Veolia Industries, the line's most active customer. I hope you enjoyed and thanks for watching! Train ID: UP LOS28 04 Locomotive: UP 1155~GP60 ~ Ex SSW 9633