Tustin
residents Alfred A. Leake, superintendent of
Marcy Ranch, and Fred Thompson are pictured
as they arrive at the Tustin depot aboard
the Southern Pacific train from Los Angeles
around 1905
Tustin and Santa
Ana have fought over many things, but one of the
biggest battles was the fight for the Southern
Pacific Railroad back in the 1800s.
Southern Pacific had extended its tracks from
Los Angeles to Anaheim by 1874 and wanted to
keep going with a station in either Tustin or
Santa Ana. Both towns vied for the prize, but
according to Stephen Donaldson, a railroad
historian, Santa Ana won by offering $10,000 in
cash, land for a depot and a free right of way
through town.
The station was completed and Southern Pacific
arrived in Santa Ana, a village of about 500
people, in 1877. Despite having lost the
prestige of the station, the people of Tustin
had achieve a way to reach Los Angeles without
spending a day traveling by horse drawn wagon or
buggy.
But the privilege cost them dearly. Taking
advantage of their monopoly, Southern Pacific
charged $4 (a tremendous sum at that time) for
the three hour trip to Los Angeles. Freight
rates were equally high for farmers and
merchants who complained that Southern Pacific
was gouging the public and putting a strangle
hold on the local economy.
This monopoly was broken when the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe extended its line from
Riverside to Santa Ana in 1887, threatening to
cut into SP’s trade. Southern Pacific responded
by extending the Anaheim line south into Tustin
along Esplanade and building a large two story
depot with freight facilities on Newport Avenue,
south of Main Street. The train made two trips a
day into Los Angeles, overnighting at the Tustin
station where it was reversed on a turn table.
Collis Huntington, president of Southern
Pacific, considered one of the most powerful and
economic forces in California, was still fuming
over James Irvine, Sr.’s refusal to let Southern
Pacific lay tracks across the Irvine Ranch back
in 1877. With a base in Tustin, he was
determined that his railroad would make use of
this most direct route between Los Angeles and
San Diego.
One Sunday morning in 1888 a Southern Pacific
crew began laying track from the Tustin terminus
to the edge of the Irvine Ranch. They planned to
lay as much track as possible while the courts
were closed for the weekend, but they hadn’t
reckoned with Irvine ranch hands who faced the
track crew with guns drawn and threatened to
open fire if the workers attempted to cross the
Irvine property.
The track layers backed off and on Monday Irvine
Ranch officials obtained a court order blocking
Southern Pacific from the ranch. Irvine then
gave Santa Fe the right to cross the ranch and
the track which is still used today was extended
between Santa Ana and San Diego. The unused SP
track south of Tustin was torn up in 1910.
Although passenger service to Tustin halted
temporarily in 1903 and permanently in 1923,
Southern Pacific continued to haul oranges from
local packing houses on the Tustin line until
the bridge across the Santiago Creek washed out
during heavy rains in the 1960s. The station was
eventually torn down and the tracks removed. The
walking path that runs along Esplanade in North
Tustin uses the property.
|
