Hey everyone this is a niche question I'm not sure anyone can answer. I was wondering if there were any Class II or Class III railroads in the vicinity of LA like Glendale or Pasadena that ran steam from 1900-1950.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Pacific Electric (which SP took control of in 1910) had several steam locos.
BradenD Hey everyone this is a niche question I'm not sure anyone can answer. I was wondering if there were any Class II or Class III railroads in the vicinity of LA like Glendale or Pasadena that ran steam from 1900-1950.
Aside from the railroads that served the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach and adjacent industries, the whole region was mainly SP/ATSF/UP domain as a number of cities in L.A. County were established as a result of the Class I roads, and even founded or named by the railroads themselves (Santa Fe Springs for example). During the late 1800s/early 1900s, many towns had strong associations with the railroads that served them.As for Glendale and Pasadena specifically, Glendale was an SP town (with a small UP freight line) and Pasadena was an ATSF town. There were no steam-operated Class II/III railroads serving those two cities after 1900, with the exception of the Los Angeles & San Gabriel Valley Railroad, which only operated until 1906, when it was bought by and integrated into the ATSF. The Santa Fe's Pasadena Subdivision (now used by the Metro (A) Line light rail) was the LA&SGVR's legacy route. The other closest thing was the Glendale and Montrose Railway, but that was strictly an electric trolley operation. That ran from 1909 to 1930.