Nostalgia & History > Arcadia Tower on the Second District

After reading Rich and Bob's take on the Diamonds in Arcadia I thought I would chime in here on
a different thread.

The most un photographed diamond in Southern California was the Day & Night spur  crossing
the Santa Fe's Second district. This line was at one time the Duarte Branch of the Southern Pacific.
 Since I was born in 1952 I did not ever see the PE diamond but
vaguely remember the tracks on Santa Clara St. ending on the west  side of Santa  Anita, across from
Arcadia Lumber.

Here are 3 black & Whites from my collection all in Arcadia and all before I ever had a camera.

First the PE crossing at Arcadia Tower taken in 1950 of the last Box Motor on the Glendora Line.
Note the Santa Fe was in town switching. The caboose is next to A&A building Supply.
Andy Payne photo
Second is the local also switching in Arcadia and the engine is right next to the diamond of the
Day & Night Spur. 1949 photo by Andy Payne
Third is a Donald Duke photo taken of the East passenger Local passing Arcadia Tower. Look
closely, the PE tracks are missing. Don say the picture was taken in 1952.

Thanks for looking, any comments and corrections are welcome

Jay

---

---

---

To show how close the ATSF depot was to Arcadia Tower here's one of the depot. Looking at Andy Payne's
photo with the PE 1463 box motor; between the tower structure and the mast of the home signal can be seen
the the loading dock of the easternmost structure that made up Arcadia's' somewhat hodgepodge depot.

Did Santa Fe have something similar to SP's common standards that applied to station structures? Arcadia's depot
must have broken those standards. It looks like it had three distinct portions. Does it live on at the Pomona fairgrounds?

Charlie

---

Believe that the Glendora line was taken up in 1952. When I lived up there still existing was a couple
lengths of rail in a parking lot in downtown Glendora.

Out

The PE tracks between LA and Arcadia also known as the Northern District were
abandoned in 1951 and a connection was built from a spur off the San Brenardino
Line at Orange Avenue Jct. to a new connection just east of the San Gabriel River
called Rivas Jct.  and the tracks continued in service between Arcadia and Azusa.
​Not sure about when freight service was abandoned to Glendora.

​Attached is a page from a PE Employee Timetable dated 1960.

I just wish there were more pictures taken in Arcadia at the intersection of First Ave
and Santa Clara St where the diamond was right in the middle of the intersection.

Thanks for looking

Jay
​

---

---

Jay I'll have check my 1952 on the Glendora abandonment but I think it that's close and unusual
since that's also close to the end of passenger service and unlike other lines there wasn't any real
freight business in Glendora. Beverly Hills yes (of all things), Glendora no.

Out

There was still some citrus packing going on in Monrovia, Azusa and Glendora in the early to mid '50's.
There was also some feed mills, lumber yards and other businesses in the 50's too.
The mid 50's to the mid 60's is when the citrus industry was finally chased out of the San Gabriel Valley.

Was the Box Motorcan original to the PE or could it been one from the CCT?

Box Motor was from Portland's SP Red Electric

Jay

 

Back in the 1960s, I'd sometimes stop at the Arcadia station to chat with the agent, and my daughters would go running up and down the ramp by the freight house.  One day, I didn't have time to stop and visit, but the local freight was in town.  One of my daughters said, "Look, Daddy, there's a train and it's switching!"  How many kids in the 6 to 8 year old range would say that?

The 3rd shot has all the elements of a perfect railroad shot, the tower, the motorcar, semaphore, and especially the tower operator's cool car!