Eagle Mountain

Company History: The EMRR was built by Kaiser Steel in 1947 and ’48 to connect their Eagle Mountain iron mine near California’s Salton Sea with Southern Pacific’s Sunset Route at Ferrum, 50 miles away. EMRR never had a steam era. They opened with Baldwin DRS6-6-1500’s, joined by AS616’s. Keeping the Baldwins going proved to be a struggle so in 1968, EMRR took delivery of five U30C’s from GE. The U-boats were delivered in “Kaiser Steel” paint and lettering. Through the 1960s, EMRR moved two 100 car trains per day with one destined for Kaiser Steel’s Fontana mill and the other going to the Port of Long Beach for export. In the 1970s, the train of export ore ended, leaving a single daily train for Fontana. By 1982, traffic fell to a few days per week and the trains got shorter. Operations ended for a time in 1985, then resumed with a weekly train until 1986 when they closed for good. The last hurrah was the filming of the movie Tough Guys on the line. The track remained in place and Kaiser even sent the occasional MOW train out to keep things in good repair. There was talk of using the line to haul trash out to the mine site. This never came to fruition and in 2003, flash floods did considerable damage to the track and roadbed. Union Pacific has since pulled up the interchange yard at Ferrum.

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