Southern Pacific Railroad Depot Destroyed
September 1, 2009 – 1:48 am
The people who love trains love everything about them, the history, the stories, the memorabilia. The folks who run railroads, not so sentimental.
At one time the Southern Pacific was San Luis Obispo’s leading industry. It was literally and figuratively the engine that drove the area’s growth for decades after it arrived in 1894.
Almost 80 years later the depot had to go. By the 1970’s the automobile whittled down the importance of rail traffic. Even the newspaper that lobbied for then lauded the arrival of the iron horse could not be bothered to give the story more than the corner of an inside section. As railroad employees watched a 25-ton-loader bit into the historic depot building reducing it to scraps. The old depot stood just south of the current building.
According to the historian interviewed at the time, Louisiana Clayton Dart, at the peak six or seven passenger trains arrived daily in addition to the freights. Hundreds of employees collected Southern Pacific paychecks. Today the Pacific Surfliner and Coast Starlight are the passenger trains serving San Luis Obispo.
Old SP depot at end of the line
By Jack Magee
Staff WriterSan Luis Obispo’s old Southern Pacific Railroad depot is being moved to a new location–the county dump off of Edna Road.
It was smashed into kindling Thursday afternoon, to be replaced–ironically–by a parking lot for automobiles.
Asked if there had been any effort to preserve the frame and stucco building, Mrs. Louisiana Clayton Dart, curator of the county historical museum said “Not that I know of.”
“I knew it was for sale and if not sold was to be wrecked.,” Mrs. Dart went on.
The old wood depot was built shortly after the first train came and was one of four bungalow type buildings with wings added later. According to then depot communications manager Sammie A. Free efforts to convert the building to restaurant fell through because of high insurance rates. The building had a waiting room and ticket office heated by a coal stove but the building had sat vacant for at least three years. The small depot from the burned down Ramona Hotel was moved to the Dallidet Adobe grounds.
The current depot was built in 1941 or 1943 (my sources don’t agree) and has been remodeled at least once.
The town got sentimental about the railroad and created a special historical district after most of the landmarks were demolished. Original depot, gone. Roundhouse, gone. Turntable, gone all at the behest of the Southern Pacific. They were a little slower removing underground relics. When a new housing development was located over a former oil bunker the red faced company had to clean up the property they had sold to a developer.
The only original example of the original type of depot remaining in the county is in Oceano. Paso Robles remodeled their building in a more updated style but at least they did not send the whole building to the dump.
Train fans have something to look forward to The first Central Coast Railroad Festival is scheduled for October 8-12, 2009. Organizers want to make this an annual event. There will be a few rail related posts over the weeks leading up to the event.
Photo by Wayne Nicholls
13 Responses to “Southern Pacific Railroad Depot Destroyed”
Im sure others who know the history better than me can elaborate on this David, but the number of trains passing through SLO daily during WWII reached into the low to mid twenties, such was the crush of wartime freight and passenger traffic. Almost unimaginable with nearly everything now traveling by car or truck. It was, in the main, THE method of travel for the majority of the populace during that period. Airline service was the province of only the very rich, and car travel was restricted by gasoline rationing. Buses and trucks were available for cross country travel and shipping, but limited in scope. and the interstate highway system was still a gleam in Eisenhowers eye. Certainly a much different world than the one we now live in.
Joe
By Joe Dunlap on Sep 1, 2009
The new station was built in 1941. Along with the new station in Salinas, they were the last stations built by the SP until WWII had finished. At that time also, the grade was signalized with the control centralized in the new station in SLO, which allowed many more trains to move over the tracks in both directions than was before possible using the old track warrant method. At the time of its construction, the new station’s breezeway was the full length of the pylons that now are half the length that once they were because of an addition put in by SP for the crews to record their time on computers and such. The old baggage building, which once sat alone is now used as a locker room for those same crews. The freight yard was decommissioned in 1970. And as I remember without looking at my book, which is in the car at the moment, as many as 50 trains within a 24-hour period was standard fare for the grade, many of them passenger trains, especially after the war ended and everybody wanted to return home.
Ah, the days when I wish I had lived!
By Steven Lester on Sep 2, 2009
From what I understand, the turntable was removed basically overnight without anybody even notifying the city, because SP could do what they wanted and the city was helpless to stop them, anymore than the city could control what speed the railroad ran their trains through their borders. One Saturday, there it was. On Monday, it was gone and the pit filled up with dirt.
By Steven Lester on Sep 2, 2009
how come some things get destroyed that are old and been around a long time, and other things are not? who decides what is significant and what isn’t? makes me awfully sad to remember this old place being torn down. i wish we could save all the old stuff.
By nancy on Sep 2, 2009
I can still remember the “sounds & smells” of that old building, particularly the portion termed the “yard office.” That was where my father would check in or out for and from work on one of SP’s freight trains. Many was the time I was there to drop him off or pick him up if one of our cars was being serviced.
By John Tiffin on Sep 2, 2009
Pretty sad. The same fate would have befallen the historic Oceano Train Depot if it hadn’t been for Linda Austin’s father, Harold Guiton, and his fellow train buffs.
By Sarah on Sep 2, 2009
Nancy, some people call it “progress”. I call it a shame.
By SSG David Medzyk on Sep 2, 2009
When visiting my grandmother in SLO on weekends during the 50’s, my brother and I were usually treated with a ride to the station after church, where we’d sit and wait a few minutes, hoping to see either a passenger or freight train rumble by. Sorry, but I can’t remember any details and don’t have an exciting incident to report.
Thanks for this memory, David.
By Dave Skinner on Sep 3, 2009
David – The following excerpt is from an Our Town San Luis Obispo show broadcast on KVEC on 28 January 1992:
Situated little more than 100 feet north of the old depot, actual work on the project began in the summer of 1942, when a centralized traffic control system was implemented. This was followed by site work, specifically the macadamizing of runways bordering the depot tracks. Before depot construction actually began, more site work took place—tree removal and the razing of the building housing the assistant superintendent and trainmaster.
In January 1943, with all necessary wartime priorities in-pocket, the construction company of Mr. Theodore Maino erected temporary offices and work commenced on the $50,000 structure at the corner of Santa Rosa Street and Railroad Avenue.
By Bill Cattaneo on Sep 4, 2009
Back in the Hearst heyday, the SLO station was the place where many celebs arrived, a taxi cab sent by Hearst awaiting their arrival.
I love the whole area around the train station. One of my favorite places in the county.
By Pat on Sep 4, 2009
Well, I did tell you that I was operating from memory, not from the book that in my car. It was 1943. I’m a fool and I will never write in the blog again.
By Steven Lester on Sep 5, 2009
Thanks everyone for the comments. One of the things I enjoy about the internet media is the interactive way we can rediscover, share and confirm information. So many of you have pieces of the story to add to the puzzle. Often readers also have the proverbial picture on the puzzle box, with first hand information to add to the story.
Steven, banishment is reserved on this blog for the commenters who can’t be civil. Honest mistakes are absolved, especially upon correction.
By David Middlecamp on Sep 5, 2009
There is still one very old original SP building in the San Luis Obispo Historic Railroad District that was not mentioned in David’s article — it’s the 1894 (that makes it 115 years old) Southern Pacific Freighthouse which will soon be a railroad museum in a joint project with the City of San Luis Obispo and San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum. Articles and photos of this historic building are in many issues of the SLO Railroad Museum Newsletter (http://www.slorrm.com) but two with considerable information about the freighthouse are http://www.slorrm.com/media/coast_mail_v10n1.pdf and http://www.slorrm.com/media/coast_mail_v5n2.pdf .
By Gary See on Sep 7, 2009