Mount Lowe Railway
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The Mount Lowe Railway was the third in a series of scenic mountain railroads created as a tourist attraction on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe, north of Los Angeles, California. The railway, originally incorporated as the Pasadena & Mt. Wilson Railroad Co., existed from 1893 until its official abandonment in 1938, and had the distinction of being the one and only scenic mountain, electric traction (overhead electric trolley) railroad ever built.
Description
The railway route began in the Los Angeles County unincorporated community of Altadena at Calaveras St. and Lake Ave., with a narrow-gage trolley line that ran up Lake Avenue to a turn-off near Las Flores St., across a private right-of way through the Poppyfields district, and proceeding into Rubio Canyon to the foot of Echo Mountain. At this point there was a large platform that spanned the canyon with an integrated 12-room hotel, the "Rubio Pavilion." From this platform passengers transferred to a three-railed funicular, the "Great Incline," to the top of Echo Mountain (elev. 3,500). It boasted grades as steep as 62%, and gained 1,900 feet in elevation.Atop Echo Mountain was a 40-room chalet. By November 1894 the 80-room grand Victorian Echo Mountain House had opened, followed by an observatory with a 16-inch telescope, dormitories, power generating stations and the "Incline Powerhouse." The whole conglomeration, so painted, was referred to as "White City."
By 1896 the third division (the "Alpine Division") was completed. The Alpine Division consisted of 3.5 miles of curving rails and trestles. The line reached across the broad face of Las Flores Canyon, reached deep into Millard Canyon, and eventually disappeared into Grand Canyon where it terminated at the foot of Mount Lowe, at a place named Crystal Springs (elev. 4995 ft). This was the location of the 12-room Swiss chalet, "Ye Alpine Tavern".
Statistics:
- Total length: approximately 7 miles.
- Approximate travel time, given train changes: 1 hr. 20 min.
- Elevation gains from 800 feet at Calaveras to 4995 at Ye Alpine Tavern.
- 137 curves
- 23 bridges and trestles
History
The Mount Lowe Railway was borne from a desire of the Pasadena Pioneers to have a scenic mountain railroad to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains. There was already established a trail to the peak of Mount Wilson, but that trip was arduous and oft times required more than a day to travel up and down. Several proposals were floated to establish some sort of mechanical transportation to the summits, but they all lacked funding. David J. Macpherson (b. 1834, Ontario, Canada), a civil engineer from Cornell University and a newcomer to Pasadena (1885), proposed a steam driven cog wheel train to reach the crest. It wasn't until he was introduced to Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe (arrived 1890) that a fully funded plan could be put into action.
The men incorporated the Pasadena & Mount Wilson Railroad Co. in 1891 with intentions to build a railroad to Mount Wilson. Unable to obtain rights of way to this mountain, Macpherson made a suggestion for an alternate route, toward Oak Mountain, west of Wilson. He also suggested a change in the locomotion with the use of electric traction trolleys. They hired an electrical marvel of an engineer, Almarian W. Decker, who had contrived all the mathematical possibilities of an electric line and the funicular which would be required to ascend the Echo Mountain Promontory.
Blasting into the Rubio Canyon began in September of 1892, three months before the establishment of the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve (now Angeles National Forest). A terminal was built at the corner of Calaveras and Lake Avenue in Altadena adjacent to the L. A. Terminal Railway station, and track was laid up the 8% grade to a point near Las Flores Street where it turned to traverse the Poppyfields district and head into the Rubio. At the lower division terminus was built a broad platform to span the Canyon into which the construction integrated the Rubio Pavilion, a 12-room hotel, with dining facilities and other amenities.
Work was begun on the Great Incline with such steep grades that no animal could be flogged enough into negotiating it. So materials were carried up by hand. Grading became a particular problem: while funiculars are usually considered to require four rails, two for the ascending car, and two for the descending car, there was not enough room to widen the grade to accommodate the rails. The inventive Lowe came up with a plan to only use four rails where the cars pass each other thereby only requiring three rails for the rest of the run. The ingenious three-railed funicular not only fit, but it also reduced the amount of materials needed. This three-railed design became a world-wide standard.
The Great Incline was engineered by Andrew Smith Hallidie of San Francisco cable car fame. It climbed 2,200 feet with approximately 6,000 feet of cable spliced into a complete loop which raised and lowered the cars of the Incline.
The Echo Mountain site was ready for opening day, July 4 1893, with the 40-room "Echo Chalet." By November 1894 the 80-room Victorian "Echo Mountain House" was completed as a luxury facility to rival the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. Lowe also installed a 16-inch telescope and observatory on Echo, as he was a patron of the astronomical arts. He even sought to have the Mount Lowe Railway considered the astronomical center of the San Gabriels. It could be noted that in an earlier plan (1892), Charles William Eliot President of Harvard University sought to have a 40-inch telescope put on Mt. Wilson. Lowe offered the use of his new Mount Wilson Railroad to transport the lenses up. However, the project benefactor died with leaving a trust, and the whole plan failed (and of course Lowe's train didn't end up going to Mt. Wilson either).
A third division the Alpine Division was begun in 1894 and took a lengthy stretch of narrow-gage track across three canyons to the foot of Mount Lowe (formerly Oak Mountain) at a terminal named "Ye Alpine Tavern," a Swiss chalet 12-room hotel. It was also flanked by cottages and tents to augment its occupancy. The Tavern boasted several amenities, such as, a wading pool, tennis courts, mule rides, gift shop, and restaurant.
In all there were four hotels along the line, but the extent of the construction, and the poor patronage had stretched Lowe to his limit. The railroad fell into receivership under Jared Sidney Torrance, founder of Torrance, California. Both men applied to the government for rights of way to the top of Mt. Lowe. The government realized that the whole railroad was on Federal property (vis a vis the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve) and demanded that a proper lease be taken out on the properties. Having reviewed Lowe's standing with the railway, Congress awarded the receivership to Torrance and Lowe left with title only to the observatory.
The Railway was auctioned to a Mr. Valentine Peyton of Danville, Illinois, and he came out to run the operation. In 1900 the Echo Mountain House burned down. It was grossly underinsured and was never rebuilt. Later the astronomer went blind and was forced to leave his post at the observatory. Disenchanted, Peyton sold the railway to the Huntington interest after which it became part of the Pacific Electric Railway (the Red Car).
In 1905 a wind blew the roof from the Casino (dance hall) onto the power station and set a fire that burned off everything on Echo except the observatory and the astronomer's cabin. In 1909, a flash electrical storm and flood tore out the Rubio Pavilion and buried one of the caretaker's children in the mud. In 1928 a gale force wind blew down the observatory.
In 1925 a large block brick annex was added to the Tavern and it was renamed "Mount Lowe Tavern." In 1936 it was burned down. The PE left people on the line, so as not to abandon the railway. In 1937, the Railroad Booster's Club request a final paid excursion on the line for photos and memorabilia. In 1938 a three day downpour of biblical proportions wiped out everything left of the railway and stranded the caretakers on Echo. After that the railway was officially abandoned.
The Red Car line ran into Altadena until 1941. At the onset of World War II, the Mount Lowe Railway was contacted to a scrapper who stripped the place of all salvageable metal. In 1959 the Forestry service began a rampage on the leftover shells of the buildings dynamiting everything into history as "hazardous nuisances." In 1962 the Incline Powerhouse was dynamited, but the gear mechanism was placed as a monument to the enterprise.
Points of interest
Due to its scenic nature, the Mount Lowe Railway featured many points and items of interest. Of its many bridges and trestles, many of the specially designed ones were named, as all of them were engineeringly numbered. The first was the Las Flores Bridge which crossed from the Las Flores Canyon side to the Rubio Canyon side of the entrance to Rubio and the Rubio Pavilion.
At the Pavilion there was the massive landing which was the transfer point to the Great Incline section of the trip. A quarter of the way up the Incline, a large granite chasm was traversed by a one-of-kind inclined trestle which was a 250 foot span of bridgework over a 500 foot deep void in the side of the Echo Promontory. This trestle was built on the 62% grade portion of the Incline. So amazing and unusual was the design that Lowe did the customary act of naming the trestle after hie Engineer, David Macpherson, thus, the Macpherson Trestle.
The first-ever three railed funicular had the uncommon sight of a passing track which was situated dead center of the incline to allow the cars to pass each other during their ups and downs.
In 1893 Lowe purchased a 3 megacandela searchlight from the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. The light was installed on Echo in 1894. So powerful was the light, that a claim by Lowe's publicist, George Wharton James, stated that he could read a newspaper by the beam of the light coming through his hotel window on Catalina Island.
Echo Mountain sported two hotels, tennis courts, dormitories, lookout points, fountains, and a small menagerie which even included a black bear cage.
The Alpine Division had several trestles and bridges of particular note. One was High Bridge because of its unusual height that augmented the hillside where no feasible right of way could be carved into the hillside. Beyond this lie the Cape of Good Hope, an outcropping that defined the transition from Las Flores into Millard Canyon. The trolleys ran deep into the crease of the Millard and switched back on two minor trestles in a shape so named Horseshoe Curve.
Returning to the face of the mountain again, the trains had to negotiate another switchback, however, there was not enough hillside to accommodate a ground-laid track. A grand trestle was designed that would allow the trolley to negotiate a 12' differential in elevation over 500' of track through a 340° turn at a maximum 4% grade that was needed for electric traction trains. This grand trestle was duly named Circular Bridge.
The railway reached back into Millard again and continued through an enormous granite outcropping called Granite Gate. This portion of granite required an 8-month period of dynamiting to allow just enough clearance for a narrow-gage trolley to pass from the Millard into Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon was a smooth, beautiful, alpine ride to Crystal Springs at the base of Mount Lowe and Ye Alpine Tavern, end of line.
Remnants
Ruins of the Railway can be seen all across its route from Los Angeles to Alpine Tavern. The Power Station No. 6 at Calaveras remains as the last standing in-tact building of the PE Railway period, and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.The Mount Lowe Railway was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on January 6 1993.
External links
- [Mount Lowe Preservation Society]
- [Scenic Mount Lowe Railway Historical Committee]
- [Sierra Club: driving and hiking directions]
- [Newsletter about Mount Lowe and Echo Mountain]
- [Man, Mountain and Monument]
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