Loading and Unloading Only
Jack Finn Collection
Pacific Electric freight locomotive no. 1622 pauses next to an elevated loading dock at Santa Anita Race Track on the Northern District while pulling a string of horse cars.
Modified based on comments
Jack Finn Collection
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This unloading location was Santa Anita Racetrack, you will note that the “baggage” cars are in reality horse baggage cars. Stables are located behind locomotive 1622. PE handled both horsecars from the S.P. and the Santa Fe. The horsecar shown in the photo is an S.P. car, with horsecars distinguished by their three doors.
I remember the racetrack freight-only spur. It diverged from the main line west of Holly Ave. One of the poles about 100 feet from the south fence had a knife switch which was normally open, de-energizing the overhead into the stable area. Race track stables are notorious fire-hazard area, so the wires would be “hot” only when there was switching to be done. The only time I saw any activity here was after diesels became the common motive power, so the switch remained open while a Baldwin VO-1000 did the work. My mother, brother and I were out on an errand, and I talked Mama into stopping so we could watch. A man from the railway gave us Southern Pacific sew-on patches; I still have mine. Note that OERM has a Santa Fe horse express car and PE freight motor 1624, a mate to 1622.
Also, it should be noted that this is in the Northern District.
After the PE line was abandoned in 1951, the “hayburners” were unloaded at the Santa Fe Santa Anita station on the north side of Colorado Blvd and trucked to the stables. Not sure when horse express shipments by rail ended, but Santa Fe was hauling the horses as late as 1970.