Nostalgia & History > Railroad Boosters Trip.

   I'm sure many of you are familiar with Pacific Railroad Society, a railroad club in Southern California.  They've been around a very long time, and their predecessor organization was called Railroad Boosters.  They were a small, but active group that ran numerous special excursions.
   These two undated images show the first use of diesel on one of their trips.  They are on the old Union Pacific Pasadena branch, and are near Highland Park.  The second one shows the old Aroyyo Seco Parkway to the left.  This is now known as the Pasadena Freeway.  The UP branch has been gone for years.
   This trip is notable, in that as diesels gradually replaced steam, many rail fans left the hobby forever. Maybe this trip was a concession to reality.  Photos by Nolan Black, from his collection.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

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Thanks Brian for posting.   Ed

Man, is that second one historic. Have never seen a view from this angle and didn't know the line followed LA's first "Freeway" that close. Excellent pair.
JB

Thanks for posting these very historic photos Brian!  Both remind of my 37 years in the LA Basin, mostly near Pasadena.  If one looks closely today from the soutbound lanes of the Pasadena Freeway you can still pick up portions of the old UPRR Pasadena Branch right of way depicted in your second photo.

Pete
Clio, California

My late wife and I rode a couple of "Springtime in the Tehachapis" trips with PRS - they let us board in Mojave!
I believe this was in the '60s.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Per the PRS Excursions List, this was the "Mystery Trip" (Excursion #54) run to Glendale, Pasadena, San Pedro and Anaheim on May 30, 1947. It featured locomotives 1010, 1053 (pictured), 3179, 6050 and 6085.

A list of excursions on pg. 47 of the Pacific Railroad Society's 25th anniversary publication had a May 30, 1947 "Mystery Trip" excursion to "Glendale, Harbor, Aneheim" with no mention of Pasadena.  However, in a write-up of club activities in 1947 on pg. 21 of the publication, a photo caption referred to "the Boosters' Union Pacific Mystery Trip shown here in Pasadena," so their excursion apparently also visited the UP's Pasadena branch in 1947 (the Glendale and Pasadena branches weren't that far apart).

The photo on pg. 21 appears to show a partial view of the cab end of a NW2 switcher, which is the type seen in the photos posted here, I think (I know very little about UP switchers).

Perhaps a 1947 issue of the society's "Wheel Clicks" may have more info.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/21 18:59 by johnsweetser.

Great photos, Brian!

Rich Sugg

We should have a copy of that issue of Wheel Clicks at the PRS  Museum in San Dimas.

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA

Photo one was taken along York at Ave. 63 in Highland Park, the building the background has been replaced with a Rite Aid. The Pasadena Branch ran down the middle of York from Figueroa, across the Arroyo Seco, into South Pasadena...

https://goo.gl/maps/paE7FYCCYcapJ1M69

Photo number two is at Ave. 52 in Highland Park The elevated ROW is still visible next to the freeway...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/21 05:33 by ats90mph.