Renovated depot in Kingman opens this spring

February open house will mark end of decade in red tape limbo

Dusty footprints still spread across the floor of the newly-renovated Kingman Train Depot Thursday morning. The depot will be turned over to Amtrak in early spring, which will then add the finishing touches on its new waiting room there, including furniture. (JC AMBERLYN/Miner)

James Chilton
Kingman Daily Miner

KINGMAN - Renovation work on the historic Kingman Train Depot was completed late last year, but it may still be several months before Amtrak customers can expect to utilize the facility.

According to Kingman Public Works Projects Manager Kyle Taylor, the city is currently waiting for Amtrak to move into the structure, something he said isn't likely to happen until spring.

"The city doesn't have control over that, but I did speak to Amtrak (Wednesday) and they're looking to hopefully put some of their equipment in there in March or April," Taylor said. "It wouldn't be until after that that it would open up to Amtrak passengers."

The 103-year-old train depot had been in limbo for nearly a decade while the city wrangled with various governmental agencies to get the proper clearance for the project, which only got underway last summer. The rehabilitation, which was made possible through a $600,000 grant from the Arizona Department of Transportation, has seen the construction of a new platform, new exterior and interior work, and the creation of a space that has been set aside for use as a railroad museum - an appropriate

move given the city's namesake Lewis Kingman, who performed survey work for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad.

"It's basically the eastern half of the building is the museum and the western half is Amtrak," Taylor said. "There's two rooms on Amtrak's side. One room is going to be just a waiting room and the other part is going to be Amtrak's staff area."

Taylor said the exact details of who will run the museum and what objects will be featured there have yet to be decided. Public Works has taken proposals from both the Whistle Stop Railroad Club - a group of railroad hobbyists and former career employees - and the Mohave Museum of History and Arts. A final proposal for the museum is likely to come before the City Council for approval in the coming months.

In the meantime, however, Taylor said the city does plan to host a ribbon-cutting and open house for the newly-renovated train depot sometime in February, when members of the public will finally be able to get a glimpse at contractor T.R. Orr's interior handiwork.

"It'll be on a Saturday, probably the second or third Saturday I think," Taylor said. "Toward the latter part of February."

Trains connect many parts of San Bernardino history

Trackside of the original San Bernardino Santa Fe Depot, 1915.

The Press-Enterprise

For parts of the 200 years it's been a city, San Bernardino has been linked to rail lines.

Now, in the year it is celebrating its 200th year, organizers of the celebration say they will honor that history with Railroad Days, May 8-9. The 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. event takes place both days at the San Bernardino Depot, 1170 W. Third Street.

According a statement released about the event, Steve Shaw, president of the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society, and leader of the group organizing Railroad Days, "The railroads were crucial to San Bernardino. The first railroad arrived in San Bernardino in 1883, putting San Bernardino on the map. The city's population grew by leaps and bounds because of the railroads."

During the Bicentennial Railroad Days, the San Bernardino Depot will be open throughout the day. Steam locomotive Engine 3751, a fully operational locomotive, will pull historic railroad passenger cars, including one "dome car" during Railroad Days. For tickets of $85, or $105 for seats allowing views from the glass domed car and another special car.

Riders can either ride the special train pulled by Engine 3751 on its journey from Los Angeles on Saturday, May 8 or on its return to Los Angeles on Sunday, May 9. The ticket price also includes transportation in the opposite direction by Metrolink train.

"We will time Engine 3751's return to Los Angeles so that riders can spend the day in Los Angeles, perhaps checking out its historic Olvera Street, have dinner there, and return by Metrolink that night," Shaw said.

At the San Bernardino Depot during Railroad Days, there will also be historic photographic displays, model trains similar to those used in San Bernardino in the 19th and 20th centuries, and food and merchandise vendors. Admission is free.

The 1918 Moorish-style San Bernardino Depot was once one of the busiest train depots west of the Mississippi River because Santa Fe Railways used it as a transportation hub. As train travel decreased in the mid-20th century, the depot was shut down in 1972, said sponsors.

In 1992 the San Bernardino Associated Governments (transportation agency for all of San Bernardino County) bought and renovated the San Bernardino Depot, reopening it in 2004. One of the key attractions at the 2004 Grand Reopening, and again at this year's Railroad Days, will be Engine 3751.

This steam locomotive served Santa Fe Railways from the 1920s through the 1950s. Built in 1926, it was the first of the 484 series owned by Santa Fe Railways and was in active duty for about 30 years. In 1958, Santa Fe sold the locomotive to the city of San Bernardino. It was on public display at Viaduct Park until 1985, when the city sold it to the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society.

The San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society restored Engine 3751. Today it is a fully functioning locomotive, but only travels the rails on special occasions like Railroad Days. It is usually kept in storage in Los Angeles.

A Look Back: San Bernardino Depot once served 26 trains a day

The Santa Fe Depot in San Bernardino was once the largest train depot west of the Mississippi, employing 5000 people. (Special to The Press-Enterprise)

By NITA HILTNER
Special to The Press-Enterprise

Once, the Santa Fe Depot in San Bernardino was the largest train depot west of the Mississippi, employing 5,000 people and serving 26 trains per day. It was the first place train travelers to California saw before planes and cars replaced the train's popularity.

Today, the depot houses a train museum and the office of SANBAG (San Bernardino Associated Governments, the county's transportation agency). Only two trains, one at 5:30 a.m. and one at 8:30 p.m., stop to take on and let off passengers Monday through Friday. The depot stands as a monument to the building of San Bernardino, where so many of the passengers left the train and decided to make the city their new California home.

A boxcar served as the train depot until it was replaced in 1886 with a two-story wood Victorian-style building that was destroyed by fire in 1916. A new Spanish/Moorish style building with domes and towers and a tile roof was completed in 1918 at a cost of $800,000. The depot earned a reputation for its cleanliness, unlike the train stations in the east.

"The depot is such a big part of San Bernardino and the reason for the city's rapid growth," said Steve Shaw, president of the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society and a director of the San Bernardino History and Railroad Museum.

"At one point in 1886, the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe had a price war and the ticket price for both from the east coast to San Bernardino was a dollar," he said.

Shaw said by the 1920s and 1930s, San Bernardino was recognized as a major city in the U.S. mostly due to the railroad.

"Everyone knew where San Bernardino was," he said.

Shaw said that for a while, the train yards housed the largest maintenance yards for the trains west of Kansas City until the maintenance yards were moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s or 1970s. He said the depot and its yards, including a roundhouse to turn around trains, took up about five square miles and encompassed the area from 3rd to 5th Streets and from I St. west to Rancho Avenue.

Shaw said that in 1922, a large earthquake destroyed many buildings in San Bernardino, but the depot remained untouched, probably due to its hollow clay block construction.

"When you stand inside the depot and a train goes by, the building doesn't shake at all," he said.

The new 57,400-square-foot depot housed baggage rooms, offices, a mailroom and a Western Union office. The domes remained empty except for pigeons. When a $17 million restoration was done on the depot in the early 2000s, a huge amount of pigeon droppings and 300 pounds of honey were removed from the dome and walls of the station.

Most memorable to travelers was the Harvey House restaurant that served travelers 1,200 meals per day in the coffee shop and formal dining room. The Harvey House restaurants were built along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railways between the 1880s and 1930s. The Harvey Girls (waitresses) dressed in starched black uniforms with white cuffs and bibbed aprons and starched white caps to serve hot meals, sandwiches, coffee and baked goods. A movie was made about the Harvey Girls, starring Judy Garland.

"The Harvey Girls lived at the train station upstairs in seven to 12 rooms, two to a room. They had to sign a contract not to date or get married while they worked for the restaurant," said Shaw.

The Harvey House at the depot opened in 1921 and closed in the 1950s.

Trains traveling through the station bore such names as Super Chief, the Navajo, El Capitan, Scout, Grand Canyon Limited and the Chief. Today, only the Southwest Chief passes through the station heading east and west.

During World War II, troop trains passed through the station, and in the depot, it was often standing room only. Train travelers, be it movie star or president of the United States, passed through the station to come to California. Business grew up around the station including bars, boarding houses and restaurants such as The Pirate's Den and Cave Cafe and hotels such as the St. Augustine, the Maryland and the Planet.

In the 1960s, the rail industry began downsizing and Santa Fe turned its passengers over to Amtrak in 1972. Most of its workers were transferred to Topeka and its switching operations to Barstow in the San Bernardino County high desert. Today, the depot hosts the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway's intermodal freight transport yard, where freight from trains and trucks are loaded from one to the other. A few hundred yards from the depot is an outdoor station for Metrolink.

Shaw said the 10,000-square-foot San Bernardino Historical and Railroad Museum, housed in the depot and open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., is not open during the week because of Metrolink passenger need for the parking. He said a model train club may move into the depot, and he thinks that one day the Harvey House area could serve as a restaurant once again. There is a coffee bar currently in the depot, and across from it, a new supermarket and strip mall. Nearby, a parking structure for Metrolink will be built.

Though the train station's glory days are behind it, in 2007, Angelina Jolie filmed scenes at the depot for her movie The Changeling, thus bringing some new notoriety to the depot.

The History and Railroad Museum marks its arrival at the Santa Fe Depot in San Bernardino

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise






Stan Lim / The Press-Enterprise
At the new San Bernardino History and Railroad Museum, members of the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society, from left, Don Sheets, Glen Icamberry, Tom Marek and Steven Shaw bring in two track inspection cars used by the Santa Fe Railroad in 1948. The society will help operate the museum.

When the Santa Fe Depot opened in 1918, it became the bustling center of a growing city, providing jobs to many and serving as a vital transportation hub.

The depot was bustling again Saturday as a large crowd took in a glimpse of the city's past with the opening of the San Bernardino History and Railroad Museum, timed to coincide with the depot's 90th birthday.

The museum, in the former baggage-handling room at the west end of the depot, features railroad memorabilia, historical photographs, refurbished horse-drawn carriages and model railroad replicas.

The Redlands Fourth of July orchestra played music as the crowd -- a mix of history buffs and residents with ties to the depot -- toured the museum. Outside, a minivan-sized locomotive replica circled the parking lot, giving rides to children.

"I love trains and I love this station," said Jack Brennan, a Yucaipa resident who reminisced about riding Amtrak's El Capitan line to Chicago from the depot in the early 1950s when he was in high school.

The opening of the museum is the latest step to make the depot more accessible to the public since a $15.6 million restoration of the building four years ago. At that time, the city began a fundraising campaign to help with the project that included a chance to have people put their names on commemorative bricks at the depot.

The first of those bricks -- ranging from 4 by 4 four inches to 8 by 16 inches for donations between $75 to $500 -- were unveiled Saturday outside the southern entrance of the depot.

Joyce Miller, a San Bernardino resident for 65 years, posed besides the brick that she purchased with her husband and daughter in memory of her mother Bunny Sonnichsen.

"It's nice to come and see the different names of people you know and have been here for a long time," she said.

San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris said more improvements are planned for the depot, including a project to resurface the exterior of the building to eliminate cracks and landscape the parking lot. The city also hopes to bring back Santa Fe Engine 3751, an 80-year-old steam locomotive that was once based at the depot.

Morris jokingly made Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, raise his arm and pledge to help get funding to display the steam engine, a promise readily agreed to by Baca.

The San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society plans to have the museum open to the public Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Tehachapi residents remember the depot

BY JOE BOESEN
staff writer
Bakersfield Californian



Tehachapi Train Depot in 1904.


After 104 years of service, it only took hours for the Historic Tehachapi Train Depot to come crashing down.

The old structure was engulfed in flames after fireworks, lit off late at night, started the inferno.

The depot was the second. The first built in 1876 and burnt down in 1904.

However for more than a century, it stood in the center of Tehachapi, acting as its lifeline, especially in the early days before highways went through Tehachapi. The 1952 earthquake flattened many of the historic buildings in town, but failed to damage the depot. Even when passenger service stopped in 1971, the depot survived and transformed. It continued to be used as office space for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company.

It took only fireworks to burn down a part of Tehachapi history, erase a visible part of American railroad history and shake the core of Tehachapi downtown.

DEPOT MEMORIES

Lydia Wheat, moved to Tehachapi in 1925. She remembers the historic depot as “just the depot.” She would board trains there and head into east Bakersfield for lunch and shopping before returning to Tehachapi.

“In the 1940s it was the only transportation we had,” she said. To send mail, Wheat said she would go to the depot.

“You could run and give the letter to the conductor and they would see that it would get out,” she said. “It was pretty nice.”

Growing up across the street from railroad tracks, Wheat said trains used to pass through the depot every three or four minutes.

“The first couple of nights we moved to town, we could not sleep,” she said. “Now they do not bother me in the least.”

“I was very sad to see it go,” Wheat said of the now destroyed depot.

BEST PLACE TO PLAY

As the son of an alfalfa farmer, Ed Grimes would always accompany his dad on trips to downtown Tehachapi for supplies and equipment repairs. The train depot was always the best place to play.

“There were so many places to hide,” Grimes said.

Walking into the depot, Grimes remembered smelling the wafting scent of cigars.

“It has always been so vivid in my mind,” he said. Outside the depot, all the old measuring scales piled up and the old equipment provided a “neat place for a boy to play.”

When he saw the depot on fire, he said he was so emotionally distraught he didn’t realize the tears running down his face.

URGE TO RESTORE

Doug Pickard became concerned with the deteriorating condition of the depot when he realized the railroad company, now the Union Pacific, was not going “to spend a dime on it.”

The Union Pacific, which bought out the Southern Pacific in 1995, was using the building as an office for its maintenance workers.

Although Pickard has a relatively short history in Tehachapi (living there for only 14 years), he became emotionally attached to restoring the old depot to its former glory.

“It was a strong personal desire to restore that depot late in my life,” he said. As he researched the history of the depot, it grew on him. He formed the Friends of the Tehachapi Depot in 2004, a small group of enthusiasts pushing for restoration.

The City of Tehachapi achieved a major milestone in 2006 when Union Pacific agreed to exchange the depot if the city built another building for its workers.

After an October key exchange ceremony, volunteers officially could begin restoration of the depot, which Pickard estimates was 95 percent complete when it burned down last Friday. In less than three years of work, he said it was fully repainted, new windows and the heating system were installed and even the sprinkler system was set up.

Fortunately, they were not finished — historic artifacts to be displayed in the museum weren’t inside yet.

“Then it would have been a much greater loss,” Pickard said.

ALMOST A MUSEUM

Where Pickard struggled for ten years to restore the depot, Dell Troy struggled for 35 years to rehab the old depot. As a resident of Tehachapi for 50 years, she began to push for a museum at the depot in 1973, two years after passenger service stopped.

“In the fall of 1972, there was a rumor that it would be sold and made into a restaurant,” she said.

She and several others formed the Tehachapi Heritage League to save the depot from becoming a restaurant. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company later said it would not sell the building.

From then on Troy said there was a tuggle war between the people of Tehachapi and the railroad company, which continually refused to allow restoration of the building.

“The answer was always no,” she said. When ownership changed to the Union Pacific, Tehachapi residents were able to start restoration on their favorite building.

She said the love affair residents have with the depot is rooted in history.

“I think everyone put so much love into the depot because they lost practically all of the downtown in the 1952 earthquake,” she said. “It’s 104 years of history gone.”

What’s next for the depot?

The Tehachapi City Council voted unimously on June 16 to rebuild the depot, said City Councilman Ed Grimes.

“We gave directions to the city manager to start building as soon as the investigation is complete,” said Grimes.

Insurance, a building donation fund and redevelopment funds will cover the cost of rebuilding the depot. Grimes said residents have already donated $13,000 to the building doantion fund.

Although it is still unclear when the construction will begin, the city will try to have the depot ready for Tehachapi’s 100 year anniversary in August 2009.

Authorities delay arrest of two in Tehachapi depot blaze

The Bakersfield Californian

A two-alarm fire ripped through a historic Tehachapi train depot Friday morning, causing more than $1 million in damage and leaving a community distraught. Photo by Nick Smirnoff / Special to The Californian

TEHACHAPI — Police have identified two men from Tehachapi, aged 36 and 31, as the two suspects who allegedly caused the Tehachapi train depot fire last week.

The suspects have not been arrested because police are waiting for the Kern County District Attorney’s office to file a complaint against them, police said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon held in front of the charred ruins of the train depot.

The two men were approached individually Monday afternoon by Tehachapi police and in subsequent questioning, along with evidence from the burnt train depot, police believe they caused the fire.

“They were cooperative,” said Tehachapi Police Chief Jeff Kermode. “There was no resistance in the lengthy interview.”

Kermode said the men will not be arrested until the Kern County Fire Department arson investigators present the case to the District Attorney’s office.

The first man contacted “expressed great remorse over the outcome and great fear over the consequences,” Kermode said.

The second man did not show much remorse, he said.

He said the men were not a flight risk because they both had jobs in Tehachapi, one raising a family there.

The arson investigators were expected to present their case to the District Attorney’s office either Wednesday or today, said Phil Castle, Kern County Deputy Fire Chief.

Investigators found that fireworks, which are illegal in mountain areas like Tehachapi, caused the fire. Police said the two men had also been drinking that night.

“Alcohol and illegal fireworks are not a good combination,” Kermode said.

Arson investigators began by consulting with builders who were rehabbing the old train depot, which was to become a museum, to find out if a construction accident was to blame.

Police were tipped off that two men were lighting off fireworks at about 9 p.m. that night. A squad car patrolled the area and the two men left, but they returned around 2 a.m. to light the rest of their fireworks, police said. The fire began shortly after 3 a.m.

Police said they received a tip Saturday stating remnants of fireworks could be found along nearby railroad tracks. The police found and collected those remnants. Those clues led them to the two men. They could be charged with felony arson and felony possession of fireworks.

Shortly before the fire, a new extinguisher system had been installed as part of the depot’s renovation. The water line had not yet been set up.

During the fire, which lasted several hours, at least one propane tank was ruptured by the heat, causing a blast that broke windows in nearby stores.

The news conference drew both media and a crowd of residents, who gathered on the sidewalk in front of the burnt Historic Tehachapi Train Depot. City dignitaries including Mayor Deborah Hand and Councilman Ed Grimes expressed their sorrow over losing the landmark, but promised to rebuild.

“We can rebuild the building but the old wood smells won’t be there,” she said. “It’s a deep feeling of loss.”

As a kid, Grimes used to play hide-and-go-seek in the old building. Tears ran down his face when he watched the building burn.

“To see it all go up in smoke really got to me,” he said.

Depot plans on right track

Renovations will begin after railroads sign off on project

The Kingman depot once housed a Harvey House Restaurant. [Kathy Weiser, April 2008]

Suzanne Adams, Staff Reporter
Kingman Daily Miner

KINGMAN, Arizona - Train watchers and fans from near and far are eagerly awaiting the start of renovations on the old Santa Fe Depot in downtown Kingman.

"There's so many people interested in trains it's incredible! I've got tons of people with railroad artifacts interested in the project," said Shannon Rossiter of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Plans for the renovation of the old train depot are about 95 percent complete, said Rob Owen, special projects coordinator for the city of Kingman. All that needs to be done is to have BNSF Railway and Amtrak give their final approval for the project.

Owen hopes to have that approval by January so the project can go out for bid at the end of February. The restoration work can then start in March.

The city will be reimbursed for 94.3 percent of the restoration work by a Federal Transportation Enhancement Grant. The city applied for the $500,000 grant in 2001 and received approval in 2002.

The grant is administered by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Kingman will have to match 5.7 percent of the cost of the project.

Despite its age, the depot is still structurally sound, Owen said. The old station will be receiving new doors, windows, paint, plumbing and electrical work, heating and air conditioning, stucco and new landscaping as part of the renovation work.

Ever since 2002, Kingman residents have been asking when work was going to begin.

A lot of people don't understand the grant process, said Bill Shilling, a city grant administrator. It can take many years to apply, receive approval and get funds from a grant for a project.

One extra step that has slowed the process is that the city has to seek approval of the plans from not only ADOT but also Amtrak and BNSF. Amtrak owns the building and BNSF owns the railroad tracks and the right of way next to the depot. Plans for the project have been shuttled back and forth between all three organizations.

The only major request has come from BNSF Railway. The railway has requested a wrought iron fence to be put up between the building and the BNSF railroad tracks.

The fence is designed to keep visitors away from the tracks, which are in constant use.

Once the work is complete, the station will once again see customers lining up for train tickets. Amtrak will be moving its current ticket office from its tiny space on Fourth Street back into the western half of the depot. The eastern half of the building will become a railroad museum with exhibits and artifacts from railroad enthusiasts and the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

The building is nearly 100 years old. It was built in the early 1900s by the Santa Fe Railway of reinforced concrete and may be one of the oldest concrete buildings in the state.

It's also one of many historic buildings in downtown Kingman on the National Registry of Historic Places.