Crossing Tempe Town Lake

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Town Lake Bridge is not an actual station but where the line crosses over the town lake on a new bridge built for the light rail. It is the only substantial private ROW for the light rail and is along side a single track bridge used by the UP line and formerly the Sunset Limited until the line west of Phoenix was abandoned and the last train left on June 2, 1996. Just south of the bridge ending, the light rail line curves away from the mainline rail route just beyond a level crossing where the platform for the Tempe Train station remains intact although the station itself has been turned into a restaurant. The bridge is held up by concrete pillars that look like Vs, forming a single point beneath the two-track bridge. This is a structural thing but could also me a message for the V in Valley Metro. On the Tempe Side of the bridge as it rises above Tempe Beach Park there is some neat decorative images in the bridge walls. The lake itself is technically a reservoir and the dam even broke in July 2010 flooding the normally dry Salt River, although dam is rarely drained. The light rail bridge is dramatically lit with LEDs at night although the show was not photographed.

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South of the bridge along the UP rail line, a train passes just beyond the former Tempe Station

The final shared with the freight line grade crossing, a rare one with actual gates and bells

Looking down the freight line, the LRV line beyond

No walking the railroad tracks across the bridge, interestingly the railway across the bridge is still a concrete bed, there is never any standard ballast used on the railway line