Nostalgia & History > Past and Present Alta Loma, CA

Picture 1 taken Dec 1971. Ex-Rogue River Valley Ry Co No.1 - Porter, 1891 c/n 1236 switches ex V&T Coach No.3 and ex-V&T Coach-Caboose No 8 - "Julia Bulette" on the upper end of the AT&SF Cucamonga-Foothill Spur. Ex-V&T Transfet Car No.1 in foreground with ex - Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Co. Flat car behind it.

Picture 2. Google earth image of location today. Bounded by Archibald Ave. on left out of view. Highland Ave and 210 Fwy on south. Hermosa Ave on right and Lemon Ave to the north.

Pic 3 Overall view

I liked it better in'71.

Added a bigger view of the area.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/09 18:00 by px320.

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Except for the steam engine, I believe every piece of equipment shown here is now at the Nevada State RR Museum and the 8 has been restored.

Is that correct?

Z

That is correct. The engine is now Fillmore & Western Ry No. 1 Sespe.

We completed the restoration of V&T Coach-Caboose No. 8 at Alta Loma in 1974. It was a work in progress when the pic was taken.

Thanks for the update, Stan. A friend and I has visited the area in the early 70's but my camera jammed and didn't get any pictures. I always wondered where the area was since I moved to Rancho Cucamonga in 1993. Wasn't that near the Opici Winery also? We used to go winery hopping in the late 70's around Cucamonga and I remember there being tracks that ran behind the Opici Winery.-BMT

Yes Brian, those are the tracks you are thinking of. Chad O'Connor leased the last bit of the AT&SF spur. The spur into the Opici winery was still in service as I can remember its use when our club went out for operating visits and was used for filming a Lincoln show with actor Holbrook (help me with the details Stan!). I too couldn't remember where the the cross streets were back then since it is so very different today.

Thanks, Gary. That's actually the location that I though it was. There's a Middle School on part of the property now. I did a quick search on Historicaerials.com and you can only go back to 1980, but you can sure see how it differs today.-Brian

Here a couple of pics from the filming of Sandberg's Lincoln on June 21, 1974.

Filming occured on the portion of the spur between Hermosa and Haven. Base camp was at the Opici Winery. There is a school on the property now.


Pic 1 shows the train with Short Line Enterprises 1888 4-4-0 No.8 (ex-D&R No. 8, ex-DT&FW #114?), ex V&T Baggage #21 and ex V&T Coach-Caboose No.8.

Pic 2 shows Hal Holbrook boarding Coach No.8. The Opici Winery is visible in the background

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Thanks Stan. Boy, does that bring back some great memories!

gyralite Wrote:
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> Thanks Stan. Boy, does that bring back some great
> memories!


Indeed,

What about this pic? May 5, 1968.

I've been scannng slides to include in my Short Line Enterprises book.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/09 15:05 by px320.

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WOW! Gary Miller, always looking the Trainmaster part. Wonder what the heck Carl Rogoza is studying in his hand? (a switch list?) (or deciding which whistle to put on No. 1 next?)

gyralite Wrote:
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> WOW! Gary Miller, always looking the Trainmaster
> part. Wonder what the heck Carl Rogoza is
> studying in his hand? (a switch list?) (or
> deciding which whistle to put on No. 1 next?)


Don't know what Rags is studying, but I think that's his Leaky Valley hat he's wearing.

For those who weren't around and are missing the "impact" of this, the spur in question
ran parallel to a four lane former main highway, crossed into the middle of another road,
went up the middle of the road for a while and then turned into an orange grove after
passing a recently dead rather interesting looking winery. The LA basin went from very
agricultural to very something else in the blink of an eye.

gyralite Wrote:
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> WOW! Gary Miller, always looking the Trainmaster
> part. Wonder what the heck Carl Rogoza is
> studying in his hand? (a switch list?) (or
> deciding which whistle to put on No. 1 next?)

I'd like to know why that SP guy is wearing a Santa Fe hat. I always thought he had SP scarlet red in his veins, now it looks like there might be some Santa Fe blue in there also.-BMT

Here's the basic layout of the Cucamonga-Foothill Spur layed out on a contemporary Google image

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That's Rod Duff wearing the Santa Fe hat. We used to have our club meetings at his home on Friday evenings. He worked for WED (Walt Disney production studios) and never worked for the railroad at all. The Bodie & Benton RR has always been a huge interest of his and he now volunteers as a guide at the B & B in season (which is now closing for the winter).

gyralite Wrote:
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> That's Rod Duff wearing the Santa Fe hat. We used
> to have our club meetings at his home on Friday
> evenings. He worked for WED (Walt Disney
> production studios) and never worked for the
> railroad at all. The Bodie & Benton RR has always
> been a huge interest of his and he now volunteers
> as a guide at the B & B in season (which is now
> closing for the winter).

My mistake. I thought it was you Gary.-Brian

The 4-lane highway was
Milliken, the road the track turned into was Hermosa-Haven, and the upper orange grove was above modern 210/Foothill Fwy.

Steve Donaldson
Pacific Grove, CA

SteveD Wrote:
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> The 4-lane highway was
> Milliken, the road the track turned into was
> Hermosa-Haven, and the upper orange grove was
> above modern 210/Foothill Fwy.

As I recall, Milliken ran from Corona down south up to approximately the 10 freeway in those days and terminated there. The vertical from the ATSF ran along a windbreak thru open vineyards, crossing Foothill (previous Rte 66) between Haven and Etiwanda Aves. The first horizontal ran along the general 19th st alignment, but 19th st ran from the west and stopped at Haven. When the line got to Haven (a 4 lane road, that narrowed to 2 lanes at this point) the tracks ran up the center of the street, however it was not street running. The tracks then went off to the west a bit south of Lemon st, crossing Hermosa (Hermosa north of Baseline and Turner south of Baseline) and finally terminating at about Archibald Ave. East of Haven was predomanently vineyards in this area, and west of Haven was lemon groves from the hills down to about 19th, and orange groves south of that down to around 4th st, where it switched to vineyards to the south for a while.

There was a second spur not shown in Stan's map, that split off the N-S stem and went west on the north side of Foothill over to the Virginia Dare winery (long abandoned) on the west side of Haven.