Nostalgia & History > Some SP that was PE

Once again I have pulled some Lee Meyers pics out of the bag to share. 1983/1984

#1&2 are what I called the Miller Turn. 5/29/1983 I think the crew is dead on the law or went to beans. The train is sitting just east of Vernon Ave in Azusa. On the other side of Vernon was the old Miller Brewery which was the old Lucky Lager Brewery and they were switched by the Pacific Electric. This is all that was remaining of the PE Glendora Line.

#3 Believe it or not Freight Trains ran up Santa Monica Blvd at one time. I personally saw a flat car of lumber right near the Bekins Building on Santa Monica Blvd in the early 1970's.
This bridge has been removed. Taken on February 24, 1984 where Beverly Glen crosses Santa Monica Blvd.

That's all for this edition of the way back machine

Thanks for looking and See you down the tracks


Jay

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Awesome, SP branch lines were the greatest, you could find one almost everywhere in California at one time!! Miss the old SP!!!

Mococo Wrote:
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> Awesome, SP branch lines were the greatest, you
> could find one almost everywhere in California at
> one time!! Miss the old SP!!!

Too bad these are PE lines.

>PHall Wrote:

> Too bad these are PE lines.


And why is that "too bad"?


V

SLOCONDR

lamta_jay Wrote:
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>
> #1&2 are what I called the Miller Turn. 5/29/1983
> I think the crew is dead on the law or went to
> beans. The train is sitting just east of Vernon
> Ave in Azusa. On the other side of Vernon was the
> old Miller Brewery which was the old Lucky Lager
> Brewery and they were switched by the Pacific
> Electric. This is all that was remaining of the PE
> Glendora Line.
>
> #3 Believe it or not Freight Trains ran up Santa
> Monica Blvd at one time. I personally saw a flat
> car of lumber right near the Bekins Building on
> Santa Monica Blvd in the early 1970's.
> This bridge has been removed. Taken on February
> 24, 1984 where Beverly Glen crosses Santa Monica
> Blvd.
>
> That's all for this edition of the way back
> machine
>
> Thanks for looking and See you down the tracks
>
>
> Jay


Jay,
I got to work both of those jobs from the mid 60's the mid 70's. The Miller job, in my day was just referred to as the Baldwin Park 2PM job. Then the job that went up and down Santa Monica Blvd was the Culver City Switcher, that was on duty at Sentous yard. Later, after the Culver job was abolished, we would come out of 8TH ST (8th and Hooper, and before that, out of Butte St yard) yard on what called the Santa Monica AirLine job. We were on duty at 0500 and did the work from the beginning of the branch (Lon Beach Ave) to Santa Monica. When arriving Sentous we would get a few cars for Marina Del Rey and take them out for spotting. Then off to Bekins and Continental Bakery for spotting and pulling. All 3 jobs, Baldwin Park, Culver City and the AirLine were prime jobs.

V

SLOCONDR

SLOCONDR Wrote:
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> >PHall Wrote:
>
> > Too bad these are PE lines.
>
>
> And why is that "too bad"?
>
>
> V
>
> SLOCONDR

Because he said they were SP!!!

Pacific Electric was an SP subsidiary after Henry Huntington sold it off in 1911. It operated as a separate company until August 1965, when SP absorbed it. By then, just about everything that ran on the PE was lettered for SP. The last time I saw a PE "herald" on an in-service vehicle was a truck parked at the Baldwin Park office. Former PE employees retained their PE seniority for "PE" jobs, although they could bid elsewhere on the SP. I remember one time when an SP freight was stopped on the siding west of El Monte and the crew had to cut the train for the crossing south of where I worked in the 1970s. I stopped and chatted with one of the brakemen, and he told me that three out of the four crewmen were old PE hands. He also told me about being motorman on one of the last Red Car trains to come into Hollywood from the San Fernando Valley. He was coming downhill out of Cahuenga Pass and tried to stop for a signal. It was a damp night after a long dry spell, and the cars slid for about two blocks before stopping. Fortunately it was late at night so there was little traffic.

I miss the santa ana turn that went through paramount the crews were friendly.

Posted from Android

That last shot I remember that all too well! You could easily see it from the Santa Monica Freeway too!

PHall Wrote:
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> Mococo Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Awesome, SP branch lines were the greatest, you
> > could find one almost everywhere in California
> at
> > one time!! Miss the old SP!!!
>
> Too bad these are PE lines.


They were SP lines. Ex-PE.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/14 17:45 by Geodyssey.

What was really strange was the crossing sign I found on the SP Chino branch many years ago. As far as I know, that line was never PE, but it had a PE-lettered crossbuck.

The first photo shows my younger daughter by a PE crossing post in Pomona, where we had just arrived on the Santa Fe Chief (#20) from LA. I had given the girls their first main line train ride, and we were heading for the RTD bus stop to catch the bus back to Duarte. This was in 1965, and the PE name was about to go into the "fallen flag file".

Then we have my older daughter, 30 miles from 6th and Main on the San Bernardino Line, although the last few miles into downtown LA had been abandoned years earlier. The rickety old rails were replaced by Metrolink over 20 years ago, and my daughter rides the new San Berdoo Line to work every weekday morning.

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The shots of the Miller Turn are are about where the line ends today. It comes off Metrolink (old PE San Bernardino Line) at Orange Jct then goes north up along side Miller then under the 210 just west of Irwindale Blvd through the quarry wrapping back around to where the photograph was taken. That line should be around for a while as an industry that used to get their stuff off the old Santa Fe 2nd District lost that access with the Gold Line construction. So now their only rail access is Espee (okay, really UP now, but that just doesn't sound right).

Daylight

Ah, the orange groves. Now long gone too. B

The Santa Monica line was built as a steam line and later leased to the PE..

Regarding the Miller Turn in Azusa--there was some discussion about Totten Tube, the industry that was on the north side of the old Santa Fe 2nd District being connected to the former PE line on the north, but apparently it was decided that there wasn't enough business to warrant adding a spur.

That is an awesome picture there. I'm a Gen X'er and I didn't know there was an SP bridge on Santa Monica Blvd at Beverly Glen Blvd; I have seen railroad track remnants along Sepulveda Blvd/Pico but I was unsure of whether they connected to the SM airline or to another, or to both. Looking at a topo map I can see now that those tracks could have gone either way. Fascinating.

I grew up along a block away from the Santa Monica air line crossing at Central Av.

Amazing.

I spent a lot of time after school outrunning the SP switchers and other GPs from Nevin Av to Naomi Av. Seems like these PE lines were the only tracks that I saw equipped with metal angel hair pasta on both sides of both tracks at key locations prior to a grade crossing.

Since lumber and other open air cargo would go through there and the adjacent trucker shipping company was next to the tracks, occasionally metal fasteners (kind of like really long black slim jims) would snap and be left behind. Hence, me and my friend wondered what would happen if we made contact with the metallic angel hair using the fastener across the tracks. He would step on one rail while I stepped on the other simultaneously. Lo and behold . . . the flashers and arms were activated over Compton Av!

We just needed a 3rd buddy to try to charge motorists a $1 so we could release the fastener and arms to allow passage.

I miss the smell of the oil on wooden ties, the sound of SP tooting, and engine sniffling.

Wish I had pictures of this area but I took it for granted as a kid that the SP would always be there. After all, how could they possibly get rid of train traffic and railroad tracks? I miss the late 70s and early 80s along those tracks. :' (



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/17 11:05 by EssPee_JR.