Gary Hunter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If my memory serves me well, I believe the depot
> on 3rd st. between E & F sts was shared by both SP
> and PE. I know for sure it was at least PE. As a
> kid, I remember seeing a small portion of the stub
> to the depot which came northward from Rialto Ave.
> still being used a a public team track. It was
> pruned back when the Berdoo depot became Greyhound
> and Metro Coach Lines only from around 1951. The
> PE main to Redlands used to come by one of two
> routes, one of which follwed Colton Ave, and was
> once a double track shared with SP, which
> continued past San Bernardino freight depot down
> Rialto Ave, and was the SP route to Redlands from
> about Arrowhead Ave east. The second route came
> via a different route that follwed La Cadena north
> from Colton on a NE diagonal route (was PE only),
> and turned straight north at Mt. Vernon and
> followed Mt. V north and made the sweeping turn
> east at 3rd and followed 3rd to the PE depot, and
> was joined with the track that came over from
> Rialto Ave (between E&F) in the middle of 3rd to
> continue down third to be joined a couple of
> blocks later by the Redlands main around the
> Arrowhead Puritas water bottling Co. This point,
> in the middle of 3rd between D and Arrowhead is
> where the E. Highlands line and the Arrowhead
> Springs branch split off. In 1943, PE passenger
> service to Riverside was discontinued and the
> numerous diamonds of the crossing of the SP main
> by the PE were removed. The Riverside branch was
> freight only after that and was accessed by SP
> from Colton to Riverside. Street running in
> Riverside remained until the late 1950s to access
> the remaining freith down to Corona. Somewhere
> around 1960, the PE got trackage rights on the
> ATSF from Riverside Jct, to May. The removal
> included all of the La Cadena PE trackage all the
> way past the ATSF and PE depots to the junction
> point with the Redlands main at roughly 3rd and D
> sts. I am not sure when the "back door" track to
> the PE depot was removed, but I don't remember
> seeing it at all in the 1950s. The PE trackage to
> Redlands (most of it) went away over the course of
> the 50s, but I have seen trolley ops caught on
> film in the 1951 farewell fantrips at the Sunkist
> plant on San Bernardino Ave (old Norton AFB.)
> Somehow, not well documented, the SP and PE
> branches were consolidated with the northern end
> being the SP, and some of the PE around Norton
> still being worked until nearly the 60s. Contrary
> to the memory of some, the trackage that went down
> Rialto Ave. East past the PE junction, was all SP,
> and I don't believe it was ever electrified,
> although it physicall resembled the PE by use of
> wig-wags and silver trimmed wood poles. One of
> the burning questions I have, is how long after
> WWII did SP continue to send steam on the San
> Berdoo? I actually had the good fortune to talk
> with an ATSF hogger in the 60s who worked the
> Redlands loop frequently in the 50s, and he told
> me of an incident where an SP 0-6-0 went into
> emergency because he was not paying good attention
> at the I st. interlocking and nearly hit the ATSF
> mid train (he said ATSF had the ROW on those).
> This was the first I had ever heard of steam on
> the PE. Since SP seemed to use steam everywhere
> up to the last minute, I wonder if steam was ever
> sent from Colton (along Colton Ave.) to the SP/PE
> yard any time in the 1950s. One of the other
> details I learned later in life was that SP had
> trackage rights on the PE almost everywhere from
> Claremont east. Bits and pieces of the severed
> PE, connected by bits and pieces of the SP branch
> lines in the area continued to operate to
> surpringly late dates in the 60s. The SP Palmdale
> cutoff project in 67 sealed the fate of the
> onetime Berdoo main of the PE (PE absorbed by SP
> in 65). Berdoo was acessed for a few more years
> from the Colton side after the Palmdale line
> severed it at "Bench". Not Bench by PE TTs, but
> close enough that it was chosen for the name of
> the junction when SP eventually made a connection
> to the cut off PE. There is not even a remnant of
> the old SP/PE 3rd st. depot. The whole street was
> razed for a mall project. Sorry for the long
> wind, but I love sharing what I remember of the
> post electric operations of the PE/SP around San
> Bernardino in the 1950s including the "water
> train" (Arrowhead Springs branch). I didn't
> realize how precious these memories would become.


And I for one am very glad you do this!!!!!

V
SLOCONDR