San Bernardino Sun: Rail rivals ripped out new lines

Couple of cool stories in the San Bernardino Sun this morning. The first — “Rail rivals ripped out new lines” — is a fascinating look back at a conflict between the Pacific Electric and Santa Fe railroad companies in 1913:

The Pacific Electric was building a rail line from Upland to San Bernardino setting up an electric passenger and freight system across the region. At the same time, the Santa Fe was putting in spur tracks off its main line that several times crossed the P.E. right-of-way.

When two rail lines crossed each other at that time, the company putting in the second track was forced to go to the expense (perhaps several thousand dollars - a tremendous sum in those days) of either putting a bridge over the first line or installing and maintaining additional equipment.

I’m envisioning an old cartoon with two sets of tracks converging on each other in fast motion.

One evening in June, its crews in Alta Loma reached a place where the Santa Fe had just installed track across the P.E. right-of-way.

“The Santa Fe at 10 o’clock Wednesday evening drove its last spike at the crossing at Alta Loma and the construction gang shouted defiance at the workmen of the Pacific Electric company,” wrote the Ontario Daily Report two days later, on June 13, 1913.

Naturally, the P.E. crew did the most logical thing at that point. When the Santa Fe left, they pulled up its rails, tossed the equipment aside and continued building their own tracks. Problem solved, at least as far as the Pacific Electric was concerned.

That was only the first of the summer’s battles.