Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe San Jac at Hemet

Pictured below is the ATSF San Jac Local pausing at the former Hemet depot for "beans".The potatoes have been pulled from San Jacinto and after lunch the return trip will begin back to San Bernardino.Image recorded over thirty years ago.Time flies.Bill Webb

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callum_out Wrote:

> Train looks like it's sitting on the House track. 

House track?  Then what does one call the track between the train and the depot?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/21 12:10 by johnsweetser.

Interesting to see some action in town. I had a few business trips to that area and could not get a grasp of what was going on.
t4p.

It's obviously Hemet, but the "main" past the station was straight. There was a house track West of the station which had
curves on both ends, train may have been picking up an mty flat car (lumber) off the team/house track. The spur John mentions
was the station track used when people and packages got to ride the train. 

Out 

Wow, that's great.  Florida Avenue (Hwy 74) in front of the train has gotten a lot busier and Hemet has grown quite a bit since then.

Thanks for this one,

Rich

The siding at Ryan Airport was heavy during the 80s with feed for the dairies in the area that moved out of Dairy
Valley (Cerritos) in the LA Basin. I wonder if any are left today? 

Out 

hemet pull the track dead no train to hemet 2005  was the last one siding gone too at the airport

       tom

If I could master posting photo's, could show some photos of the 22 special trains that I operated to Hemet 1957-1968.,
Maybe some time it can be done.

Track in front of station had a slight curve just as indicated in the photo.  The track in the photo, the house track stub in the photo   did go across the highway in the early 60's and the early Ramona Trains, did a run around at this point.  Later years train moved to the "Y" toward San Jac to run around the train.  Remember one year, when the San Jac Local was helping with the run around they made a flying switch across Florida Ave with their caboose.

The station as it stands was combined with the freight house so no need for a freight house,.but do recall a spur for a bulk fuel. Believe a warehouse next to fuel plant, then further west the track became straight again by the Hemet Fair grounds, where we would reload the passengers after the pageant and dinner at the fair grounds.

My directions are actual, not the railroad timetable east and west as used on this branch under Santa Fe.

Last couple of years, we moved northeast of the station toward San Jac, so that we had straight track to  unload and not block streets in the area.

Ed

callum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The siding at Ryan Airport was heavy during the
> 80s with feed for the dairies in the area that
> moved out of Dairy
> Valley (Cerritos) in the LA Basin. I wonder if any
> are left today? 
>
> Out 

There is a number of dairies up along the Ramona Expressway from about State St on the east to about Lakeview Ave on the west.

The 1st Quarter 2021 issue of The Warbonnet has an article by John Signor entitled "Hemet, a Santa Fe Town on a Curve."  The train in the photo above ca.1990 would have been on the "main line."

Some of Ed's photos of Farmers' Fair and Ramona Pageant trains are in these old threads:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5135502,5135504#5135504
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5135502,5151301#5151301
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4614979,4616047#4616047

Crew stopped for snacks at Depot Deli on the corner just left of the photo. Normal dining spot for crew in the afternoon was Hambys Cafe on State Street just RR east of Menlo Street crossing.