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great vid! Just do 2 things 1. Invest in a track cleaner 2. invest in a wheel cleaner Originally posted by microbusss - April 21 2013 :  11:07:03 AM

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By the end of world war II PE began a shift from interurban to local freight. with the assistance of a now former POW Hans Bahnweller, PE began a radical and aggresive campaign to woo customers for on time freight delivery. Part of the plan was to strategecally station locomotives at various yards. As demand grew, especially with the housing boom of the 1950's the smaller yards, such as Irwindale, Upland and San Bernardino for the Baldwin Park branch, Santa Ana, Stanton and Westminster for the Orange county branch and Morada Street for the New Havana branch (which was called Rockford untill 1965) became mini terminals. Focusing on Morada street, until 1974 the actual engine terminal was located in Esquina which is now the location of the Soutwestern rail museum, 2 miles from Morada street. Until 1962, when the wire was removed and interurban service discontinued a 1600 series steeplecab, and an interurban were located there. this was sufficent power for the winery, the Dr. Pepper bottling company, Clemintine rock (which had it's own locomotive) and the team track in New Havana. From 1974 until 1982, Esquina housed a lone SW-1 and on occasion Conrock's 0-8-0. By 1982 a "new" freight boom in the guise of intermodal traffic occured, and it was decided by management that the ailing Esquina facility was too far and outdated tokeep up with the daily, if not hourly needs of TOFC. Ground was broken in December of 1982 and by March the next year the Morada street facility was operational. Capable of storing 8 locomotives at any time with on site fueling and sanding, running repars with a pit (something the old facility did not have) and an on site car repair shop, "Mouse" was boasted as the most modern facility in the Pacific Electric system.

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The intermodal boom though was short lived, as the bigger railroads took more and more of the TOFC traffic. By 1989 the west end intermodal facility was closed, and the car shops wer sublet to James Cooter, a former employee of S&S salvage. In 1991, another former employee of S&S, Julio Ramirez began a fledgling business of converting containers into homes and portable offices, needing both more land than his backyard and more needs of transportation, he leased half of the PE west end intermodal yard as a test of both recieving containers and housing supplies by rail. This sort of entrepreneurship has been both benificial to the railroad, as well as Ramirez.