Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe Second District Pasadena Station Area Then and Now

Having grown up and spent 37 years of my life in Pasadena, I continue to be amazed at the transformation of the city, mostly in a positive sense, and, more specifically, those areas where I once stood to take in Santa Fe's operation through the city.
Here are some reflections of what was then in the late 1960's in the vicinity of the old Pasadena Santa Fe station and what it looks like today, approximately 50 years later.

Pete Baumhefner

Photo 1:  A westbound detoured freight train from the Santa Fe Third District (via Fullerton) pokes its nose around the curve just about to pass over Union Street in Pasadena.  I'm standing at the north end of the Pasadena station platform.
Photo 2:  What it looks like today.  The LA Metro Gold Line is underneath me where I am standing.

---

---

Photo 3:  Looking south from about the same vantage point on the other side of the tracks, observing the Super Chief/El Cap stopped at Pasadena.  The Second District local is in the Pasadena siding.
Photo 4:  What it looks like today.  The fence "guards" the beginning of the underground portion of the LA Metro Gold Line through Pasadena.

---

---

Photo 5:  Now standing on Del Mar Street south of the Pasadena station observing an eastbound Santa Fe Santa Anita horse car special.
Photo 6:  What it looks like today.

---

---

Photo 7:  It's the early 70's now and I'm standing south of Del Mar observing westbound Amtrak No. 3 arriving Pasadena.  There was some sort of special in the Pasadena siding.
Photo 8:  What it looks like today.  The LA Metro Gold Line is "encased" by high rise apartments!

Hope you enjoyed this little time capsule review of what was once the Santa Fe Second District operation through Pasadena, California! 

---

---

Really neat then & now comparisons. It's amazing how much an area can change, especially when the increments of change are very often small. That Warbonnet in image #3 looks kinda surreal! Is the train eastbound or westbound? Do you have some sort of date? By the automobiles in the shot it looks mid-late 60s...

Lance/199

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Really neat then & now comparisons. It's amazing
> how much an area can change, especially when the
> increments of change are very often small. That
> Warbonnet in image #3 looks kinda surreal! Is the
> train eastbound or westbound? Do you have some
> sort of date? By the automobiles in the shot it
> looks mid-late 60s...
>
> Lance/199

That is an Eastbound train.

E.T.T.S 

Everything Turns To S _ _ _ 

miss it, that is progress................

Wonderful photos. Hardly seems a line for major passenger trains, but here's the proof. Did all ATSF east-west trains run via Pasadena?

Fascinating comparisons in time. Many thanks for your time and effort in this great post.

Thanks for these photo's.

All the great Santa Fe passenger trains serving the Los Angeles area operated through Pasadena, except the "Grand Canyon" and the westbound mail/express train No. 7.   The shot of No. 18, the Super Chief/El Cap, was taken in 1967.

Here's a couple more shots of what it looked like 40-50 years ago.

Photo 1:  The Santa Anita horse special crossing Del Mar Street 1964
Photo 2:  The detoured westbound freight train about ready to cross Green Street 1967
Photo 3:  Amtrak No. 3 departing Pasadena with 5 units in the mid 70s.  This is when Amtrak was sending the new power west to Los Angeles.
 

---

---

---

Zephyr Wrote: > ...  the Super Chief/El Cap, was taken in 1967...

Thanks, Pete!
Lance

These are great ! Having grown up in Arcadia and watching trains
​at Pasadena,  Arcadia and Monrovia.

One question is the date on the Detour freight crossing Colorado
and later Green. The GP35's are in the 3300-3400 number series
and I have pictures from 1969 and 1970 with these GP35 & GP30's
​in the 1200--1300-1400 series. Could your date be like 1974 ?
Attached is one of my shots taken in 1970 at the Pasadena platform.

​I love the shots of the GP9's on the Horse car train. Did you ever
shoot any RSD4/5's ?

Thanks for posting

Jay Roberts
​Arcadia=1952-1988

---

Here's one I took from the Pasadena depot platform in 1982.

---

Hey Jay!

You're probably correct on the dates around the detoured freight.  After about 45 years, the filing and date system has become a little "blurred"!  Thanks for your comments and thanks for posting your shots of the area.  I always look forward to your posts of your time around Arcadia, Monrovia and Pasadena!

Pete

TrainJunkie,

Very cool shot of a westbound hotshot as Santa Fe was then operating the "turn" process with most westbound freights operating Second District (then in the middle of Interstate 210) and eastbounds operating Third District via Fullerton back to San Bernardino with the same crew.  Interstate 210 tore up the middle of Pasadena but eliminated most of the grade crossings on the former Santa Fe right of way until they reached downtown Pasadena.

Zephyr

In addition to the transcontinental trains routed through Pasadena on the Second District, and the Crand Canyon (#23/24) and west bound Fast Mail (#8) routed on the Third District through Riverside as has been noted, there were two San Bernardino - LA three-car locals during the 1950s.  The morning and afternoon locals ran westbound on the Third District.  The eastbound afternoon local ran via the second District while the eastbound evening local ran via the Third District through Riverside.  During my time in Riverside there was a progresion of power on the locals that reflected the demise of steam and the acquisition of newer dieseLs  First there were the Pacifics, then the Northerns, then the lashup of three F-units, then the geeps equipped for passenger operation.  The Santa Fe's last purhase of passenger Fs was three unit sets, and this was the era when the Santa Fe seemed loath to splot up sets, hence the three units on the three-car local.

Wow - FABULOUS post.  Thank you!  I love "then and now" shots like this.