Nostalgia & History > PE1299

PE.s Famous 1299 on a fan trip and Chard Walker's almost as famous jeep "Diamond Lil". (I've ridden in both) At the tower at I st & Rialto Ave. in San Bernardino, c.1950. Photographer unk.

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Neat photo, Bob. That's Chard's jeep "Diamond Lil" alright. Chard, I believe, was riding the 1299 that day. He has that same photo, or one very similar to it, in one of his slide shows.

Ted

One summer during the early 1980s a friend and I painted the 1299 while it was at the Pomona Fairgrounds. That was a lot of hard work!!

Is that where the PE crossed the Santa Fe Redlands branch?

UPNW2-1083 Wrote:
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> Is that where the PE crossed the Santa Fe Redlands
> branch?


Yes, and that is the oldest photo of that location I have ever seen. San Bernardino was better place in then IMHO.
—Mac

I'd sure like to see a photo of that intersection today taken from that same angle. I'd bet it looks just a little different than it does in this photo. What does it say on the side of the tower? Does it say, "Rialto Tower?"

JDE

This is "I" Street Tower. Also, in the "Coast Lines Depots" book there is a photo of a PE freight at almost the same angle taken in 1947. In the book it says the tower went out of service in 1948. I believe control of this crossing then shifted to "West Yard" Tower.

gp

Here is OERM's page on 1299:

http://www.oerm.org/pages/pe1299.html

Mark

Seems like that gray metal building was still there 4 years ago... a machine shop. Or is that at a different spot?
This photo looks odd... "What's a tower doing in the middle of the block?"

The photo was in fact taken by Chard Walker. See Orange Empire Railway Museum's 1992 "Red Cars Yellow Cars" calendar, photo for June (photo is also on the calendar cover).

This was a Bay Area Electric Railroad Association excursion in August 1951.

The words on the tower were "I Street Tower."

MacBeau Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> UPNW2-1083 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Is that where the PE crossed the Santa Fe
> Redlands
> > branch?
>
>
> Yes, and that is the oldest photo of that location
> I have ever seen. San Bernardino was better place
> in then IMHO.
> —Mac



FYI, Photobob has a picture of this same location from the early 30's. It shows an ATSF steam loco crossing Rialto Ave. passing along side the I Street tower. If you sift through his website you can see it. I apologize as I'm not at my home computer so i'm not able to give you info on how to get there.

Certainly worth another look !