I worked the PFE job, as fireman, at the east end of Old Colton, when I first hired out on SP in the summer of 69. That was a fantastic experience, seeing the PFE crews loading ice into ice bunkers, and pre-cooling empties to go down into the Valley for carrots and tomatoes. Icing operations were being phased out pretty rapidly, and I beleive the ice plant in Old Colton was closed by 72. By the summer of 72 there was almost no ice activities left, except for pre-cooling of powered refers, which was done down in places like El Centro, I believe mostly for things like carrots or lettuce that you didn't want to dry out to much in transit.

My recollection of when they closed the ice plant is getting dimner, so corrections and additional facts are encouraged, especially on the closure of the ice plant.

Santa Fe always kept even the junk looking better and cleaner than SP ever did. Santa Fe even washed engines. SP used a water shortage in LA as a pretext to shut down the wash rack at Taylor, then they laid off the wash rack off crews, and it didn't take long to notice how much filthier an engine could be, even in grey and red.