Nostalgia & History > Stepping Back into Yesteryear

These photos bring to light a great milestone in western railroad history. Can you identify the locomotive, the line, the locations, and the year? Also, what was the historical significance of this undertaking?

Fred Harrison
Central Point, OR
CORPpower/JSS/EORS



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/12 04:00 by fredkharrison.

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I did a Google Image Search for One Wheel Locomotive and got the following website with a picture. Perhaps someone can take the information given on this website and use it to help identify the locomotive in fredkharrison’s posting.

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/polygon/polygon.htm

Picture 1, “The Swinerton Locomotive ‘Onward.’ Almost certainly the only locomotive ever built with non-circular wheels. Info and picture from Smithsonian Monograph #25, ‘American Single Locomotives.”

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It appears on the coach to say CA&SP RR.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Bob3985 Wrote:

> It appears on the coach to say CA&SP RR.

LA&SP - Los Angeles & San Pedro RR. See:

http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-as-subject/photos-las-first-railroads.html

This locomotive predates the Swinerton, so it isn't one of those engines.

Also, the letters on the car read LA&SP, not CA&SP.

Evan, you have identified the line correctly. It is the Los Angeles & San Pedro.

Posted from Android

Fred Harrison
Central Point, OR
CORPpower/JSS/EORS



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/12 13:01 by fredkharrison.

Don't know that I have ever seen a picture of a 2-2-0 before.

The year was 1869. Obviously, the LA&SP tell the locations of the photographs. Wilmington (San Pedro) was a poor harbor compared to San Diego Bay, but the competition was on to which would be the major seaport in the area. Santa Fe would later be betting on San Diego, and the Espee on San Pedro.

So far nobody has identified the engine and its historical significance.

Fred Harrison
Central Point, OR
CORPpower/JSS/EORS

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All three of those photos are on the KCET page I linked to, but just to spell it out:

1. "View of locomotive "San Gabriel". Information on bottom portion of photo reads, "San Gabriel", "The pioneer locomotive of Los Angeles County", "Cylinders 9x18 inches. Drivers 5 feet 2 inches", "Landed at Wilmington December 1868"." (Los Angeles Public Library)

http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/FullRecord?databaseID=968&record=6&controlNumber=68576
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics29/00064234.jpg

The caption at the KCET link says: "The tiny San Gabriel was the first steam locomotive to haul freight and passengers between Los Angeles and San Pedro. It was later replaced by two larger engines."

2. "Photograph (photography, horizontal photography) of the exterior view of the Los Angeles and San Pedro Station, the first railroad into Los Angeles, ca.1880." (USC Digital Archive)

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search/controller/view/chs-m1530.html?x=1352666087483
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search/controller/view/whit-m2014.html?x=1352666087483

A cropped version is also available on the LAPL site with the following description: "View of the L.A. & San Pedro R.R. stopped at a railroad station."

http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/FullRecord?databaseID=968&record=65&controlNumber=35412
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics25/00032327.jpg

The caption at the KCET link says: "Circa 1870s view of the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad depot at Alameda and Commercial."

3. "View of Wilmington harbor in 1870, showing the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad, which had been completed by Phineas Banning in 1869--the first railroad to the harbor. Before that, freight was transported to Los Angeles by ox carts (carretas) and later by horse-drawn wagons." (Los Angeles Public Library)

http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/FullRecord?databaseID=968&record=44&controlNumber=29207
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics09/00024476.jpg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/12 17:33 by Evan_Werkema.

It is important to add that the San Gabriel came around Cape Horn by ship. The LA&SP was the first railroad in Southern California, seven years ahead of the Espee connecting to LA, which had a population of only about 7,000 people at that time.

Fred Harrison
Central Point, OR
CORPpower/JSS/EORS



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/12 13:21 by fredkharrison.

This old photo is of boulders being moved into San Pedro to construct an Outer Harbor breakwater in 1899.

Fred Harrison
Central Point, OR
CORPpower/JSS/EORS

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