Nostalgia & History > 50's Redondo/Harbor District Excursion @ Wise (PE) Jct.

Here is a rare shot acquired from TO member "90mac" (Thanks again, Tom!) via eBay. No details available other than the obvoius. Catenary is (long?) gone. Anyone with more info on this Redondo District excursion would be greatly appreciated......

TIAFYR and looking!

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

looks like the engine crew walkin' away from the power for a smoke, doesn't it?

they look like old heads, more or less. makes me wonder, i think in the mid-50s there was still enough passenger work that santa fe maintained a passenger engineers' extra board in l.a. i'd wager it took a fair amount of "whiskers" to hold it.

anyway,low miles, at passenger rate, but daylite work.

great pic, btw, and thank you for posting! eljay

Very nice, especially GP and the three heavy weights.
—Mac

I LOVE THAT PHOTO!!!
Looks like you cleaned it up a bit.
Those 4 slides answered for me a question that I had been asking for 40 years.
I remember living 1 block from the Redondo Branch in Manhattan Beach as a 5 or 6 year old child and an early memory of mine was seeing a passenger train on the branch,with heavyweight cars.
After seeing these slides I know now that "I was NOT dreaming".
I would have to say this excursion had to be 1959-1960, I wish we knew more about it.
Now I have to work on my other Redondo Branch memory/dream, I also remember seeing a steam engine pulling a heavyweight passenger train, I think that one is a fantasy as I believe Santa Fe steam was dead in LA before I was born in 1954.
As a boy I walked the whole branch from Redondo to El segundo and on to Inglewood, more than once and had several friends at El Segundo depot and rode the Lairport switcher every Sunday night coming home from Grandma's house.
Thanks for sharing Bob.
Tom

Hi Tom,

Yes it took quite a bit of work in Photoshop, to not lose the black of the engine, lose the vignetting of the corners, and balance the contrast against sharpening, and lighten it up overall.

You may be right about the late '50's. I just checked in Phil Serpico's "Coast Lines Depots", and Wise Tower was taken out of service om 9/9/63 and permanent "STOP" signs were installed on the SP line. The tower was operated by train crews and was never staffed, and it was razed the week of 11/10-11/17, 1963. (Thanks, Phil!)

In his "Route to the Pacific" (Harbor District) book, there were a LOT of excursions on the Redondo District in the '50's, including a LONG train with (4) freight F-7's, shot by Bob Petersen.

Thanks again for the slides!

Take Care,

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out



90mac Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I LOVE THAT PHOTO!!!
> Looks like you cleaned it up a bit.
> Those 4 slides answered for me a question that I
> had been asking for 40 years.
> I remember living 1 block from the Redondo Branch
> in Manhattan Beach as a 5 or 6 year old child and
> an early memory of mine was seeing a passenger
> train on the branch,with heavyweight cars.
> After seeing these slides I know now that "I was
> NOT dreaming".
> I would have to say this excursion had to be
> 1959-1960, I wish we knew more about it.
> Now I have to work on my other Redondo Branch
> memory/dream, I also remember seeing a steam
> engine pulling a heavyweight passenger train, I
> think that one is a fantasy as I believe Santa Fe
> steam was dead in LA before I was born in 1954.
> As a boy I walked the whole branch from Redondo to
> El Segundo and on to Inglewood, more than once and
> had several friends at El Segundo depot and rode
> the Lairport switcher every Sunday night coming
> home from Grandma's house.
> Thanks for sharing Bob.
> Tom

Wow, great photo Bob and Tom. Thanks for sharing it here.

Rich

I wonder if the passenger engineer's extra board would have had qualified engineers for the Harbor and Redondo Districts? Of course back then you probably only needed one trip in a lifetime to be qualified.

The 2650 was a 'torpedo' GP7..account it was used in psgr service
(San Berdoo Locals,etc) because the stem boiler was in the nose..
the air tanks were placed on the top of the hood...