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Colton Crossing is a railway crossing situated in Colton, California, directly south of Interstate 10. It is where the Sunset Route and the Southern Transcon intersect.
First built in 1883, it was the site of one of the most intense frog wars in railroad construction history, leading to a personal confrontation between famed lawman Virgil Earp and California Governor Robert Waterman. The crossing was the intersection of the tracks for the Sante Fe (ATSF) and Southern Pacific (SP) railroads. The tracks are now owned by the SP's and the ATSF's successors, the Union Pacific (UP) and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroads respectively.
The UP tracks run east–west at the crossing while the BNSF tracks run north–south (the BNSF tracks eventually head west to Los Angeles and Long Beach, parallel to the UP tracks). Metrolink trains and Amtrak's Southwest Chief use the BNSF tracks through the crossing while Amtrak's Sunset Limited utilize the UP tracks. The UP tracks come from the east through the Coachella Valley and into the yard in West Colton (onwards to Los Angeles). On the other hand, the BNSF tracks from the indirect west (Los Angeles) and direct south (Riverside and Corona) continue through the crossing and on to the yard in San Bernardino, which then head up north to Cajon Pass and eventually Barstow on the journey to Chicago.