Crew Working the Late Shift to Lay New Tracks on Section of Coastal Rail Route

Sound carries far in the cold, clear nights of winter, so many residents of northern San Diego County have awakened in the wee hours to ponder what all the noise is about.

Not to worry. It’s just a team of 210 workers replacing decades-old railway track with brand-new spans of steel along the 52-mile stretch of Santa Fe Railway from San Juan Capistrano to Sorrento Valley, south of Del Mar.

The crew and about 70 machines work in the dark--from about 9 p.m. until 4:30 a.m.--in a coordinated fashion that allows them to progress two or three miles by dawn and lets passenger trains keep their busy daytime schedules.

The $45-million project will improve the ride and allow Amtrak trains to maintain their 90-m.p.h. speeds on the Los Angeles-to-San Diego run, the most profitable passenger corridor in the country.

Mike Martin, spokesman for Santa Fe, said the old track, laid in 1940-41, had deteriorated to a point where safety concerns dictated that new track be laid or train speeds be cut in half.

The new rail sections are 1,440 feet long--more than a quarter-mile--and are welded into seamless spans. The rails are built in one piece and transported to the site by special train.

The result may give nostalgia buffs a few pangs because the clickety-clack of the passing trains, produced when wheels strike unwelded joints of existing 39-foot-long track sections, will go the way of the mournful steam whistle.

The project began after Thanksgiving and was scheduled to be completed before Christmas. But because of delays caused by the weather and because equipment must be removed each morning and replaced at night, work is continuing.

High-powered lights illuminate the work site, and the clang of mechanical hammers echoes through the night, silenced only by the dawn.

Many of the crew members are Navajos, long known as skilled track layers.

As the crew moves south along the coastal bluffs and lagoons, they sometimes attract irate onlookers--residents who apparently missed the announcements of the project published in local papers and are upset at the racket.

Also inconvenienced by the project are Amtrak riders who take late-evening trains. The 8:45 p.m. trains from Los Angeles and San Diego turn into buses between San Diego and San Juan Capistrano, dropping off passengers at each train station along the way.