Train Station in Wrightwood...

[Chris]

I know that a few decades back, Wrightwood had a train station that is now used as a Newspaper Printing place... Can the tracks still be found through out Wrightwood/Swarthout? If so, where abouts?

[Local]

I do believe that the TRAIN STATION, was built to look like a train station.

there never were trains in wrightwood.

[clint]

Yeah, what Local said. Never been a train here.

[naturalist]

Though sometimes you can sure hear a train whistle!!  Is that whistle from the train "station"?

[Chris]

no no, i heard different, A long time ago they built a train track..... the first time the train tried to make it up, it lost power and never made it..... the printing depart was once a train station. I remember reading about it in one of Robbin W.'s books....

[headchat]

I agree with Chris.   There are tracks at the newspaper office.  Why would anyone bother to lay tracks there if a train had not actually run thru there?

Well, maybe a train never did run thru there, but the tracks are there and you have to wonder why.
What a whimsical thought.

[Mountain_Witch]

[Little_Fox]

*grins* Hey Witchy, I know him too. ;P Or maybe we know two different people. But a friend of mine has a train horn on his truck, I think. You can ALWAYS hear it on New Years!

[Mountain_Witch]

These horns are too big to mount on a truck. The person I know hooks his up to his air compressor. He has two or three of them that came off the old freight liners. When he blows those things I always anticipate seeing a train roaring through my backyard. He does have one on his truck too but it's not near as loud.

[mtman]

These horns are too big to mount on a truck.

There are a few of the train horns in Wrightwood and yes, one of them is mounted under the carriage of a pickup truck and just as loud as standing next to a RR track.

[Chris]

[Local]

So are the tracks really there?

Local

[asmith47]

It seems very unlikely that there was ever a train to Wrightwood. The grades involved would have been prohibative requiring lots of switchback and tunneling. Not cost effective to provide service to a community of this size with no industry to serve. Maybe someone is thinking of the Mt. Lowe railway. You can still hike the right of way as it is now a trail. There are artifacts from the RR along the way, an overhead power line pole juts out of a rock at one place.

[GhillieSuit]

Mt Lowe is a great hiking trail.  Especially up at the ruins of the once majestic resort.  Great view on a clear day.

[asmith47]

It is kind of a grind tho as the grade is a perfectly constant 6% you don't get a break or any variation in your pace.

[Chris]

It seems very unlikely that there was ever a train to Wrightwood. The grades involved would have been prohibative requiring lots of switchback and tunneling. Not cost effective to provide service to a community of this size with no industry to serve.

3 Words.

Big Horn Mine.

[asmith47]

So somebody must know. It would seem that any RR up here would have left big scars with a lot of cuts and tunnels and would be obvious even if abandoned.  

[Chris]

[asmith47]

But there is no way for any railroad to follow existing roadways, it is too steep. Evidence of an abandoned right of way not being visible on any of the likely approaches to Wrightwood, and in the abscence of any other evidence, I am forced to conclude that there was never any rail service to our town.

I know a fair amount about railroads as a longtime member of the Great Northern Railway Hisorical Society and an all around train nut, and there is nothing like an abandoned right of way around here!

[Chris]

But there is no way for any railroad to follow existing roadways, it is too steep. Evidence of an abandoned right of way not being visible on any of the likely approaches to Wrightwood, and in the abscence of any other evidence, I am forced to conclude that there was never any rail service to our town.

Thats what I read! The train was on its way up but didnt enough of the HP, so it couldn't make it.

It never even made it up