Nostalgia & History > AT&SF Oceanside Scenes from 44 Years Ago

The first view shows the Local power laying over in the yard.The power was used on a daylight Escondido Local and a night local that did the Fallbrook Branch and the town work at Oceanside.The second view shows a Santa Fe passenger train westbound stopped at the depot.In five months Amtrak will take over.The date of the images is November 1970.Compare this sleepy overcast view with the Oceanside of today.Bill Webb

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Very nice. Back when San Diegans were down to three each way and the "Night Coast" and "SDX' were still running LA and San Bernardino to San Diego.
JB

What happened to the coach in the far right side of the second picture? I remember that a model railroad
club used the coach for their H.O. layout. What happened to the club? Did they find a new home after
the coach was removed?

The night local out of Oceanside was known as the 4th District local and could do any local work from Galivan (west of San Juan Capistrano to near San Diego.

That area has REALLY changed over the years. It's starting to look like Manhattan with all the high-rises.

C.P.Huntington Wrote:
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> What happened to the coach in the far right side
> of the second picture? I remember that a model
> railroad
> club used the coach for their H.O. layout. What
> happened to the club? Did they find a new home
> after
> the coach was removed?

I don't know about the club, but the car was scrapped,
pretty bad shape from sitting in that salt air for so long!

Mike

I thought that heavyweight coach ended up being moved to Escondido.

The 4th District Local originated at 22nd Street Yard and worked on occasion as far as Galivan.Not sure, but I think they also did the Miramar industrial park.The through freights were the Night Coast out of Hobart and the SDX out of San Bernardino,both of which flipped at San Diego.Meaning they did not layover.Plus there were 2 to 3 switch engines per shift at 22nd Street.On occasion extra turns were called out of San Bernardino to handle additional traffic.All the the thru freights were big trains that doubled Miramar and even occasionly tripled the hill. Plus we had potash unit trains and for a while copper concentrates from Bagdad,Az.The copper trains only lasted a short time in the late seventies to eatly eighties.The day and night jobs at Oceanside were six days a week, with usually a short day or "stamp up'on Saturday.Bill Webb

Topfuel Wrote:
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> I thought that heavyweight coach ended up being
> moved to Escondido.

Both Oceanside and Escondido had one of these cars!
I believe they were both Baggage, Library, Smoker cars.

The car in Escondido is in Grape Day Park, next to the
Escondido Depot, moved to the park from its original location.

Mike

Three trains a day - this one at two coaches.

WOW - nothing like todays trains! A real improvement today.

Santa FE Ry. operating crews on the San Diegan were based out of LA and worked between lA and San Diego.

Was this station north of the present station where the yard tracks are today, near the Oceanside harbor?

Railrev Wrote:
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> Was this station north of the present station
> where the yard tracks are today, near the
> Oceanside harbor?

No. It was just a little north of the present station. Mission Ave. was a dead end and the station was right at a "T" intersection where Mission Ave. originated / terminated. There was a big "Santa Fe" sign that one could see if they were on Mission Ave. looking toward the ocean. Similar to the old UP station in Las Vegas being at the foot of Fremont St.

http://www.topoquest.com/map.php?lat=33.19235&lon=-117.37711&datum=nad27&zoom=2&map=auto&coord=d&mode=zoomin&size=m



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/14 06:23 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> Railrev Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Was this station north of the present station
> > where the yard tracks are today, near the
> > Oceanside harbor?
>
> No. It was just a little north of the present
> station. Mission Ave. was a dead end and the
> station was right at a "T" intersection where
> Mission Ave. originated / terminated. There was a
> big "Santa Fe" sign that one could see if they
> were on Mission Ave. looking toward the ocean.
> Similar to the old UP station in Las Vegas being
> at the foot of Fremont St.
>
Thanks for the info and map. I was only at this station once, but through O'Side several times. Still couldn't quite remember its location.

spider1319 Wrote:
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> The 4th District Local originated at 22nd Street
> Yard and worked on occasion as far as Galivan.

By the early '70s. the local did originate at 22nd Street. But before that it worked out of Oceanside, along with the Escondido and Fallbrook locals.


>Not
> sure, but I think they also did the Miramar
> industrial park.

Yes, it did. I rode with the crew one night after it started to work out of 22nd Street. We even stopped for a snack up along Miramar Road.

BTW, that industrial park was created in the late '60s/early '70s. Before that the tail of the wye led only to a team track and a cement batcher just east of the mainline, then went through Miramar NAS, crossed US 395 (where I-15 is now) at grade (!) and went into old Camp Elliot.


>The through freights were the
> Night Coast out of Hobart and the SDX out of San
> Bernardino,both of which flipped at San
> Diego.Meaning they did not layover.

Again, that changed over time. In the 1960's the Night Coast laid over in Sandy Eggo and became the 1/SDX, on duty at 7:00 or 8:00 the next evening, and usually getting out of town before the SDX (the San Diego turn) out of San Berdoo arrived.


>Plus there were
> 2 to 3 switch engines per shift at 22nd Street.

In the '60s and early '70s, there were up to three switch jobs that went on duty at 22nd Street, but one worked north (including the depot) and one worked to National City. After Amtrak took over passenger operations, there was a regular job that ran to the depot (sometimes taking the caboose for the National City job with them), then got on the Amtrak road power and turned the passenger trains. But I never saw more than one engine actually working at 22nd Street at a time.

D F W

Thanks DFW for your comments on the operations on the Fourth District and how they changed from time to time. My comments were based on the 1960s that I remember the best and not the later days. In the mid 1960s the local power was 3 GP9s with two units assigned to the Escondido Local and one unit to the Fourth District local that also worked the Fallbrook District.

Cliff