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 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.
 |
| from: Official Guide 1887. |
from: Official Guide, 1887. * * *The Montalvo CutoffBackground: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 1899Above: 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), 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 |
* * *
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. |
 |
| from: Oxnard Courier; 22 June 1901. Google newspapers. |
 |
| from: Philadelphia Record; 17 June 1902. Google newspapers. |
 |
| from: Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City); 19 August 1903. Google newspapers. |
 |
| from: Lewiston [Maine] Daily Sun; 6 October 1903. Google newspapers. |
 |
| from: The Daily Californian [Bakersfield] 19 March 1904. Google newspapers. |
 |
| 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. |
 |
| 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 |