Preserve San Dimas' Historic Railway Signal

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) was a major catalyst contributing to the development of the Town and eventually, the City of San Dimas. With the current development of the Foothill Gold Line, most if not all of the remaining evidence that there was at one time a transcontinental railroad going through the heart of San Dimas could be lost to “progress”. Fortunately, there is an outstanding opportunity today to preserve one of the last artifacts of the Santa Fe Railway in our own Rhodes Park.

Several legacy railroad signals remained along the former Santa Fe railroad right of way that is being transformed into the Pomona extension of the Gold Line from Los Angeles. These signals have safely guided passenger and freight trains through San Dimas since 1915, when they were first installed between Arcadia and Claremont on the Santa Fe. Icons of railroad history, the famous Santa Fe passenger trains the Super Chief, the El Capitan and the California Limited passed through San Dimas on their way to Los Angeles and Chicago and were protected by these signals. After Amtrak took over national passenger service from the railroads in 1971 Amtrak continued to use this route through San Dimas. Eventually, Amtrak was re-routed through Fullerton and in 1996, the Santa Fe Railway itself was a victim of “progress” and was merged into the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad.

San Dimas is blessed to still have its historic Santa Fe passenger station preserved in Rhodes Park and operated as a railroad museum by the Pacific Railroad Society. The City has a unique opportunity to preserve one of these railroad signals next to the existing historic track display (and adjacent to the station) in Rhodes Park.

Signal 1132 was originally located at the Pasadena Avenue railroad crossing in nearby Glendora, where it protected the east end of the former "Glendora Siding", a track used to enable trains to pass each other on the single track main line. San Dimas had a similar track, and in fact a small "yard" of tracks just to the south of the Station. This signal is special because it is supported by a signal “bridge” that allows the signal to hang over the track it is protecting, referred to in engineering parlance as a “cantilever” beam; hence the term “cantilever signal” is commonly used to describe this type of signal.

The original signal is over 108 years old, and it is a testament to the Union Switch & Signal Company of Swissvale, Pennsylvania, that until recently this signal continued to protect trains over a century after its installation. On March 30, 2021, the Historic Cantilever Signal was carefully disassembled and transported to a staging location at the City of San Dimas. The work was performed by the Kiewit Parsons Joint Venture (KPJV), the Contractor for the Gold Line Light Rail Extension from Glendora to Pomona. The salvage work was funded through the generosity of the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority.

Drawings for the new signal installation at Rhodes Park have been approved by the City. We need your help now to raise funds to construct this historic project. Every dollar of contribution will go directly to our construction budget for the signal. We would like to complete the project by Thanksgiving, with the signal fully operational during the holidays. Please donate today!