A trio of Kaiser Steel U30Cs (the heaviest U30Cs ever built) bring a load of iron ore down from the Eagle Mountain Mine. Owned by Kaiser Steel, the Eagle Mountain Railroad connected the mine (and small company town) of Eagle Mountain (built in 1948) with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Ferrum Junction, near the Salton Sea. Once handed over to the SP, the ore then traveled west to Fontana, where Kaiser Steel operated a steel mill. On November 3 (11 days prior) Kaiser Steel announced the phasing out of half the Fontana Mill and the eventual closure of the entire Eagle Mountain Mine, a combination of increased environmental concerns at the Fontana Mill and stiff foreign competition for steel. The Fontana mill is still there, albeit smaller, and now operated by California Steel Industries. But the Eagle Mountain railroad is now inactive since the mine closed in the early 1980s - effectively turning the town into a modern-day ghost town. KSCX U30Cs 1034, 1032 and 1033 are hauling a string of loaded SP-built 25’9” ore cars (I’m estimating the train to be about 90 cars in length) to Ferrum Junction, with another U30C, 1031, shoving behind bay-window caboose 1905. (Eagle Mountian, California – November 14, 1981)
