Nostalgia & History > Riding into Pasadena on the Southwest Limited New Years Day '77

I don't know how long it went on, but in the 70's, if the Southwest Limited was late on New Years morning, it would detour via the then freight only Third District (later San Bernardino Sub) of the Santa Fe between San Bernardino and LA to avoid crossing the route of the Rose Parade in Pasadena. One year on New Year's Day in 1977, some friends and I rode the Southwest from San Bernardino to LA with hopes of running over the Third District. Of course the train was on-time that day and ran the usual route over the Second District. In the long run though, this proved to work out as in the 90's the Southwest was rerouted over the Third District and now not much of the Second District remains from what I know except for the Metro Gold Line light rail.
First two photos taken from the vestibule. The first shot is crossing over the 210 freeway in what could probably never be repeated now with only one car visible on the road.
Third photo of the train at Pasadena. Back then, the Santa Fe would park some buisness cars at the route of the Rose Parade. You can see an engine with several Santa Fe passenger cars off to the right. I wonder how many years they had done that or for how much longer?

---

---

---

Next two photos of some of the cars on the Southwest that day including sleeper 2604 Pacific Cape.
Next one Santa Fe Buisness car Topeka.

---

---

---

Last one of Santa Fe diner 62.
We got off the train at Pasadena and took a bus on into LA and then a San Diegan back to Fullerton and drove back out to SB to get the car and then spent the afternoon at Cajon. Interesting day.

---

Thank you for sharing. Used to live out there and going down memory lane is always fun. I guess the most interesting of all of this in the photos is the single car on the 210 Eastbound. Not going to happen like that ever again. 

Mike ONeill
Parker, CO

Actually you can still ride the 2nd District from San Bernardino to Claremont on Metrolink commuter trains.
Some of your trip will be on old Santa Fe 119 lb welded rail from Pasadena.
The rapid transit engineers standardized on 115 lb rail and did not want the nearly new 119 lb rail that the Santa Fe had installed through Pasadena and Highland Park.
Metrolink heard that they meant to scrap it and got it free for the cost of moving it.
We laid it eastward out of Montclair until it was gone near Upland then laid 136 lb on to San Bernardino, which is good because that is where there is still a fair amount of freight traffic to Kaiser.

Very cool post!  Look at all those Hi-level coaches!  Some nice roster shots!  Do  you remember the Santa Fe dome number!  I can't quite make it out.  9352 perhaps?
It looks like the front windshield is shattered.  Nice shot of the Topeka business car.  It has the FRA colored bar code on it!  By 1977, they started substituting other
sleeping cars instead of the usual Ex-ATSF Palm, Pine, Regal, and Indian series cars.  It kind of looks like scratched lexan windows on the Pacific sleeper.

Great set of images.
Thanks for the roster shots.
Gary

Great shots!!  The SW Limited westbound is crossing over eastbound I-210 freeway as the train is heading to Pasadena and LA. The top photo was taken in Arcadia, CA.. The old AT&SF Railway Second District trackage is long gone now and replaced with MTA Light rail Gold Line currently run between LA and Azusa, CA. Old Santa Fe Railway LA or Needles, CA passenger train crews  worked between Needles and Los Angeles, CA. LA based engine crews  worked to and from Barstow, CA.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/20 09:08 by RodneyZona.

The Rose Parade specials ran for decades into BNSF right up until the west end of the Pasadena Sub was pulled out of service.
JB

 It looked like a great day to be riding trains.  Nice to see ATSF passenger car equipment in 1976 with an original steam ejector air conditioner on the underside.  I cannot recount the history of the 62 from beginning to end, but I believe it is a full lounge car that was originally used on the El Cap, before the big domes were deployed.  It then saw service as a "pinch hitter" on a variety of trains including the Texas Chief.  It had a very smart, roomy interior with subdued southwestern colors. 

GreenFlag Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Last one of Santa Fe diner 62.
 

Hou74-76 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>  It looked like a great day to be riding trains.
>  Nice to see ATSF passenger car equipment in 1976
> with an original steam ejector air conditioner on
> the underside.  I cannot recount the history of
> the 62 from beginning to end, but I believe it is
> a full lounge car that was originally used on the
> El Cap, before the big domes were deployed.  It
> then saw service as a "pinch hitter" on a variety
> of trains including the Texas Chief.  It had a
> very smart, roomy interior with subdued
> southwestern colors. 

> Yes, a full lounge built for the El Cap with a bar, Currier Nurse's room, and newsstand.  Sadly, the car was gutted by the Santa Fe circa 1993 and has no original fabric left inside like it did when the photo was taken.

mcdeo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you for sharing. Used to live out there and
> going down memory lane is always fun. I guess the
> most interesting of all of this in the photos is
> the single car on the 210 Eastbound. Not going to
> happen like that ever again. 
Boy, ain't that the truth.  I grew up in Pasadena, and later Glendora.  As an adult, and driving the 210, I remember it taking 45-60 mins to travel the 18 miles back and forth.

All the SDP40F's are in Phase II paint as well.  Most of the SDP40F's on the San Francisco Zephyr remained in phase I thru the end of the 70's from what I've seen in photo's. 

Most excellent series!

Cheers, Jim

Terrific views!

Without pulling out a 1977 Amtrak schedule, sleeping car "Pacific Cape" appears to be in the position of the NYC to LA transcon 10-6 (line number 3135), that operated via the Amtrak National Limited from New York to Kansas City, then added to the rear of the westbound Southwest Limited to LAUPT in Los Angeles.  Eastbound, the line number was 3130 back to KCY and on to NYC.

Thank you.

BuddPullman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Terrific views!
>
> Without pulling out a 1977 Amtrak schedule,
> sleeping car "Pacific Cape" appears to be in the
> position of the NYC to LA transcon 10-6 (line
> number 3135), that operated via the Amtrak
> National Limited from New York to Kansas City,
> then added to the rear of the westbound Southwest
> Limited to LAUPT in Los Angeles.  Eastbound, the
> line number was 3130 back to KCY and on to NYC.
>
> Thank you.

Yes, people forget that after the demise of the original post-war transcontinental sleeper services circa 1958, other than the transconinental route using the SOU and the SP via New Orleans which started up in the late 1960's prior to Amtrak,  Amtrak re-instigated it using another route via the National and the Soutwest Ltd thru KC during the mid-1970's. 

I remember finishing my breakfast in the dining car as we cruised down the middle of the 210 fwy, but don't recall the year. It was during the morning rush, and I recall that several folks in their cars seemed to look at us with a bit of what I imagined was envy. 

Thanks for the memories!

Topfuel Wrote:

> Yes, a full lounge built for the El Cap with a bar, Currier Nurse's room ...

For readers who may be mystified, the word should be "courier."

Posted from iPhone

mcdeo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you for sharing. Used to live out there and
> going down memory lane is always fun. I guess the
> most interesting of all of this in the photos is
> the single car on the 210 Eastbound. Not going to
> happen like that ever again. 

Remember it was early New Years morning when this photo was taken.

Great set of photos.  Looks like Pic 2 is in just inside Azusa from the border with Glendora (with the MP 116 sign as a giveaway) with the nursery grounds still in place to the north of the tracks.  This is right about the spot of the current end-of-the line MTA Gold (now 'L') line station at APU/Citrus College with new houses all around the tracks here.

Rich

Topfuel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BuddPullman Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Terrific views!
> >
> > Without pulling out a 1977 Amtrak schedule,
> > sleeping car "Pacific Cape" appears to be in
> the
> > position of the NYC to LA transcon 10-6 (line
> > number 3135), that operated via the Amtrak
> > National Limited from New York to Kansas City,
> > then added to the rear of the westbound
> Southwest
> > Limited to LAUPT in Los Angeles.  Eastbound,
> the
> > line number was 3130 back to KCY and on to NYC.
> >
> > Thank you.
>
> Yes, people forget that after the demise of the
> original post-war transcontinental sleeper
> services circa 1958, other than the
> transconinental route using the SOU and the SP
> via New Orleans which started up in the late
> 1960's prior to Amtrak,  Amtrak re-instigated it
> using another route via the National and the
> Soutwest Ltd thru KC during the mid-1970's. 
Yeah! Duh!  I forgot about that.  The transcon sleeper on the Crescent/Sunset lasted a little longer.