The was a
Subsidiary Railroad of the
Atchison, Topeka And Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) in
Southern California . It was organized
July 10 1880 , and chartered on
October 23 1880 , to build a rail connection between what has become the city of
Barstow and
San Diego, California .Serpico, p 18
Construction began in
National City , just south of San Diego, in 1881, and proceeded northward to the present day city of
Oceanside . From there, the line turned to the northeast through
Temecula Canyon , then on to the present cities of
Lake Elsinore ,
Perris and
Riverside before a connection to the
Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) in
Colton . Following a
Frog War where the SP refused to let the California Southern cross its tracks, a dispute that was resolved by court order in favor of the California Southern, construction continued northward through
Cajon Pass to the present day cities of
Victorville and
Barstow . The line, completed on
November 9 1885 , formed the western end of Santa Fe's
Transcontinental Railroad connection to
Chicago . Portions of the original line are still in use today as some of the busiest rail freight and passenger routes in the
United States .
The California Southern was organized on
July 10 1880 , as a means to connect San Diego to a connection with the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad at an as-yet undetermined point. Among the organizers were
Frank Kimball , a prominent landowner and rancher from San Diego who also represented the Chamber of Commerce and the Board of City Trustees of San Diego,
Kidder, Peabody And Company , one of the main financial investment companies involved in the
Santa Fe ,
B.P. Cheney ,
L.G. Pratt ,
George B. Wilbur and
Thomas Nickerson who was president of the Santa Fe. The organizers set a deadline of
January 1 1884 to complete the connection, a deadline that was later adjusted due to problems in the construction of the Atlantic and Pacific that forced it to stop at
Needles, California .Waters, p 72, and Serpico, p 18.
The California Southern built its track northward from a point in National City, south of San Diego. The route, portions of which are still in use, connected the present day cities of National City, San Diego,
Fallbrook ,
Temecula ,
Lake Elsinore ,
Perris ,
Riverside ,
San Bernardino ,
Colton ,
Cajon (not to be confused with
El Cajon ),
Victorville and
Barstow .
In Barstow, then known as Waterman, the California Southern would connect to another Santa Fe subsidiary, the
Atlantic And Pacific Railroad . The Atlantic and Pacific was chartered in 1866 to build a railroad connection westward from
Springfield, Missouri , connecting
Albuquerque, New Mexico , then along the 35th
Parallel to the
Colorado River . From there, the railroad was to continue to the
Pacific Ocean following whatever proved to be the best route. The route was scheduled to be completed by
July 4 1878 .Waters, p 64-65. However, the Southern Pacific was able to get a clause favorable to their own interests inserted into the charter:
:"... the Southern Pacific Railroad ... is hereby authorized to connect with the said Atlantic and Pacific railroad formed under this act, at such point, near the boundary line of the State of California, as they shall deem most suitable for a railroad line to San Francisco."Waters, p 65.
Southern Pacific had already established a connection to
Mojave , so their crews built eastward from there through Barstow (then called Waterman) to
Needles, California , completing the connection across the Colorado River on
August 3 1883 .Waters, pp 69-71. The California segment was leased to the Santa Fe in August 1884,Waters, p 73. and fully acquired by the Santa Fe under foreclosure in 1897.
in San Diego. This station was demolished and replaced in 1915 by what has come to be known as
Union Station .]]
The California Southern began construction in National City on land originally acquired by
Frank Kimball . The railroad's main
Yards and
Locomotive maintenance shops were located here, and until the connection was made with Barstow, all tools and equipment ordered by the railroad arrived here by ship around
Cape Horn from points in the eastern
United States , while the wooden
Ties arrived by ship from
Oregon .
1 Surveys and construction between National City and San Diego were well underway by March 1881. The railroad reached Fallbrook and opened between there and San Diego in January 1882.Serpico, p 18-19.
In 1881 and 1882, the California Southern received ten locomotive shipments by sea at National City. The last three of these, delivered in November 1882 aboard the ship ''Anna Camp'', have been identified as the last three locomotives ever delivered to the United States Pacific coast after traveling around Cape Horn.
2
In order to connect to the Atlantic and Pacific line in the quickest way possible, surveyors and engineers for the California Southern pushed the route through
Fallbrook and
Temecula , bypassing what was at the time the pueblo of Los Angeles. What the railroad didn't understand was the nature of Southern California's dry washes. The local inhabitants told the railroad of the dangers of building through such an area, that it could become a raging torrent of water, but the railroad built through the canyon anyway.Duke and Kistler, p 22.
Despite the warnings, track work through the canyon proceeded at a quick pace. The line was completed to Fallbrook on
January 2 1882 , then to Temecula on
March 27 1882 .Duke and Kistler, p 27
Many parts of the canyon had suffered storms. In February 1884 a storm hit. The train was delayed and the canyon walls brought boulders crashing down on the rails. On
February 3 , the train was unable to get through. A few days later, the wires were down. The train from Colton to
San Diego was unable to get through. Disaster had been averted because young Charlie Howell hurried up the tracks from his family homestead near Willow Glen and somehow managed to stop the train.
3 A series of devastating
Washout s on the section through Temecula Canyon occurred amid heavy rain storms that flooded the area starting on
February 16 1884 , just six months after the first trains operated the entire route between San Diego and San Bernardino. The storms brought more than 40 inches of rain in a four-week period. Two thirds of the mainline through the canyon were washed out with ties seen floating as far as away in the ocean.Duke and Kistler, p 29. Temporary track repairs were made after the first storms, but later in the month, additional rains and flooding washed out the entire route through the canyon. Repairs were estimated at nearly
$ 320,000, a figure that could not be recouped effectively.
The canyon was finally bypassed completely with the completion of the
Surf Line on
August 12 1888 , and the line through the canyon was relegated to
Branch Line status.Duke and Kistler, p 43
Construction of the California Southern was repeatedly interrupted by Santa Fe's rival,
Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). In one instance, the California Southern was to build a
Level Junction across the SP tracks in
Colton , a crossing which still exists today. California Southern engineer
Fred T. Perris ordered the crossing built and acquired the track section for the railroad. When the track was delivered to
National City in July 1883, SP officials hired the sheriff there to seize the track section and prevent its installation. The sheriff kept the track under 24-hour guard, but Perris's men were able to retake the track while the sheriff napped, loaded the track on a
Flatcar and started northward with it toward Colton, where it was to be installed.
Perris had obtained a court order on
August 11 1883 , that would legally allow the California Southern to install the new track section, and his crew was ready to install it as soon as SP's ''Overland Mail'' passed the point of intersection between the two railroads. However, at that moment an SP
Locomotive arrived at the scene pulling a single
Gondola and stopped. The engineer of the SP locomotive then drove the train back and forth slowly at the crossing point in an effort to prevent the California Southern crew from installing the crossing. It was believed that the gondola held a number of SP men with rifles and other weapons who crouched below the walls of the car so as not to be seen.
Jacob Nash Victor , another California Southern construction engineer, was the foreman at Colton. In a letter that Victor wrote to
Thomas Nickerson , then president of the California Southern, he stated:
:"I thought it advisable to have final order of court printed and each SP employee served. It was also asserted that headquarters at San Francisco had not received the final order. The danger of a riot was so imminent, by legal advice I had the order telegraphed to the Sheriff at SF to serve on the President or Secy. ... In the meantime the Sheriff
Colton had organized a posse, with arms and was waiting for order of court to clear the track, on our application."Waters, p 133.
Soon, the court's construction order was accepted by SP, the track was cleared and the
Crossing was installed. The first train from San Diego arrived in Colton on
August 21 1882 (before the crossing was installed), and the first train to San Bernardino arrived just over a year later on
September 13 1883 .Signor, p 17.
The first structure that the California Southern used as a depot in San Bernardino was a converted
Boxcar .Serpico, p 20. Building north from San Bernardino, the California Southern was able to piggyback on the survey work done by the
Los Angeles And Independence Railway up to a point near Cajon.
The original grade of the line up the pass rose at a 2.2%
Slope between San Bernardino and Cajon, where the grade steepened to 3% until reaching the summit further.
4 The route over Cajon Pass was completed with a "last spike" on
November 9 1885 ,Waters, p 74. and the first train to use the pass carried a load of rails southward from Barstow on
November 12 to be installed near Riverside.Duke and Kistler, p 32 The first through train from Chicago via Santa Fe lines arrived in San Diego on
November 17 1885 .Signor, p 18.
Construction of the original route through
Cajon Pass was overseen by Victor, who by this time had become General Manager of the California Southern. He operated the first train through the pass in 1885, proclaiming "No other railroad will ever have the nerve to build through these mountains. All who follow will prefer to rent trackage from us." Victor's assertion remained true for a while as the
San Pedro, Los Angeles And Salt Lake Railroad (which later became part of
Union Pacific Railroad ) signed an agreement to operate over the California Southern track via
Trackage Rights on
April 26 1905 ,Signor, p 37. but Victor was proven wrong eighty years later when SP built the
Palmdale Cutoff in 1967 at a slightly higher elevation through the pass.
5 In honor of his work through the pass, the city of
Victorville was named after Victor.
6
from 1889 showing passenger train schedules between
Chicago , Los Angeles and San Diego, using California Southern tracks from Barstow to Los Angeles and San Diego.]]
To reach Los Angeles, the Santa Fe leased
Trackage Rights over the Southern Pacific from San Bernardino on
November 29 1885 , at $1,200 per mile per year. Naturally, the Santa Fe sought ways to reduce the fees. On
November 20 1886 , the Santa Fe incorporated the
San Bernardino And Los Angeles Railway to build a rail connection between its namesake cities. California Southern track crews performed the construction work, and the first train on the new line arrived in
Los Angeles on
May 31 1887 . During the construction, Santa Fe officials worked to consolidate the many subsidiary railroads in Southern California in order to reduce costs. At a stockholder meeting on
April 23 , the eight railroads and their prominent stockholders, minus the California Southern, voted in favor of consolidation, and the
California Central Railway was formed as a result on
May 20 1887 . After the consolidation, although the California Southern remained a separate subsidiary, the National City shops were downgraded and the services provided there were moved to the newly constructed shops in San Bernardino.Serpico, p 23-24. One of the first official lists of stations on the California Southern and California Central railroads published on
July 13 1887 , shows the California Southern divided operationally into two divisions: the San Diego division covered the territory between National City and Colton; from there, the San Bernardino Division covered the route through Cajon Pass to Barstow.Serpico, p 26.
'' pauses at the summit of Cajon Pass in 1908.]]
The Santa Fe underwent a massive financial overhaul in 1889. The major investors in
Boston, Massachusetts , were mostly replaced by investors from
New York and
London at the annual meeting on
May 9 . The investors replaced the company's board of directors with a new board that included
George C. Magoun (who would later be linked with the company's 1893 receivership). The new investors disliked the number of subsidiary companies and sought to further consolidate them. The California Southern, California Central and
Redondo Beach Railway companies were consolidated into the
Southern California Railway on
November 7 1889 .Serpico, p 30. The Santa Fe finally purchased outright the holdings of the Southern California railroad on
January 17 1906 , ending the railway's subsidiary status and making it fully a part of the Santa Fe railroad.Serpico, p 34Duke and Kistler, p 45-46.
Presidents of the California Southern Railroad were:
Much of the original
Right-of-way graded and used by the California Southern is still in active daily use by contemporary railroad companies. Several structures originally built for or by the railroad, or in some cases the remains of these structures, can also still be seen along the line. Some of the buildings that remain are still in use in their primary purposes.
train working upgrade on Cajon Pass in 1991.]]
The two ends of the former railroad are still in use as of 2006. The section between Barstow and Riverside through
Cajon Pass , which includes the disputed
Crossing In Colton , remains one of the busiest rail freight corridors in the United States, seeing trains of
BNSF Railway and
Union Pacific Railroad as well as
Amtrak 's daily ''
Southwest Chief '' passenger train. At Cajon, the concrete pads that once served as the
Foundation s for the railroad's station facilities and water tanks there still remain long after the buildings that were atop them have been removed. Not all of the track through Cajon Pass is in its original 1885 location. The Santa Fe made a few realignments of track through the pass during the 20th century to straighten some curves along
Cajon Creek (between Cajon and San Bernardino), lower gradients for eastbound trains with the addition of a separate track through what has come to be known as
Sullivan's Curve , and to reduce some curvatures and lower the pass's overall summit elevation by 50
Ft (15
M ).
The maintenance shops in San Bernardino are still in use by BNSF Railway, although not to the extent that they were used in the 20th century. The
San Bernardino Station that was opened by the California Southern was destroyed by fire on
November 16 1916 .
7 It was replaced in 1918
8 by the Santa Fe with the current structure that now serves
Metrolink 's
San Bernardino Line commuter trains on runs that terminate at
Los Angeles Union Station . Limited service from San Bernardino to Riverside is provided by some San Bernardino Line trains, and the
Metrolink Riverside Line terminates at the Riverside station although it reaches the station via a more southerly route. South of Riverside, the track is still in place to Perris, where the
Orange Empire Railway Museum resides with a connection to the mainline.
'' train in 2005 at
Carlsbad , south of Oceanside.]]
At the southern end, the section between San Diego and Oceanside also sees heavy use by
Amtrak California 's ''
Pacific Surfliner '' trains as well as those of the
San Diego Coaster . As part of the Santa Fe's rail network, it was part of what has come to be known as the
Surf Line ; as of January 2006, this line is the second busiest passenger rail line in the United States.
9
Although San Diego's
Union Station replaced the railroad's original station there in 1915, the California Southern's
Station And Office Building in National City has been preserved and is listed on the
National Register Of Historic Places .
10
;General
;Specific
