Eagle Mountain Railroad
Traveling to see a railroad “in the middle of nowhere” has always been a two-sided coin.
Despite advanced planning and awareness of what days the railroad operates, there is always the possibility you may sometimes come up with nothing after driving for hours. The expected operating day did not come off, there was a problem at the interchange, the motive power broke down, the weather didn’t cooperate — all are possible derails.
But when the stars align, the skies are clear, the locomotives crank up properly, and the sun is perfect, suddenly the hassle of getting there seems to quickly disappear.
Into the desert
It was on just such an adventure I embarked to see the Eagle Mountain Railroad deep in the Southern California desert. It was a private railroad built for the express purpose of serving Kaiser Steel Corp.’s iron ore mine in the late 1940s, itself created to serve the numerous west coast Kaiser industries. Fifty-one miles long, it transported the ore to an interchange with Southern Pacific at the appropriately named Ferrum in the Coachella Valley. From there, SP hauled the ore west to a Kaiser Steel mill at Fontana in the San Gabriel Valley.
The line was an up-and-down affair, following the contours of the hilly desert it operated in. Fortunately the southbound loads were predominantly downhill to the interchange, making it easier for crews to bring the empties back up to the mine.
The Baldwin road-switchers that originally powered the railroad were long gone by the time I saw it, replaced by a group of new General Electric 3,000-hp U30Cs decked out in red and white. The scheme was modified slightly when the company painted the battery boxes white, in what was reported to be a move to keep the batteries cooler.
Lights, camera, action!
Another revenue stream for Eagle Mountain was its proximity to Hollywood when it needed desert scenes. The company was always eager to accept.
Among the more notable movies shot there include The Professionals, a western starring Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Jack Palance, and Claudia Cardinale. Then Touchstone Films, a Walt Disney subsidiary, found the railroad perfect for the movie Tough Guys, again with Burt Lancaster, but this time also with Kirk Douglas, Eli Wallach, and Dana Carvery. The star for many of us was former Southern Pacific 4-8-4 No. 4449 as the power for the “Gold Coast Flyer.”
My experience
Having made prior telephone calls to EM’s management, I found the crews friendly and accommodating as I inquired about the best roads to follow the train to Ferrum.
Summing everything up
I only visited Eagle Mountain once. The last revenue train to operate over the line was on March 24, 1986. Many proposals were made to reuse the line, including as a vessel to being a garbage train hauler, using the now inactive mine as a new open air refuse pit. The idea fell through.
I understand the last of the mainline has finally been picked up by scrappers and the desert is slowly reclaiming the right of way, the scar on the landscape becoming ever fainter each day.
I had lucked out. The worst that could have happened is no train would have been operating, the mine property shut off to me, and the whole day a bust.
Was it worth it to take a chance? What do you think? It was great!
Take the plunge sometime. Find some squiggle on a map in a remote area of your home state, pack up the cameras, water, and a map, and go for it.
Like this article? Read “Death Valley: A heck of a place for a railroad,” by David Lustig.
Yeah, I remember seeing 👀 those Kaiser Steel locomotives 🚂 when I used to go 🚶♂️ railfanning with my dad 👨! They would interchange with the ESPEE railroad at Ferrum. It was something different indeed!
I visited from England in around 2007. The line was still intact although buried by sand in places. I also visited the company town of Eagle Mountain which was eerily deserted including a huge high school. I took some great photos during my visit as I love industrial dereliction. Also, I’m sure that the line was used after closure by people using powered home made rail cars, I’m sure there are videos on YouTube.
I made 2 trips out to the Eagle Mountain in the mid 1980’s. Lucked out both times catching the train leaving the mine.
It is still a desolate area, in the middle of nowhere. On my recent drives on Interstate 10, I’ve looked for traces of the railroad where it passed under the freeway. It’s quickly fading away.
A great memory from my youth late 50-early 60 was the ore train coming through Redlands and Bryn Mar clouds of brake shoes and dynamic noise, thanks for the article.