Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe "Kite Route"

When was the famous "Kite Route" cut between San Bernardino and Del Rosa? I have an employee timetable for the LA Division from April 1959 and already shows the Redlands District ending at Del Rosa!

Gustafson & Serpico's Santa Fe Coast Line Depots - the Los Angeles Division says the section from Highland Jct. to Del Rosa was removed from service July 23, 1956. Russell Crump's Santa Fe Archives site gives the same date: http://www.atsfry.com/1950s/1950date.htm

We live on the Loop..our properties rear wall backs up to the old
Santa Fe R/W at MP19.4,,1.2 miles west of Highland and 1.7 miles
east of Del Rosa..out deed clearly shows behind us 50' R/W AT&SF Ry..
near Central Ave...

Thank you for the info on the "Kite Route" One wonders when the last through freight train operated over the entire route before the tracks were pulled. It is curious to me why the Santa Fe built the line in the first place in a virtual circle. Maybe it was purposely built to offer an excursion experience, which it did for many years.
The were many packing houses along the route as this was in the heart of orange and lemon country. Maybe the remnant of the old Redlands district will be transformed by Metrolink eventually!

For one thing the area around Patten was very busy at one time and the packing houses were switched at least
twice a day during season. It was easier with the loop in place to haul the loads out to the main line for an east
pick-up. As the citrus industry declined this became less of an issue and the line was cut back. When I went to
school in Riverside in the early sixties there was a still a lot of activity toward the Patton end and the local ran
six days a week. As the trees disappeared the line was cut back, assisted by a flood or two and though Universal
Rundle in Mentone would get a car once every blue moon the actual used end of the line was just south of the
Highway crossing in Mentone which as I remember was a warehouse for paper products. This would have been
early seventies.

I remember the line to Del Rosa and the wig-wags that protected Church St. By the time I discovered the line in the mid-sixties, it was pretty quiet. Their were still quite a few citrus groves in the area but development was approaching.
What a cool excursion it would be today and, needless to say, it would probably be part of the Metrolink system!

In the early 70's, right after Amtrak came into being there were a fair number of SP passenger cars stored at East Highlands. I remember at least one round end Observation car. I had a chance to ride the local from San Bernardino to Mentone in the early 80's one night. I think the floods in 1978 ended service past Mentone and finished off the Elsinor and Fallbrook Districts.