Southern Pacific Lines Coast Line Division “The Route of the Octopus”

Southern Pacific Lines

Coast Line Division

“The Route of the Octopus”

General Information

Building a Reference Library

Building a map and magazine reference library. What sites and magazines that are on a "must have" list.
Here's a few book suggestions below

S.P. Archive Institutions

The Calif. State Railroad Museum Library

Plans

To get a copy of a plan that the Calif. State RR Museum Library has, you send them a deposit, they have the copy made and then send you the bill for the remainder amount. After they get the payment, they will mail you the copy of the plan.
The deposit used to be $7.50 but it may be more today. Call or write the library for up-to-date details.
A typical SP station plan for a yard will probably be 2 feet wide by 10 or more feet long. Copies this size can be sort of expensive. If you want only a small area of a station plan copied (such as the tracks around the Colton roundhouse), you might ask them if they can do this on their regular library copying machine (go for the full-size plan).
John Sweetser

The City of Los Angeles Harbor Dept.

An extensive archive of images all around San Pedro.

Henry Bender Jr Collection

The Henry Bender Jr collection has information, drawings, etc of depots and rolling stock etc. including a lot of Julian Cavalier drawings. Including a lot of California SP stuff. The collection is still in the hands of Mr. Bender. If you want to contact him directly, let me know off line and I will forward your message to Henry.
Tony Thompson

JSTOR for SP research

The JSTOR is a repository of published articles. Go to The JSTOR page at Wikipedia and then to the bottom of the
page. Click on the participating institutions and the US list. It will list all the institutions who have access and one may be close
to home. Individual subscriptions appear not to be encouraged and buying single items is really expensive.
Ray State

L.A. City Library

Oviatt Library Digital Archives

http://digitallibrary.csun.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/SFVH&CISOBOX1=Southern+Pacific+Railroad+Company

San Luis Obispo Tribune Archives

http://sloblogs.thetribunenews.com/slovault/?s=southern+pacific

SPH&TS Archive (Sherman Library)

Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society is proud to announce that the archive catalog for the Sherman Library (located in Corona del Mar, CA) is now available online.
Please visit http://www.sphts.org/sherman/index.php
David Coscia
SPH&TS Archive Director

UCLA Digital Archives

USC Auto Club Archives

They have a lot of pictures of grade crossings.

USC Digital Archives

The Special Collections Department of the University of Nevada, Reno

The Special Collections Department of the University of Nevada, Reno is pleased to announce the experimental expansion of its service hours.
For examples of the types of manuscript collections that might be of interest to RR historians, I am including a few sample searches:
Railway*: http://innopac.library.unr.edu/search/X?SEARCH=railway&SORT=D&m=t&m=p&b=us
Railroad*: http://innopac.library.unr.edu/search/X?SEARCH=railroad*&SORT=D&m=t&m=p&b=us

S.P. Related Web Sites

The Calif. State Railroad Museum Library

Railroad Technical Drawings

The Calif. State Railroad Museum Library has railroad technical drawings online. I used to be able to go to their "basic search screen for technical drawings" from the museum's regular website but I can't do that anymore, at least not from my computer, so I now use a more round-about method.
I do an internet search using the terms "basic search drawings calif. railroad," which gives me a list of sites that usually has the library's "basic search screen for technical drawings" at the top.
Once I'm there, I type "Southern Pacific" in the corporate name box and the subject in the description box (location names can be typed either in the description box or in the location box).
John Sweetser

Historic Amateur Film Footage

California State Railroad Museum (through its Library-Archive) is gradually transcribing select historic amateur film footage in its collections to digital formats and placing those online through the Internet Archive. All films were donated by railfans or their estates and are entirely worthy of whatever forms of deliberate preservation.
A recent sampling (all original flaws included) are here. 99% of these are SP subjects in California from the late 1950s. While the flaws remain present, the unedited footage remains worth looking at if only because of so much of what's visible is now very altered and nearly unrecognizable. Only the vistas surrounding the SF-O Bay Bridge seem similar, although the splendid Espee steam ferries and tramp freighters headed for the Golden Gate and beyond are also only memories.
Kevin Bunker

https://archive.org/details/cscrm_00003

Early PMT operations: https://archive.org/details/cscrm_00005

https://archive.org/details/cscrm_00007

https://archive.org/details/cscrm_00008

John Huey

Fallen Flags Website

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/

Historic Aerials Website

The 1947ish topo map shows rises 20+ ft tall NE of the SP

http://historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=0.0001&lat=36.726&lon=-121.727&year=T1948

KCET Public Television

KCET page with photos of Commercial Street, River Street, Arcade, and Central Station depots:
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-as-subject/lost-train-depots-of-los-angeles.html
http://tinyurl.com/los-angeles-depots
One of the comments has a link to "Silent Cameos of the lost Southern Pacific Depot" with some additional photos:
http://silentlocations.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/silent-cameos-of-the-lost-southern-pacific-depot
http://tinyurl.com/silentfilmatcentralstation
Robert Simpson

Lee Gautreaux’s SP/SSW freight car resource

http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/

Minerva Classics

http://www.minervaclassics.com/railroad/railroad.htm#espee

Rail Car Photos

The site tends to mostly focus on 1960 to present day cars, based on submissions by subscribers

http://www.railcarphotos.com/Search.php

Richard Percy’s Espee Modelers Homepage

http://espee.railfan.net/espee.html

Railroad Pictures Archive

It is limited in the amount of information you get on freight cars

www.RRPictureachives.net

Smithsonian Film Library

SPH&TS Website

You might want to start your online search here, as it has links to many other sites which you can use for research. To get to the "members" section of the SPH&TS site you need to get a password from the newsletter.
http://www.sphts.org/members/
Gene Deimling

SPH&TS "Trainline” Index, 2012 Edition

2012 edition of the index of the SPH&TS periodical "Trainline", entitled SPTL Index Mar 2012.pdf, has been posted. This searchable index covers all issues except No. 59, through issue No. 110.
Bill Baker

SPH&TS SP Web Resources

http://sphts.org/pmcclosky/spwebresources.html
P. McCloskey

Southern Pacific Modelers Society

Note that the original URL Southern Pacific Modelers Society • Index page
http://www.southernpacificmodelerssociety.org/index.php
New site: http://southernpacificmodelerssociety.freeforums.org/

Detailing & Weathering Tips, Techniques & Questions This section is where members can post general questions and share and show off their Super Detailing and Weathering Techniques.

Stock Movie Footage

SP in Glendale/Burbank/SFV

The link below will take you to stock footage (35mm, B&W) of night scenes shot by Columbia Pictures for the Rita Hayworth film "Down to Earth" on April 17, 1946. http://archive.org/details/PET0981_R-5
Apparently this footage was shot from a moving SP train starting in Glendale and proceeding at least as far as Van Nuys from what I can tell. There are plenty of lineside industries and some auto traffic on San Fernando Rd. The video available runs a little over 11 minutes, and it might be fun to try to pick out locations. There are no opposing movements, but there are freight cars spotted on various sidings/spurs.
Jerry Joseph

SP in Los Angeles

Just found this video on YouTube part of a series posted under the name Lost Los Angeles. (Maybe a public tv show, maybe another? some are from Getty Images) This one has a Daylight pulling what may be the Lark and followed by a Cab-Ahead pulling maybe the Owl?? It appears to be Glendale from the overhead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taovw_NVftU&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snBWI4buEi8&feature=channel&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc-x7Blf_SA&feature=relmfu

John Gillette

The Atonnas

http://theatonnas.com/Douglasinthe1950s.htm
Tim O'Connor

UNLV Resource: Southern Nevada - the Boomtown Years

University of Las Vegas "Southern Nevada - the Boomtown Years"
http://digital.library.unlv.edu/boomtown/
A few SP-related items:
SD&AE diagram book...
SP cars loading at Tonopah - 1904

S.P. Related Maps, Aerial Photos, etc.

Aerial Images

Fairchild Aerial Photos

They are safe now but were not originally in the hands of UCLA, Whittier College and others.
Read this to find out more: http://www.ucla.edu/spotlight/archive/html_2002_2003/prgm0802_airphoto.html

GoogleMaps

You can also use GoogleMaps or any of the more recent color photomap services, however a lot of the old rights-of-way have been 'erased' by modern developments and hence don't appear in the up-to-date GoogleMaps while they do appear in the older USAPhotomaps.
Eric Berman

Sanborn Maps

Sanborn Map Company's historic fire insurance maps are treasure troves for modelers and historians. The Sanborn maps are digitized by the Library of Congress and come in black & white online. A great many are online. If you use the maps for private, personal enjoyment (which model railroading and railfanning certainly qualify as) and do not publish them, etc., you can download and enjoy to your heart's content.
Kevin Bunker

If you know a specific locale (e.g., Huntington Beach, Napa, etc.) and era, then you can use Sanborn maps, which are available for free, on-line from the San Jose Public Library. Sanborn maps sometimes show all trackage at a specific locale (e.g., a small town) while at other times they show partial trackage (e.g., where a large yard or terminal is concerned). A great thing about Sanborn maps is that they provide accurate "photos in time" of how a particular locale was developed including naming/locating the local trackside industries served by the various RR's.
http://sanborn.umi.com
http://sanborn.umi.com/splash.html
http://sanborn.umi.com.ezproxy.sfpl.org/HelpFiles/about.html

Downloading Sanborn Maps

All you need is ID showing you are a California resident and show up in person at any branch of the libraries mentioned below.
Bruce Morden

You must be a CA resident to get an Los Angeles Public Library card. You can apply online but you must pick it up in person.
J. Lancaster

Actually anyone who shows up can get a library card for the San Jose public library. I did so last year as a Massachusetts citizen. And yes it does work for the online resources.
Ken Harstine
Once you've got your card, then you can access the Sanborn maps on-line by inputting your name and library card #.
The Sanborn site as described below doesn't work like it used to. The best way to get the map(s) you need to down is to:
(1) double left-click on the specific map,
(2) left-click on the largest box on 'Select Window Size for Viewing"
(3) left-click on the menu tab 'Download Map',
(4) left-click on "Save a Copy", then save it to a suitable folder on your hard drive.

The username and password is "Proquest" and "Welcome" up until just a few days ago.
Ron Wilson

Any online access to SJPL's Sanborns goes to registered library patrons only. This is a change from the earlier wide-open policy. Any California resident can get a library card for any public library in California (with a few exceptions).
Tony Thompson

Sanborn Map Access by Library

Californians equipped with a San Francisco Public Library card can have online access to the California maps created by Sanborn.

The Los Angeles Public Library now has Sanborn maps online for ALL states.
The San Jose Public Library website contains Sanborn maps for the State of California, only.

Seattle Public Library has them, if you reside in the Puget Sound area (King, Pierce, Snohomish counties) you can get a Seattle card.
Richard Wilkens

Sanborn Map Research

I am offering copies of Sanborn Maps to those who are interested. Write me back *OFF-LINE* and I will discuss this further with you. In your e-mail header, please put "Espee List -- Sanborn Maps Wanted". I will seek a nominal research fee to justify my time and expenses. You must have Adobe PDF reader to review the maps. Please be specific in your request. I will tell you what years are available for a city you inquire about. But while the SP through Colfax is 3 map pages and published for 4 different years (1898, 1907, 1910, and 1930), Los Angeles is sprawling and over several additional years. Be specific in your request. The maps were generally only made for towns and cities. There are no maps for just the railroad right of way, such as Emigrant Gap as there is nothing insurable there.
Personally, I have in my collection all Sanborn Maps published between Roseville and Truckee on the SP as well as several other locations on the SP of interest to me. The listing of businesses and types of facilities bordering the SP right of way is a historical and modeling boon for me.
Chris Coscia

Topo maps

If you're after online topos, try: http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm

USAPhotomaps

Rather than GoogleEarth, you might want to try USAPhotomaps. USAPhotomaps images are older (on average by 10-15 years) than GoogleEarth. The B&W aerial photos date from the early 1990's, and often show the remaining 'traces' of old PE and SN rights-of-way. USAPhotomaps is a freeware service, however you might want to pay a little money and get the premium software upgrade as it allows you to navigate/search much more easily. While USAPhotomaps won't take you clear back to those wonderful halcyon days gone by, you can generally see a lot more and get a lot 'closer' to what you want.

USGS Topo Maps

You can find many great, old maps showing the location of old yards, industries and sidings for standard gauge trains as well as many logging and sugar cane narrow gauge lines.

Types

These USGS topographic "quad" maps, are very helpful, especially the 7.5' series. Many older 7.5 & # x27’s are available, but at 1:31680 instead of 1:24000. The 15' maps seem to be the oldest. At a given point the oldest 7.5-minute map (1:24000 scale) may be 1960s or 1970s but the 15-min map (usually 1:62500) might be 1950s or older. It is possible to maps dating back to pre-WW1.

Their web site allows you to search for and download these maps in pdf format for free.
See the following: www.geonames.usgs.gov/pls/topomaps/
http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/topomaps/f?p=262:1:2716425749402237

The USGS says the maps are in the public domain and can be copied freely. If you download them to jpg files they can be printed. I used Costco to print 20x30 poster prints of some of the older SF Eastbay Maps showing the mole, no bay bridge , no freeways etc.
Dave Potter

Historic Topos and Photos

The following resource is valuable to anyone seeking historic ground truth. Here are two ways to find the historic topos and photos:
The first is a graphical interface, the second allows you to search by map name.
http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/usgs/maplocator/(ctype=areaDetails&xcm=r3standardpitrex_prd&carea=%24ROOT&layout=6_1_61_48&uiarea=2)/.do
http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/topomaps/f?p=262:1:2044866786347928
Aerials are on a THIRD USGS site: http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
John Barry

Finding Places

As far as the naming convention, which maps were named what, changed over time. Use trial and error using googlemaps or mapquest to figure out where you are and go from there. Try using place names of towns nearby. Down at the bottom of the page is a locator which gives the names of the sheets adjacent.
Lee A. Gautreaux
Start at http://store.usgs.gov
Click on "Map Locator and Downloader"
Click on "Mark Points"
and zoom in on the area you're interested in. The map grid (with names for each map) is superimposed; hopefully names for the 15-minute-by-15-minute maps will appear as well as the 7.5-minute-by-7.5-minute maps.
Drew Jacksich

Modeling Using USGS Topo Maps

USGS maps are a terrific resource for an area you are modeling, and not only for track location. You get names of streams, hilltops, rural roads, etc. which you can use in naming layout features. Moreover, you get typical regional names which may be applied to businesses, which often have those same kind of geographic names. Of course, the actual industry names in your modeled area are preferable, but if in need of additional names, the topo map is a great resource. View this post in my blog at:

http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2013/03/layout-fascia-part-2-signage.html

Tony Thompson

Since the USGS 7.5" quadrangles scale is 1"=2000', there can't be much detail for RR tracks. In a yard they can only show 1 track for every 2-3 tracks. In dense switching areas they may only show every other track. Have seen that alot when comparing the USGS maps to the LAJ Switching Maps. The USGS maps can be used for the general layout of tracks but not for detail.
Andy Jackson

California Coast line Photos

http://www.californiacoastline.org

This is a website that has overlapping pictures of about 1/4 to 1/3 mile wide along the Central and Southern CA coast.....and if the tracks are near the water, you've got a ringside seat. These pictures are NOT overhead satellite, they are from a fixed wing or helicopter and so you see a good angle of each.
You can toggle each picture back and forth, and of course, enlarge them if needed. Most are pretty close to the tracks, so you can very easily tell the composition of the bridges, culverts, highway crossings, etc.
With a track chart, you can really check out old tunnel locations and such. Use this for modeling the coastal scenery. Great ideas for orchard placement, housing, oil facilities, piers, etc.
Pat Flynn
This site is a great resource. I printed out some of the pictures on a plotter a few years ago to use for scenery construction on my N scale coastline layout.
Charlie Burns

Track Level Scenery

A great site for track level scenery views is www.redoveryellow.com
Charlie Burns

American Rails Maps

A collection of major RR line maps are found here. No years specified, not to the same scale, and lots of problems (check out GN, or the location of Phoenix or the lines east of L.A. on the SP map)
http://www.american-rails.com/fallen-flags.html

North American Railway Map

Available from http://www.railroadmap.com/products_narrmap.html
http://www.railwaystation.com/products.html
A start, but they have many problems and are not year-specific.
Rob Simpson

Mapping Rails Yahoo Group

They have the Pacific Electric (and LARy) lines on Google Earth in the files section.
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Mapping_Rails
Tom VanWormer
Co Moderator, Mapping Rails Group

And the group has done excellent work- truly above & beyond the call. Anyone interested in the SP/PE or southern California history should take a look it. Lots of great, detailed material there.
Rob Simpson
The Mapping_Rails group has just expanded their scope to officially cover *all railroads* in California, not just Pacific Electric & Los Angeles Railway. They've strayed off the electric reservation now and then already, especially in covering SP's long-forgotten Duarte Branch, which one of the group moderators has adopted as his own,
http://harrymarnell.net/sgvrt.htm
Paul Jackson

The Calif. State Railroad Museum Library

The Calif. State Railroad Museum Library has maps of SP's Southern California facilities include the map room of the L.A. County surveyor's office (assuming there is such a thing) or the equivalent at the City of Los Angeles city engineer's office.
John Sweetser

Southern Pacific’s Abandoned Rails

This site maps and discusses abandoned SP trackage and where they are today. Quite interesting.
http://www.abandonedrails.com/Southern_Pacific_Railroad
Chris

Southern Pacific Division Maps

You can download and print Southern Pacific Division maps here.

http://focalplane.com/EssPee%20Maps/EsspeeThumbnails.html

Steve Harrington

Magazines Relating to the S.P.

SP Bulletin on-line

Here are links to some Southern Pacific BULLETIN articles from the Sacramento History Online archives:

Note that these are not complete versions of the SP BULLETIN.
Enzo Fortuna
Several complete editions of the "Southern Pacific Bulletin" are available on line through Google. Just Google "Southern Pacific Bulletin" (naturally!) and a wealth of information is there for the reading. Even recommended books for the SP mag. to read in the 1920s straight from the SP Librarian.
Chris Coscia

Complete volumes of the Southern Pacific Bulletin (Pacific Lines) for 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1921 are available on line from Google Books and may be downloaded as PDF files. Access Google Books http://books.google.com/books and enter search words Southern Pacific Bulletin. There are two files with full view, each with two years of the Bulletin.
Dave Bernstein

FREIGHT CARS JOURNAL

This was published between 1983 and 2002. There is a lot of good information, with drawings and photographs, in this publication.
This publication has been scanned and is available on-line at: http://dgcasdor.ipower.com/dgcasdorph/id10.html
An index is available at: http://home.wtal.de/gueterwagen/fcj-cont.htm

Life Magazine

Do a Google image search for "railroad source:life" (by specifying the source:life you're telling Google to search only the special Life magazine photo collection).
Tim O'Connor

Railway Age Magazine

Seattle Public Library has it in a bound version.
Richard Wilkens

SPH&TS Trainline

Index of Trainline

I have posted a file entitled "SPTL Index 9-20-10", an index of the SPH&TS periodical Trainline in the files section in a folder named "Pengrapass". This index includes all issues of the Trainline except for Issue No. 59. currently out of print at the Society.
This index has been extracted as an Excel file from my much larger MS Access-based index of railroad-related periodicals. As such it is organized according to categories functional in my point of view as a modeler and rail fan. However, by far the largest category in this extract is "Prototype"; that which is difficult to define by other categorizations winds-up here. Also, this index lists Trainline issues by month and year, an arbitrary designation assigned by me after much research because my index requires a cover date. Most commercial publications (the foundation of my index) specify a "cover date"; the Trainline designates an "Issue No." on the cover. In this index the issue number is specified for every reference in the "Comments" column as the very first entry. I have a separate Excel file showing the relationship of issue number to cover date available to anyone who desires it.
What's in it? Articles (including commentaries and news items) and stand-alone graphics are included in the index. Graphics (photos, maps, rosters, posters, etc.) that are illustrated within the body of an article are not listed in the index (there are a few selected exceptions). Also, generally excluded are letters to the editor (Mail Bag).
This index no doubt contains errors of every conceivable type. Corrections will be gratefully received! I hope that many readers will find this index useful!
Bill Baker

My own version of what was once on the SPH&TS website, covering Issues 1-90, is available here:
http://coastdaylight.com/trainline_contents_1-90.html
Jim Lancaster

Sunset Magazine

Complete volumes of the Sunset Magazines from 1898 to 1915 (published by Southern Pacific) are available on line from Google Books and may be downloaded as PDF files. Access Google Books http://books.google.com/books and enter search word Sunset. There are two files with full view, each with two years of the Bulletin.
Dave Bernstein

A full copy of Stuart Daggett's 1922 book "Chapters on the History of the Southern Pacific" may also be downloaded from Google Books.
Dave Bernstein

Trains Magazine

Surf - 2008 by John Roskowski

General Information
Building a Reference Library

S.P. Related Maps, Aerial
Photos, etc.

Mags Relating to the S.P.