Passenger Trains > Metrolink on the old PE

After riding the train to LA Saturday I wanted to check out a couple spots I noticed from on board. I hadn't spent a lot of time on the Pacific Electric side of Metrolink's San Gabriel Sub so with the mixed clouds today was a good day to explore.

1) First stop was Covina where I checked out the fairly new parking garage just west of the station. F59PHI 883 pushes its train on the north track enroute to LA. I believe PasadenaSub Rich has posted shots from here in the past.

2) Then on to the Baldwin Park station at the intersection of Downing and Ramona where tattered 865 leads train 356 east. I remember seeing C415's parked just behind where I'm standing as a kid. A side story here can be found on the Western Board under the title "What is wrong here?"

As the summer approaches, I may explore the line further west but the locations look to be pretty limited.

Thanks for looking.

-OYW



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/10 23:37 by oyw.

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Nice stuff, Bob.

There are a couple footbridges over the freeway, and the one at Margarita in Alhambra offers a very nice morning shot.

There is also a decent shot from the footbridge to the busway station west of Cal State LA (also a morning shot). This area had me a bit nervous about being by myself though.

There are two kind of neat angles actually at Cal State LA, come to think of it, although the one from the parking lot north of the station was pretty close to treed in last time I looked.

Lastly, the flyover at the San Gabriel River offers some very interesting angles.

Nice shots, I'm partial to Covina as I lived there until 1967. That line through Covina was actually the original SP line. The original PE line ran along what is now Badillo ave. I grew up just three houses north of what is now Badillo. There were still remnants of the PE line where we used to play at the end of our street (ties, spikes tieplates etc.). Badillo used to run west from Baldwin Park but ended somewhere west of Irwindale ave. Badillo wasn't extended until the summer of 1967 after we moved away. I believe the PE Covina line was pulled up in the late 40s or early 50s at which time it started running over the SP line. I remember seeing tiger striped units running along the branch behind my grade school (Griswald) back in the early 60s.
Back in the late 80s or early 90s the city of Covina was repaving Citrus ave. and during the grading ran across the original PE tracks at Badillo ave. buried under many layers of pavement.
Here's a shot of the original PE depot along Badillo east of Citrus.-BMT

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To go along with what BMT was saying, the PE (later SP State Street Line) crossed the SP right about where "oyw" is standing to take the second shot and continued east along Badillo. There was a connector track built in the nw quadrant that allowed the trains to connect between the State Street line and the SP. There was a small three(?) track yard just to the north of the crossing and the east end wrapped around the curve towards Orange Ave. Jct, but did not go that far. "oyw" mentions seeing C415's parked there in Bald.Pk. The locos's were ususally parked in front of the SP depot/yard office on a siding right about where the current Metrolink platforms are today. Having worked in BPk and Irwindale for almost 10 years, I remember seeing SW8's (TR6 mothers), NW2's and SW1200's along with the later SW1500's and single C415's. The State Street job originated in BPk for along time and their power was among that kept at BPk. I've included a shot of one of the C415's at Baldwin Prk from February 1970, probably on a Saturday morning.

KC

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The Baldwin Park Station was at Maine Ave..just a
passenger shelter..been there many times on PE 1200's..
believe this photo is on the old SP branch from Bassett..



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/10 13:04 by Agt-Highland.

The C-415 is sitting near the "new" Baldwin Park station, which was built there in the late 1960's. The crew room was at the south end, and the main part of the building was the "Azusa Freight Agency", which had been relocated from the former PE depot in Azusa. The previous crew room was in a retired boxcar/caboose body several hundred yards northeast about where the track turns eastward. I used to go there in the mid-60's to visit with the crew and maybe get a cab ride in the 1900-class NW-2 that was the usual power. For a while they had an SW-900 which had a PE air whistle. One Saturday morning I went to the "new" station and found the crew had already left to switch the Bassett industrial park area. I drove down there and spotted the engine across an open field. Just as I got out of the car and headed over for a closer look, the engineer sounded the PE whistle. When I got to the track I told him, "You shouldn't blow that thing. It makes weird people come out of the bushes." As a final note, somewhere I heard that the "new" Baldwin Park station was disassembled some time in the 1970's and sent to Guadalupe (SP/UP interchange with Santa Maria Valley RR) to replace a quaint but rickety wooden depot.

Good stuff, Bob.

Yes, the photo locations are kind of limited on the former PE/SP side of the Metrolink San Gabriel Sub. Here's a list of a few I can think of off hand (from east to west) and most are at grade crossings with enough clearance where one can shoot from the sidewalk w/o trespassing. All are morning shots to favor the locomotive on the east end (though my thinking may change once the new Rotem cabcars are put into service).

La Verne - Wheeler Avenue, parking lot of ceramics company just east of San Dimas Canyon Rd. (summertime pic)
San Dimas - San Dimas Avenue, Lone Hill Ave.
Covina - Glendora Avenue (there's a park to the south where one can get a vertical pic leaning over the fence), Covina Metrolink station (and parking structure), Azusa Avenue
Baldwin Park - at the depot or grade crossings, Amar Road (if you can find a place to legally park)
El Monte - the flyover bridge and the El Monte Metrolink station (security guard will sometimes throw fans out).

Rich