This Santa Fe line was constructed in the late 1880s, and it was opened for business in 1888.  The southern end of the track as initially constructed served three freight wharves in Redondo Beach.  There was also a passenger station for beach-going passengers.  Redondo Beach had some good years as a freight port but it didn't last, and by the 1920s freight from ships stopped entirely.  (The ports at San Diego, Long Beach and Wilmington / San Pedro handled the freight traffic).  Meanwhile, passenger trains had ended by 1918, as the Pacific Electric lines in the area handled the local passenger traffic. The line from El Segundo to Redondo Beach became even less important after another Santa Fe line was constructed in the 1920s from El Segundo to the Los Angeles Harbor at Wilmington.  Meanwhile, in its last years, the Redondo Beach Branch extended as far south as Beryl Ave. in Redondo Beach, near a Southern California Edison plant. The Redondo Beach branch was abandoned between El Segundo and Redondo Beach in 1983, and the tracks were pulled up in 1986.  The line passed through residential and light industrial areas, and the right of way had become a walking and jogging path years before it was abandoned.  The line can be easily followed today, but most of it has been turned into a landscaped path that has lost much of its "railroad" flavor.  Rail traces that can be found: a remnant of the Edison (now AES Power) freight spur is still in place in Redondo Beach, and the pavement markings for the Metlox Pottery spur grade crossing in Manhattan Beach are still in place.  The "Manhattan Beach" station sign has been moved a couple miles east to Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach. Credit for historical information goes to "Santa Fe Route to the Pacific" by Philip Serpico (see www.omniRR.com).  The cover of that book shows a train on this branch in Manhattan Beach.