Re: Freight car Friday: Cement and Borates
Author: DCA
Date: 01-26-2019 - 14:43
Carol:
Apparently, then, the Permanente Branch has no traffic these days. I no longer live in the area but years ago (possibly when you were in the Cupertino area) I was on the County FD and assigned to several of the County fire stations there. That included Monta Vista on Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino station, also on Stevens Creek Blvd., and West Valley, on Cox Ave. The Permanente Local was a near-daily fixture in those days, running right past the backyard of the West Valley fire station with a lot of coal loads inbound and a lot of (mixed) SP power.
I wonder whether UPRR is continuing to maintain the branch, which as you know, once handled daily passenger trains up the west side to connect with the mainline near Palo Alto (that was before my time in that area, and after the northern portion of the Vasona Line became Foothill Expressway).