Santa Ana and Newport Railway facts for kids
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Locale | Orange County, California |
| Dates of operation | 1890–1899 |
| Successor | Southern Pacific |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Length | 22.47 miles (36.16 km) |
The Santa Ana & Newport Railway was an important train line in Orange County, California, over 100 years ago. It helped connect the coast to bigger cities inland.
It all started on August 23, 1889, when a company called the Newport Wharf and Lumber Company created the Santa Ana Rail Road. Their goal was to build a train track from their lumber dock in Newport Beach, California to the main train lines in Santa Ana, California.
This first track was about 11.71 miles (18.85 km) long. It was finished in 1890 and mostly carried goods. But by 1891, people could ride the train too!
Later, a bigger train company called Southern Pacific took over. They formed the Santa Ana and Newport Railway (SA&N) in 1892 and bought the original line in 1893. The SA&N also bought plans for another line that was supposed to connect Santa Ana and Westminster, California. They even built a station in Santa Ana for it.
In 1899, the SA&N started building a new branch line from Newport to a place called Smeltzer. But before it was finished, Southern Pacific fully merged the SA&N into their company on November 23, 1899. The new Smeltzer line finally opened on January 1, 1900.
How the Railway Started and Grew
Before the railway, shipping in Newport Bay was quite small. But in 1889, the McFadden family built a big dock called McFadden Wharf. This dock could handle much larger ships.
Materials for building the train tracks arrived by ship. Workers started preparing the ground in the summer of 1890. They built a long bridge over the Santa Ana River where it met Newport Bay. The tracks were all laid by January 1891.
The first train engine arrived in December 1890. It helped with construction and later moved goods around the dock. People called it the cotton tail. A second engine, nicknamed the tea kettle or jack rabbit, arrived in the summer of 1891 with three passenger coaches.
Passenger train service officially began with a fun picnic trip to the beach! The railway connected with both the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Railroad lines in Santa Ana. About 12,000 passengers rode the train each year. In winter, there was one train daily, and in summer, there were three trains a day.
Even though many people rode the train, tickets made up less than 5% of the railway's money. The train mostly carried about 70,000 tons of goods every year. A lot of this was lumber unloaded from ships, which was then sent all over southern California. They also carried goods coming into the area and farm products going out.
SA&N Train Engines
The Santa Ana & Newport Railway used a few different types of train engines. Here are some of them:
| Number | Builder | Type | Date Built | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Rhode Island Locomotive Works | 0-4-0 tank locomotive | 1885 | This engine was first used by a railway in New York. The SA&N bought it in 1890. It was later sold in 1903. |
| #2 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 2-4-2 tank locomotive | 1887 | This engine was originally for the Los Angeles County Railroad. The SA&N bought it in 1891 and sold it in 1903. |
| #4 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 4-4-0 | 1887 | This engine also came from the Los Angeles County Railroad. The SA&N bought it in 1895. It later became Southern Pacific's engine #1202. |
The Railway Joins Southern Pacific
In late 1892, the Santa Fe Railroad started using the Newport dock too, because their own dock at Redondo Beach, California was damaged. Southern Pacific didn't want their competitor, Santa Fe, to have easy access to the Newport dock. So, Southern Pacific's SA&N company bought the Santa Ana Railroad in 1893.
The SA&N railway officially became part of Southern Pacific in 1899. The Smeltzer branch line was named after a ranch at its end. This branch line had daily trains during the winter when farmers harvested celery. But for the rest of the year, trains ran only twice a week.
Over time, the area changed. Farmland became places where people lived, and bigger ships couldn't use Newport Bay anymore. Because of this, less and less freight was carried by the train.
Southern Pacific eventually sold about 2.66 miles (4.28 km) of the track between Wiebling and Huntington Beach, California to another company called Pacific Electric. The rest of the line west of Dyer was closed down in 1933.
