Nostalgia & History > mundo: PRS Excursion to Colton, CA on the PE

"Mundo" in the subject line means the following photos were taken by Trainorders.com member mundo.

The Pacific Railroad Society has run hundreds of excursions since it was founded as the Railroad Boosters in 1936 (the name was changed in 1949).  Thankfully, the trips were (almost) all numbered in series. 

The SP-owned, Los Angeles-area interurban empire of the Pacific Electric was a popular venue for excursions.  Back on June 2, 1951, an unnumbered excursion had said farewell to PE's San Bernardino Line using business car 1299:

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0xIMp-4wekc/U9kLE1sq4dI/AAAAAAAA1To/2tE8NlAzslQ/s1600/Vintage+Los+Angeles+Railway+Streetcars+(16).jpg

The line itself wasn't going away, just the overhead wire.  Three years later, the flyer for Excursion 85B of June 20, 1954 proclaimed "The Impossible Has Been Ordered!"  Riders would once again get to tour the PE from LA to San Bernardino and down to Colton, but behind steam in the form of a couple of SP ten-wheelers.  The following year, Excursion 89 of May 8, 1955 promised "A Repeat of the Impossible," covering the same territory behind SP 2-8-0 #2771.  This second dose of impossibility is the subject of Ed's slides.

1, 2) The excursion flyer courtesy the Pacific Railroad Society Museum in San Dimas, CA.

3) Ed's first photo shows the 2771 and the excursion train at Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/20 01:36 by Evan_Werkema.

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4) The first photo stop at State St. Yard.  The sign on the pole says Cummings Street, which puts the location right about here in the modern Google Streetview: https://goo.gl/maps/CpDcf5RUEpghrTWU7

5) Quite a throng of motorcaders photographing the train on what I think this is the San Gabriel River bridge approaching Baldwin Park.  The train is on a low trestle with a paralleling road, and there weren't many spots on this PE line with those two features.  The timber trestle was replaced within a few years, and its replacement is now gone except for some concrete piers: https://goo.gl/maps/C9b8zaHhymVnd1Cz8

6) The photo stop on 1st St. between Yale and Harvard Ave. in Claremont.  SP 2771's freshly silvered smokebox appears to be oxidizing rapidly!
 

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7) Not many landmarks to go by here, but this might be the photo stop mentioned in the flyer at Etiwanda, which in 1955 was still out in the countryside with precious little urban development other than the PE station (which still stands).  If it is Etiwanda, the scene near the station looks a bit different today: https://goo.gl/maps/FeKFeiqNTdMCQpNg9

8, 9) A photo runby on the Rialto Ave. street running in San Bernardino at Mt. Vernon Ave.  The gray building on the left in the first photo still stands: https://goo.gl/maps/wRfpcZHwpVCxXuKQA  The cantilevered lower quadrant semaphore, which a couple of photographers appear to be using as a perch, was the home signal for the PE crossing of Santa Fe's "short way" that bypassed the B-Yard west of the San Bernardino Depot.
 

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10) At Colton, the train has just crossed the Southern Pacific main line and is on 9th St. about to back into the yard.  The drumhead on SP observation car 2901 says "Pacific Railroad Society Colton Daylight."  The PE diamonds se rails persisted on 9th St. south of the SP until 2016: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4146214,4146484#4146484  The view today: https://goo.gl/maps/Gmhzv6x1c3hRxrMy6

11) The northernmost of the diamonds the PE used to cross its parent road at the Colton depot in 1955 was this dual-gauge affair of unknown origin.  The narrow gauge bits were gone from the diamond by 1957, and the crossing was eliminated entirely by 1959: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4560431,4560432#4560432

12) The 2771 and train on the SP at Colton.
 

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13) One last head-on view of the 2771 and its increasingly golden smokebox front at Colton.  Curious to note that the 7's in the headlight numberboard on the left are genuine 7's, while the ones on the right are upside down 2's!

Thanks as always to Ed for sharing his photos with us!

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The automobiles and old gas station are as cool as the train. And all this in a state that want's to ban the combustion engine as we know it. Photograph the current versions while you still can. 

Can anyone identify the year and model of the Hudson on Rialto Ave. ?

I second the thanks to Ed and you for posting.  Had you not mentioned the inverted "2s" I would have never detected them.  As to the golden smokebox, is that discoloration due to heat from the exhaust or was there another source of stain involved?

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> 13) One last head-on view of the 2771 and its
> increasingly golden smokebox front at Colton. 
> Curious to note that the 7's in the headlight
> numberboard on the left are genuine 7's, while the
> ones on the right are upside down 2's!
>
> Thanks as always to Ed for sharing his photos with
> us!

train1275 Wrote:
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> Can anyone identify the year and model of the
> Hudson on Rialto Ave. ?

1950 give or take a year.

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> The automobiles and old gas station are as cool as
> the train. And all this in a state that want's to
> ban the combustion engine as we know it.
> Photograph the current versions while you still
> can. 

Oh yes! Take me back to the good ol' daze of my youth in SoCal. My eyes and lungs are on fire just thinking about it.............:(

FWIW: The grille says 48 or 49. But not sure which. Note:

"1949 HUDSON - GENERAL: The 1949 Hudson was introduced in November, 1948. Hudson decided to "stand pat" on the styling and features 1948 car, since it was well received. As such, there were only very minor annual revisions in the 1949 models - and all were found inside the cars, with the exterior sheet metal and trim being  for the most part, identical. Commodore series models were now called "Commodore Customs" and looked identical to 1948 Commodores."

Bill in Ft Worth

Many thanks for posting this great adventure. It may have been 65 years ago, but still very enjoyable for us today. Just one thing is missing, but I am somehow able to supply the sound of the SP chime whistle with my memory. 

Check the excursion rates, save a quarter by joining! Darn fine post, SoCal when it was a lot
more fan friendly.

Out

Hou74-76 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I second the thanks to Ed and you for posting.
>  Had you not mentioned the inverted "2s" I would
> have never detected them.  As to the golden
> smokebox, is that discoloration due to heat from
> the exhaust or was there another source of stain
> involved?
>
> Evan_Werkema Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 13) One last head-on view of the 2771 and its
> > increasingly golden smokebox front at Colton. 
> > Curious to note that the 7's in the headlight
> > numberboard on the left are genuine 7's, while
> the
> > ones on the right are upside down 2's!
> >
> > Thanks as always to Ed for sharing his photos
> with
> > us!

The discoloration of the silver is caused by not using heat-resistant paint on the smokebox.  When we ran 1744 in Alamosa on the SLRG, we could not get any heat resistant silver in town, so we used regular cheap stuff.  It turned golden brown in one trip over the hill.  Then if it got rained on, the paint cracked and flaked off.

Wonderful series of photos; thanks Ed and Evan.

Forgive me for asking, but my operations-obsessed mind is left wondering exactly how did the special attain Pacific Electric rails
following departure from Los Angeles?

There never was a direct connection to allow a movement from LAUPT to head into PE's State St yard until the 1970's when the so-called
"State Street Line" of today came into existence. From time immemorial freight movements destined State St. and beyond were handled by
SP yard crews transferring the goods northward from PE's Butte St. yard and required the use of a facing point switch following a
(compass) northward movement on UP's East Bank line between 4th Street Yard and Pasadena Jct. My guess here is that the special was
probably lined east to Taylor Jct. or north to East Bank Jct. and then made a backup move of about a mile or so, southward on the UP until passing
the head-in switch.

Such a move would have also required a SP pilot to accomplish before turning the train over to the PE crew for the remainder
of the trip to Colton. The westward trip back to LA would have been an SP show all the way, no pilots required. Just wondering.

Charlie 

 

In picture 8 I spy some highway signs. Is that US 395 and US 99 along with California 18 that ran down Mt. Vernon Ave?

My guess on the dual-gauge crossing is that it was moved there from another location on the PE in Los Angeles where PE and LARY shared an alignment. 

ble692 Wrote:

> In picture 8 I spy some highway signs. Is that US
> 395 and US 99 along with California 18 that ran
> down Mt. Vernon Ave?

The numbers on the signs are 395, 91, and 18.

Back in 1955, US91 and US395 ran south on Mt. Vernon thru San Bernardino.  At Valley Blvd, they turned west to La Cadena Dr where they turned south on their way to Riverside.  Meanwhile, US70/99 ran east-west on Valley Blvd thru Colton.  Thus if you were on Valley Blvd between Mt. Venron and La Cadena, you were on four US highways at once, US70/91/99/395.  US60 ran a little further south going east-west and Mission Blvd and 8th St thru Riverside while US66 came down Cajon with US91/395 before turning west on 5th Street which became Foothill Blvd after a short distance.

Finally, State Route 18 followed US91 all the way into Orange County back then.  North SR18 turned east on 5th St then north on E St.  As some point it turned east and then north on Sierra Way to head into the mountains.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ble692 Wrote:
>
> > In picture 8 I spy some highway signs. Is that
> US
> > 395 and US 99 along with California 18 that ran
> > down Mt. Vernon Ave?
>
> The numbers on the signs are 395, 91, and 18.

Thank you Evan and Ed for the great look back, especially the Claremont shot!  (My home town.)
GK