Western Railroad Discussion > Last of the Original PE Trackage on the San Bernardino Line

I am assuming this to be true.Most of the original PE San Bernardino Line has either been abandoned or rebuilt to high speed standards by Metrolink.Less than three miles in length this short segment pictured below runs from Bench on the the Mojave Sub to the end of track near Cactus Avenue.Only one customer remains and that is Orange County Lumber in Rialto.At the end of track near Cactus it once extended to Pomona where it connected to the San Gabriel Sub of Metrolink.This segment last saw trains in 1992.The first image is the LOH42 westbound at Pepper.The second picture is at the old Rialto Depot in Rialto.The last image is the end of track with the cudtomary red flag and dirt pile.All from summer of 2021.Bill Webb

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Jointed rail; crossing signals with bells; older power; thx for posting

Enjoyed this series.

Posted from iPhone

Excellent series and looking back, another head shaker. Little bit of history, 70 years ago this year the last interurban RPO was taken
off this line. 

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/21 18:29 by callum_out.

What day does this local run? Thanks for sharing!

Your second shot captures the roller-coaster profile of PE's line in this stretch.

It's hard for me to imagine, during the so-called "Great Freeze" of 1937,  PE running 135 special
trains of orchard heater oil from refineries at El Segundo and Long Beach to their State Street Yard
in Los Angeles where the cars were consolidated into 65 trains of solid oil cars destined Redlands.
These 65 trains made the run over PE's single track, mostly non-block territory in but five hours.
So great was the citrus industry in the "Inland Empire" in 1937 that 2000 cars of oil were required
for one filling of the heaters!

callum_out remarked the last interurban RPO, (in the nation), was pulled off 70 years ago---this year. 
Actually the date was May, 1950. PE's electrification of the line ended 70 years ago this coming October 1, in 1951.

(No, I wasn't there for the last RPO but I did ride the line, round trip, before the wire came down; some photos of that I've posted here.) 

Great series, Bill.





  

Great job. Didn't know there was anything left of this line.
JB

Very enjoyable series!

Larry

The 2nd photo still captures some of the remaining rural "feel" of this line.  How I wish the Inland Empire had protected more of its agricultural land, vs. caving in to endless warehouses and sprawl.

Allow me to share a few tidbits about that old Pacific Electric track that is part of the theme of this photo thread.
 
On Photo #1 eastwardly taken from Pepper Ave., in the background the Meridian Ave. railroad overpass bridge whitish abutments are seen.  A few block east on the other side of that bridge the line turns southward (rightward) and connects to the Union Pacific Mojave Sub, the old Palmdale Cutoff.  Before the Palmdale Cutoff was built 1966-67, instead of the track going over Meridian Ave, an old wooden bridge elevated Meridian Ave. over the PE track, which continued eastward and went under the Santa Fe Second District and eventually doing street running on Rialto Ave. to downtown San Bernardino.
 
On Photo #2, a block or two north of the old PE grade crossing and the PE depot there (both in view), in the late 70’s or early 80’s I got to meet an elderly lady that lived on the west side of Riverside Ave. a few blocks to the north.  We talked at length, and she said she lived in that house all her life, even getting married and thereafter still living there.  She used to ride the PE Big Red Cars from that PE station, even traveling on them and from there on her honeymoon!
 
When I was a kid in the 1950’s, a track branched off southeastwardly, and ran south in the middle of Riverside Ave., and eastwardly connected to the Santa Fe Second District, the old route of the Super Chief.  Way before my time, the Riverside Ave. track also continued south to Bloomington Ave. and ran southwestwardly to Bloomington, and southwardly crossed the Sunset Route about two blocks west of the north-south Cedar Ave.  A person can still see the narrow PE right-of-way on aerials (and in person) south of the yard, even to Crestmore between Bloomington and Riverside.
 
In Photo #3, behind the camera, west of Cactus Ave., the Pacific Electric Trail starts (a nice wide, concrete sidewalk) and goes all the way west on the now abandon right-of-way to Claremont for the hikers and bicycle riders.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/21 17:39 by ABHoffmann.

Nice group, glad to see part of the line still sees regular service.

Rich

Is the "Sergio Jokester" engine regularly assigned to this local?  It seems that UP has worst issues with graffiti vandalism.

Unaware about the smuge oil trains.
Assume all did not go to Redlands, but other points like Riverside.
 

Mundo and I remember the smudge pots in use in the fifties to prevent damage to the thousands of Orange trees in what is now called the "Inland Empire." Houses were "weather stripped" to keep the oily air out of the houses. Santa Fe's Prenda Spur contained a switchback at Prenda packing house that led to a oil storage tank for the smudge pots. I was told by the owner of an Orange Grove the if they had to use smudge the trees for more than 12 nights during the season--they lost money of their crops! By the time I was passing through high school the wind machines had replaced the smudge pots. No more Oily smelling air in Riverside!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/21 12:53 by TomPlatten.

coach Wrote:
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> The 2nd photo still captures some of the remaining
> rural "feel" of this line.  How I wish the Inland
> Empire had protected more of its agricultural
> land, vs. caving in to endless warehouses and
> sprawl.

Agriculture left about 40 years ago.

Question and a comment...
1) 20-years ago, inside the ex-Pacific Electric / Rialto depot building, there was a nice Mexican restaurant.  Is it still there?
2) Given that this line retains only one customer, I wonder if Union Pacific's allocation of freight revenue is enough to cover the annual right-of-way tax bill plus the crossing signal maintainer's wages and some minimal track maintenance?  /s/ The "other" Robert

 

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

There was a line that went North off the PE as I remember up Euclid to San Antonio Heights. There was several large storage
tanks up there which held smudge oil. The co-op at Hillgrove (UP Industry) received oil off the UP using the tank car as the
storage device. The smudge periods in most areas were farily short lived and the pollution was mind blowing. Dad hated to
do it except in an emergency.

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/21 18:24 by callum_out.

On the subject of the 1937 citrus freeze in Southern California I found this link to the Healdsburg Tribune for January 14, 1937:
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HT19370114.2.5&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1

Another source cites 16,000 workers. Both sources peg the value at $100 million---$1.9B in 2021 dollars.
A sizable amount today, tremendous in 1937. No wonder PE and probably UP and Santa Fe joined the battle. 

Charlie

Bob3985 Wrote:
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> Question and a comment...
> 1) 20-years ago, inside the ex-Pacific Electric /
> Rialto depot building, there was a nice Mexican
> restaurant.  Is it still there?

Google shows a restaurant in their February 2021 satellite view; probably the same one.

> 2) Given that this line retains only one customer,
> I wonder if Union Pacific's allocation of freight
> revenue is enough to cover the annual right-of-way
> tax bill plus the crossing signal maintainer's
> wages and some minimal track maintenance?

Can't speak with authority on either one but given the close proximity to other UP trackage in the area I'd guess the
signal maintenance costs are relatively modest since whatever problems arise could be quickly accessed. Any trackwork
would probably require more labor intensive attention. Don't think any of the facilities are in a 'hot' or 'hotter than normal'
real estate market. Others will correct my thinking.

Charlie


   



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/21 17:00 by cewherry.

Bob3985 Wrote:
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> 2) Given that this line retains only one customer,
> I wonder if Union Pacific's allocation of freight
> revenue is enough to cover the annual right-of-way
> tax bill plus the crossing signal maintainer's
> wages and some minimal track maintenance?  /s/
> The "other" Robert
>
Other factors that enter into the equation.....how long is the haul on the cars..  These cars of lumber are probably a long haul for the UP.   Also if the consignee or shipper does a LOT of business with the UP, they UP would maintain a few mile branchline run, rather than risk losing a lot of business to a competitor.    Amazing as it may seem, ther are still some marketing ppl at the UP who want to keep the customers happy...

Here in Paso Ribles, CA, the once a week local travels an extra 100 miles (RT) to deliver about 150 cars of lumber a year. Hardly major business, but its all long haul lumber loads, and the 3 consignees here do a lot of biz w UP at other locations.