SP 1900 The Montalvo Cutoff and The Gap

Old maps, newspaper articles and employee timetables describe Southern Pacific's Tunnels - Nos. 26, 27 and 28 on the Montalvo Cutoff. 

from: screencaps of, Map of the Route of the Southern Continental Rail Road, 1869. David Rumsey Map Collection. 

The 'original route of the Southern Pacific' is shown above in 1869. Back then, everyone was all: 'We're going round the Horn in sailing ships!' and 'Miners, Forty-niners and their daughters Clementine!'. 

San Francisco was the place where everyone went and it was where the Southern Pacific was headquartered. 

Someone looking at this map in 1869 asks:

You're not going to build to L.A.? Where? Los Angeles! Why? It only has a population of 5000.

Why have you built to San Diego, then? Because it's in our charter! We're supposed to build down the coast connecting San Francisco & San Diego. We'll complete that coastal route some day but going down the coast is too much to take on at this point. Look at all the mountains.

This is my last question, then. How well are your 1869 operations doing between San Francisco, San Diego, and beyond to the east? 

... Er ... well ... didn't that Rolly Martin Country blogger guy explain that 1869 map he decided to post? 

... Do you see, where it says Gilroy ... just south of San Francisco? See the red writing ... 'Completed'? 

... Right now we're very successfully running between San Francisco ... and Gilroy! 

... The rest of the map is ... very strongly ... projected.

 [Santa Fe reached San Diego in 1885. Espee gained access to San Diego in 1919.]

*  *  *

From the Official Guide of 1887

from: Official Guide 1887.

The Southern Pacific reaches Los Angeles! But look closely at the location of 'Los Angeles'. 

... In 1892 Collis P Huntington and the Southern Pacific started construction on the 4720 foot long Santa Monica Pier. It opened as the deep water port of 'Los Angeles' in 1894. Track was laid on the full length of the pier to serve the deep water anchorage which had been created. The pier included coaling towers as oil was not yet in use as a locomotive fuel.

In 1897, the federal government decided that San Pedro would become the location of The Port of Los Angeles. The dwindling shipping to the SP Santa Monica pier finally ceased in 1913. The remaining portion of that Santa Monica pier was dismantled in 1933.

Below are the officers, and the subsidiary railroads which made up the Southern Pacific. You can see some of the subsidiaries labelled on the SP route above.

from: Official Guide, 1887.

*  *  *

The Montalvo Cutoff

Background:

Part of my 'sudden' blogging interest in this area stems from having various types of contact with it. 

My sister, Allison, was at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara during the summer of 1995. 

Circa 1990, to urgently fill a hospital staffing gap, my spouse was sent to a week-long course in Los Angeles at the Terasaki Institute. I paid my way and went along for the ride. While she worked, I drove around. From Disneyland to Santa Barbara, I took in all the sights and reviewed attractions for her to see on her days off. At Long Beach, the 'Spruce Goose' was in the process of being moved, but one evening we did get aboard the Queen Mary. Our hotel was in Canoga Park and we did a daily commute along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. 

In the mid-1990s, to help evaluate a new hospital computer system, I was repeatedly sent back to San Bernardino. A group day off was spent in San Diego, another was spent around Palm Springs, and Santa Monica was another port of call. Walking back from the Santa Monica Pier, one evening, the head of our IT department was singled out by a loud confronting stranger for his part in a CIA plot. At one point we did an intensive and interesting site visit to one of Oxnard's hospitals. 

(At some point in the future, a Californian may discover this breathless account of local geography ... and find it amusing.)

It has been really interesting to learn the history of some of these places during the research for this ongoing series of posts. 

*  *  *

The fabulous employee timetable collection available at archive.org from the California State Railroad Museum has been a tremendous revelation during the last couple of weeks. 

Fellow railway museum volunteer Ross Robinson spoke very highly of this museum, and so much can be learned from just a brief amount of time spent with their timetable collection. 

*  *  *

Southern Pacific Employee Timetable From 1899 

Above: It would be great if all old employee timetables had maps! Particularly if the maps documented the construction progress of some of their lines as they were built.

As the Southern Pacific was not really near the coast of southern California in 1887 (see the Official Guide map, farther above), building well-engineered, direct routes in that direction eventually became a priority. 

The Montalvo Cutoff was one name for the project to connect Oxnard with Chatsworth Park. This would require significant rock cut and fill work, as well as costly and challenging tunneling through the Santa Susana mountains and similar features.

 

To show you that the old route was too slow, here are two timetables ...

The two timetables below show the route between: 

          Montalvo (near Oxnard) and Saugus. READ UP (Page 8).

And then between Saugus and Los Angeles. READ DOWN (Page 7).

https://archive.org/details/cscrm_2021_02_000244/mode/1up

A peculiarity of these two timetables is that the mileage distance in the column to the left of the station names is measured from San Francisco. As that era's inland main line reaches the Los Angeles region at Saugus, the mileages increase in both directions from Saugus. 

To borrow a helpful British convention, the trains departing Saugus to the west and to the southeast are 'down trains' from San Francisco - when considering the timetable mileages. 

The same timetable map, repeated below, for your convenience.

https://archive.org/details/cscrm_2021_02_000244/mode/1up

https://archive.org/details/cscrm_2021_02_000244/mode/1up

*  *  *

Newspaper Accounts of the Montalvo Cutoff Construction from 1900

This two first articles on the Cutoff (left) and The Gap (right) are illegible - see the transcriptions below the clippings.

When there were public timetable changes during this era, it was common to put them into a paragraph in a local newspaper.

from: Oxnard Courier, 14 July 1900. Google newspapers.

 Transcription:

"SOUTHERN PACIFIC CHANGES TIME

"The Line Now Operated to the Tunnel.

But Slight Changes Made in Trains Connecting with the Present Main Line.

The new time table on the Southern Pacific went into effect July 1st, opening the branch to the new terminus, Santa Susana. The only other change applicable here is the arrival of the morning train from the Ojai at 8:45 instead of 8:25. As before, trains leave Los Angeles at 8:50 a.m. and 3 p.m., arriving here at 12:35 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.; and leave Oxnard for Los Angeles at 7:15 a.m. and 5 p.m., arriving there at 12:10 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. Trains leave for Ventura and Nordhoff direct at 6:20 p.m. and arrive from there at 8:45 a.m.

Out over the new line the first run was made Monday and the return trip brought two passengers, one from Santa Susana and the other from Strathern. The stations and distances are as follows: Oxnard, 0 miles; Leesdale, 4.3; Sucrosa, 5.8; Camarillo, 8.8; Somis, 11.8; Lagol, 15; Ternes, 16.4; Moorpark, 19.3; Strathern, 24.1; Santa Susana, 29.7.

The train leaves here for Santa Susana at 12:30 a.m. and arrives at Camarillo at 12:45; Somis, 1:05; Moorpark, 1:45; Santa Susana, 2:20. Returning the train leaves Santa Susana at 2:30 p.m. reaching Moorpark at 3:05; Somis, 3:41; Camarillo, 3:51; Oxnard, 4:15. Moorpark is the station on the branch nearest Simi, from which a stage may be taken for Chatsworth, connecting with the Southern Pacific into Los Angeles.

A comparison of distances is interesting. Oxnard is now 501 miles from San Francisco, but the Coast Line when connected, will reduce this by 100 miles. The present route to Los Angeles is 92.41 miles long and the trip requires 3 hours and 25 minutes. The distance to Santa Susana is 29.70 miles; then there is a gap of from 6 to 8 miles, and the remainder of the trip from Chatsworth to Los Angeles is 39.40 miles, a total of 69.10, or a saving of 23.31 miles in the distance from here to Los Angeles, which is equal to nearly a quarter. If the same reduction is made in time when the new road goes clear through, we can reach Los Angeles in about 2 hours and 30 minutes. As it is now, even if connections were made with the Simi stage to Chatsworth, it would require 1 hour and 50 minutes to Santa Susana, an hour on the stage, and an hour and 25 minutes from Chatsworth to Los Angeles. The fare, too, would be higher. Via Saugus it is now $2.60; but the other way it would be $1.50 to Santa Susana, 55 cents stage fare, and $1.25 from Chatsworth to the city, or in all $3.30. The longest way around is the shortest and cheapest way across in this case.

If the occasion demanded it the Southern Pacific could arrange another route between this valley and Los Angeles, by shortening the time, reducing the rates and making connections between the stage and trains. Then we could advertise a new route to the city, avoiding the heat of Saugus, and in its place a delightful ride over the mountains, with their picturesque scenery and soft breezes."

End of Transcription.

... The Map Below and the Timetable Reflect These Changes

https://archive.org/details/cscrm_2021_02_000334/mode/1up

https://archive.org/details/cscrm_2021_02_000290/page/n7/mode/1up

*  *  *

DIGRESSION ON THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 'GAP'

The Gap ... referred to the completion of the railroad line along the coast, west of Santa Barbara.

Together with the Cutoff, this would complete an efficient main line from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Transcription:

"WORK ON THE S. P. GAP. 

[The stations appear on the long Coast Division map, below. This article is from July 1900.]

"Line North of Santa Barbara to Open November 1st. [1900]

The Santa Barbara correspondent to the Los Angeles Times writes about their Coast Line gap as follows:

If no unforeseen delay occurs, the Southern Pacific gap bids fair to be a thing of the past by November 1. The route from Santa Barbara to the terminal above Gaviota is covered by an army of 2000 men. With that force the grading can all be done by September 1, ready for the viaducts, of which there are six in the seventeen miles between terminals, comprising the gap proper. These immense structures must wait till the grading is finished and rails laid, because the massive steel material is too heavy except to be handled on cars. Between Gaviota and the Alegria cañon terminal, about two miles, two viaducts must be put in. As everything is ready for their erection it will be possible to lay the rails to Gaviota by August 15th. By the time the Gaviota viaduct is completed the southern terminal will be at Arroyo Hondo, where the last spike will probably be driven in October, leaving only track ballasting to complete the long-talked-of Coast Line. This can be done in time to establish a running service early in November."

End of Transcription.

The Gap in 1898.
https://archive.org/details/cscrm_2021_02_000182/mode/1up

More specifically, the Gap refers to the uncompleted section of the Southern Pacific line joining Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. On the timetable map above, you can see the extent of The Gap in 1898 using the map scale.

The Gap was closed 30 December 1900 and the line was opened for operations on 31 March 1901.

On the 1906 map, below, you'll find Santa Barbara at the bottom of the map. The line follows the coast up to San Luis Obispo, where it continues inland.

Southern Pacific Coast Division circa 1906
screencaps from: https://archive.org/details/cscrm_2021_02_000600/mode/1up

END OF DIGRESSION ON THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC GAP

*  *  *

BACK TO SANTA SUSANA/CHATSWORTH TUNNELS

https://archive.org/details/cscrm_2021_02_000334/mode/1up

* 1901 *

Railroad press releases often went out on the wires and were convenient to fill in newspaper column-inches.

from: Lewistown [probably Illinois] Democrat; 30 May 1901. Google Newspapers.

*  *  *

The Oxnard Courier was published 1889-1994 and has been a valuable source of information on this project.

The charming Camarillo [9 miles to the east of Oxnard] column includes commercial and social news.

The railroad information in this column starts at the hi-lite marks.

from: Oxnard Courier; 22 June 1901. Google newspapers.

* 1902 *

from: Philadelphia Record; 17 June 1902. Google newspapers.

* 1903 *

A Salt Lake City Newspaper ...

The Railroad Page: A Wreck on the UP and check your railroad stocks!

The Santa Susana/Chatsworth Tunnel (#26) breaks through!

from: Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City); 19 August 1903. Google newspapers.

The train seems to have been running from Los Angeles to Chatsworth, 

but I could find no location named 'Driver' ...

from: Lewiston [Maine] Daily Sun; 6 October 1903. Google newspapers.

* 1904 *

Tunnel Opening

from: The Daily Californian [Bakersfield] 19 March 1904. Google newspapers.

*  *  *

The Tunnels on a 1903 Topographic Map

... and Today

The Santa Susana Tunnel is #26, with the shorter #27 and #28 just to the east.

from: Topographical Map, Santa Susan Quadrangle, edition of 1903.
https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/california/txu-pclmaps-topo-ca-santa_susana-1900.jpg

from: Google maps, circa 2026.

*  *  *

The Montalvo Cutoff 40 Years After Opening

Only twelve trains per day are scheduled on this timetable from the last few months of World War Two. The 80 miles of single-track Ventura Subdivision between Burbank Junction and East Santa Barbara are traffic-controlled by timetable and train orders. ABS signalling protects movements from collision. 

What the timetables do not show are freight extras carrying war materiel, and scheduled freights and passenger trains running in sections, and troop trains - also probably running in sections. 

Accounts of that period indicate that many veteran railroaders postponed their retirements ... and probably some came out of retirement. Experienced young railroaders were in demand - as the US military still considered that railroads were strategic to warfare on land.

These operations would have been something to see - particularly if we were watching over the dispatcher's shoulder.

screencaps from: Southern Pacific employee timetable 183, Los Angeles Division, 8 July 1945. archive.org
https://archive.org/details/cscrm_2021_02_001553/page/n1/mode/1up

screencaps from: Southern Pacific employee timetable 183, Los Angeles Division, 8 July 1945. archive.org
https://archive.org/details/cscrm_2021_02_001553/page/n2/mode/1up

screencaps from: Southern Pacific employee timetable 183, Los Angeles Division, 8 July 1945. archive.org
https://archive.org/details/cscrm_2021_02_001553/page/n19/mode/1up

*  *  *

Before the creation of Tunnels 26, 27, 28, Chatsworth station was the terminal for that branch.

This whole area was convenient for movie and TV producers from nearby Los Angeles to use.

With this YouTube link, you can see the second Chatsworth station with a rented train of SP equipment.

Hollywood Outtakes: the Ghost Train to the Empty Station

end

SP 1912 Locomotive Firing Technology - Down Where the Oil Burners Run

The locomotive diagrams come from one of Rolly's books:

Firing Locomotives; JW Harding; 1912-1928; International Textbook Company, Scranton, Pennsylvania.

... ICS/ITC was a huge correspondence course operation. They provided educational materials for many fields. Today, their extensive coverage of railway subjects provides a valuable insight into many old technologies. 

Sheet music title page. from: archive.org scanned by Newberry Library.

... The section on oil burning steam locomotives dates from 1912, and the particular technology used by the Southern Pacific Railroad is often cited. The SP and the ATSF were the pioneers in oil burning. This came about because most of the developed deposits of coal were found in the east or midwestern US. For fueling locomotives, the cost of transporting coal halfway across the continent could not compete with California's  abundance of cheap, heavy crude. 

The discovery of oil in the US southwest began circa 1890-1900 and heavy oil could be had for under a dollar per barrel. In the Firing Locomotives text, it explains that the lighter oils are richer in hydrogen content, while the really viscous oils are heavier in carbon content. Their respective heat outputs are fairly close, with the heavy stuff yielding slightly more heat. If you're a railroad buying in bulk, the heavy oil was the fuel of choice. 

from: Geology of Petroleum; William Harvey Emmons; 1921; McGraw-Hill.

Unused, undated postcard.

from: Google circa 2026
Summerland, California.

Unused, undated postcard.
It has nothing to do with California, but I thought you might enjoy it. 
I suspect this long-lens shot was actually taken from the Oklahoma Capitol Building - not an aircraft.
Today, all of the oil producing structures are gone and a large tree obscures this view of the governor's mansion.

In addition to avoiding the transportation cost of coal, there was another advantage to oil. Fuel oil can be convinced to flow in pipes. Everywhere coal went, something had to physically take hold of it and lift it or move it where it was wanted ... from mine, to breaker, to hopper car ... [half way across the continent] ... to coal dock, to tender, to fireman's shovel or mechanical stoker. And then the ashes had to be handled.

... But, as we'll see, lighting heavy bunker oil on fire would not be as easy as lighting a propane barbeque. 

*  *  *

But, be careful what you buy and store on railway property!

You'll remember that the untested Bakken crude oil involved in the Lac-Megantic Disaster (6 July 2013) was more volatile than its Safety Data Sheet classification had suggested. Its initial boiling point (an indicator of the presence of dissolved gases like methane, propane etc) was probably closer to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees C). Its correct classification was probably UN 1267, PG1, 'High Danger'. 

A century earlier, this book is raising a similar caution about petroleum sold to the company as 'fuel oil'.

*  *  *

Looking at Southern Pacific Railroad equipment circa 1910 ...

The Tender

With the warning above about volatile components in the oil, they definitely did not want to be running a propane barbeque. The design of the tender supported the type of fuel being used. 

A important feature of this tender plays a critical role in a future post. That is, the oil feed valve. The oil can be shut off at the tender by using that bell-crank arrangement. The seat of the intake valve is built up slightly so the oil is not drawn from the lowest level in the tank. See 'drain valve', below.

Another key feature of the valve assembly's design it that it is spring-loaded to ensure it closes.

Some tender designs have the oil reservoir above the tank holding water. Given the viscous nature of this fuel oil, having a greater hydraulic 'head' helped the oil to flow more freely. 

... Failing that, steam is piped directly to the location near the oil feed valve. No effort is made to heat the whole volume of oil held in the tender. The 'tank heater pipes' end in simple T-connections which send the steam into a total of four different directions. 

The drain valve removes fluid at the lowest level of the tender oil tank. One important function of the drain valve is to prevent water contamination in the oil from entering the burner at the firebox. As some steam from the tank heater pipes may condense and lie under the oil above, this is another source of contamination the drain valve is designed to remove. 

*  *  *

from: The Central Pacific & the Southern Pacific Railroads: Lucius Beebe; 1963; Howell-North.

Built by Alco in 1909, the 3066 will take the Pacific Limited from San Francisco to Roseville, California.

Photographed at Oakland in 1915.

*  *  *

Under the Firebox

Here is what we find under a Southern Pacific firebox. The front of the engine is off the diagram to the left, the tender is just beyond the right margin. We're just going to follow the oil from the tender to the single burner at the front of the firebox. The dotted lines represent the locomotive frame.

To oil feed pipe on tank (bottom right)... is where we get our fuel oil from the tender. 

The oil enters the superheater.

It comes out at the oil burner.

Usually, 'superheater' refers to a device designed to give the steam for propulsion more energy. To make things confusing for us, they use the same term for a completely different device. At this superheater the oil enters a pipe which is jacketed with steam because the oil needs to be very hot when it enters the firebox. 

Near where it says 'oil burner' is where the fireman's controls terminate for the fuel to the burner ... and to control the 'damper' which admits more air at this location.

For extra credit on the test: The blowback valve allows the fireman to use steam to blast out blockages in the oil line in either direction. They don't show it here, but there is a drain on the front of the superheater to get rid of the water condensing from the steam inside the steam jacket.

Do you see where it says Atomizer Pipe to Oil Burner? 'Atomizer' and 'burner' are synonymous. The Atomizer Pipe carries steam. It is the high pressure of this steam which turns our hot oil into very small droplets, increasing the surface area to the point where it is thoroughly combustible in a very hot flame.

*  *  *

The Firebox

If you've looked at many coal-burning fireboxes, this arrangement looks strange. Firebrick is used sparingly, there is no brick arch, there are no grates. 

On Figure (b) you see the front of the firebox in cross-section, where you find the burner 'a' and the draft tubes 'c'.

On Figure (a) you can see both dampers: 'g' allowing air into the draft tubes, and the firedoor damper 'j'. 

The flashwall 'd' and the deflector 'k' are seen at the firedoor 'h'.

The burner 'a' on Figure (a) is located about 6 feet in front of the flashwall. 

About 5 feet in front of the burner is where the horizontal draft from the burner ... meets the downward draft from the firedoor.

*  *  *

The Von Boden-Ingalls Burner (aka, the 'atomizer')

(Southern Pacific's standard burner circa 1912 and into the late 1940s)

The burner is installed using either one of the oil connections at 'a' and the other is plugged.

The steam is connected at 'b'. 

The hot oil 'drools' down onto the corrugated lip at 'd'.

Driven by the steam, and the characteristics of the lip, the fine mist of oil roars into a broad, flat flame which spreads across the whole firebox.

The SP used only a single burner of this type on even its largest engines, and only experimented with other types of burners in the late 1940s near the end of steam.

I double-checked and the text gives no function for the plugs 'c' ... so we can make up our own reasons for having them, I guess.

*  *  *

The Oil Regulator

The Figure (a) shows the side view and Figure (b) shows the top view.

The fireman would move the handle along the quadrant between the stop pin 'f' - regulator closed ... and stop pin 'g' - regulator wide open. 

Using the latching arrangement standard to things like throttles and reversers (ignore Figure (c) if you want) very fine adjustments can be made to the oil feed. The book says 10 notches to the inch - but I haven't counted them all. 

The regulating stop bolt 'c' is set and tightened in the desired point in the quadrant ...

The regulating stop pin 'd' is designed so its spring-loaded lower edge will push into the slotted head of the regulating stop bolt and stay there.

... this is why ... text from the book ...

"When in use, the regulating stop is locked on the quadrant in such a position that it will hold the regulating lever open just far enough to give a 'drifting fire'; that is, a fire that is as strong as can be carried while drifting or standing without the pops blowing."

... In an internal combustion engine, you would consider this to be the 'idle' setting. 

*  *  *

Firing an Oil Burner

As you can imagine, there are many things to consider when starting a fire, when operating, always avoiding smoke, etc. The text goes on for many pages on all the things to consider. The paragraph below gives a brief sample of the complexity of operating an oil burner.

As you remember, the regulator controls the oil, the atomizer implies controlling the force of the steam to the burner, and there are also the dampers which have a similarly important role in managing the fire. 

from: The Train; Jonathan Glancey; 2004; Carlton.

You will recognize one of the first cab-ahead ('cab-in-front', etc) locomotives of the Southern Pacific. The SP needed this kind of power over the mountains between Roseville, California and Sparks, Nevada. However, the regularly-configured engines of this size (or doubleheaders) asphyxiated crews in the many tunnels and showsheds. Forward visibility was often blocked by smoke. So they put the cab on the leading end, and the smokestack at the back.

Built by Baldwin and delivered in 1910, the 4004 started out as a compound. You can see the high pressure cylinders are fed from the steam dome. Then the steam goes to the low pressure cylinders near the smokestack.  

However, this engine/class was overhauled as a simple-expansion locomotive in the late 1920s. This reduced maintenance costs, increased tractive effort, and enabled higher speeds beyond the usual 25 mph. 

end