(rshsdepot) San Bernardino, CA

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From the Daily Bulletin.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Museum to open in old Santa Fe train depot
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer 

Article Created: 07/10/2008 09:30:42 PM PDT
 

SAN BERNARDINO - The Santa Fe Depot, one of the city's most historic  places, 
will now be a place preserving other elements of the town's past.  
The 90-year-old Moorish building - near BNSF Railway's busy train yard - is  
already the place where Metrolink travelers climb on and off commuter trains 
and  where San Bernardino Associated Governments officials go to work. 
 
A new museum dedicated to San Bernardino and the industry that the city was  
built upon will open at the historic site on Saturday. 
 
"From early on it was a major city. It was probably more well-known then  
than it is now," said Steven Shaw, president of the San Bernardino Historical  & 
Pioneer Society. 
 
Shaw uttered those words Thursday while standing before an 1887 lithograph  
that shows how San Bernardino looked more than 120 years ago. 
 
A map showed that lands north of Base Line had yet to be developed, and  that 
image was ringed with depictions of Victorian homes and other buildings -  
including an opera house - that no longer exist. 
 
Ever stricter seismic regulations are but one reason those buildings have  
disappeared, Shaw said. He said the opera house, which once stood downtown, fell 
 to make way for Court Street. 
 
The San Bernardino History and Railroad Museum at the depot at least gives  
the memories of those buildings a place to live on. 
 

But many of the exhibits that have already been set up at the depot are  much 
more real than an artist's rendition of old San Bernardino. 

The museum houses railroad memorabilia, horse-drawn firefighting  equipment 
and other relics from San Bernardino's past inside what was once the  depot's 
baggage room. 
 
"All of this stuff goes way back to the 1930s, even earlier than that,"  said 
Don Sheets of San Bernardino, a former railroad conductor who is now a  
member of the San Bernardino Historical & Pioneer Society. 
 
Sheets, 78, said his own railroad career began in 1944 when he was a  
15-year-old chainman on a land survey team. 
 
The train memorabilia includes lanterns, oil cans, rail lines'  
advertisements and a flagman's kit that includes railway torpedoes. 
 
The torpedoes, Sheets explained, could be affixed to rails. When a train  
rolled over the torpedoes, they exploded, signaling the engineer that there was  
a problem ahead. 
 
There's also an issue of the "San Bernardino Evening Telegram" dated March  
12, 1925, with a lead story about a train being held up near Los Angeles. That  
article ran above a story headlined "Coolidge defying Senate." 
 
The museum's grand opening is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at  
the depot, 1170 W. Third St. 



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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1753
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org