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Railroad expert to discuss Saugus Train Station

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Contributed by: Alan Pollack on 10/12/2007

Many long-time residents of the Santa Clarita Valley may remember visiting the Saugus Train Station when it was in full operation as a passenger and freight stop on the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Newcomers to the Valley most likely know the station as a historic building in Heritage Junction at William S. Hart Park, which now serves as the headquarters and museum for the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.

Mike Jarel has gained extensive knowledge of railroad operations as a long time engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad. At 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12,Jarel, past vice president of the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society, and author of "The Sunset Limited - Southern Pacific's Premier TrainWith a Southern Accent" will turn back the clock and bring the Saugus Train Station back to life when he gives a talk for the Historical Society and describes how the Station was operated in it's prime as a stop along the Southern Pacific.

Attendees will be transported back in time while seated within the historic Saugus Train Station itself at Heritage Junction in Newhall.

The Southern Pacific railroad was an offshoot of the famous Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed at Promontory Point, Utah in May of 1869. The western half of the Transcontinental Railroad was built by the Central Pacific Railroad Company run by the "Big Four" railroad magnates Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker,Leland Stanford and Mark Hopkins.

Upon completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, the Big Four set their sights on California and began buying up a series of small railroads to form the Southern Pacific Railroad.

One of those railroads was the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad owned by none other than Henry Mayo Newhall, the founder of the town of Newhall.

Newhall had been interested in expanding his railroad into Southern California and into the Southwestern U.S., but was outsmarted by the Big Four when they purchased shares in his railroad from the city of San Francisco.

Seeing that he could not compete with these wily competitors, Newhall chose to sell his railroad to them and was given a position on the board of directors of the Southern Pacific, a position he held for the remainder of his life.

Knowing the plans of the Southern Pacific to expand into Los Angeles, Newhall purchased the Rancho San Francisco (the future Santa Clarita Valley) in 1875. He deeded a right-of-way through the Valley to the Southern Pacific for $1 and for an additional $1 gave land to establish the town site of Newhall, located around the present day junction of San Fernando Road and Magic Mountain Parkway.

The Southern Pacific Railroad was completed, linking San Francisco and Los Angeles by rail, with a ceremony at Lang Station in Soledad Canyon in September 1876.

The ceremony featured Crocker driving in a golden spike. He stated to the crowd of dignitaries "Gentlemen, I am no public speaker, but I can drive a spike!"

That same year, the town of Newhall was established right where the Saugus Cafe is located today. Two years later, due to a lack of sufficient water at that site, the whole town packed up and moved down the road to it's present location centered around Railroad Avenue and Market Street.

When the Southern Pacific decided in 1887 to build a branch line from this Valley through the Santa Clara River Valley to Santa Barbara, a new town called Saugus (named after Henry Mayo Newhall's birthplace of Saugus, Mass.) was built on the original location of Newhall and the Saugus Train Station was born.

Like many Southern Pacific depots, the Saugus Station was probably built in Sacramento and than transported in pieces to it's final destination in Saugus. The original location of the station was on the east side of the current railroad tracks just south of Drayton Street on San Fernando Road (across the street and just south of the Saugus Cafe.

Speaking of the Saugus Cafe, many may not know that the Cafe actually was started in 1887 inside the Train Station. It was originally owned by Joseph H. Tolfree and called Tolfree's Saugus Eating House and Depot Hotel. Tolfree apparently owned a chain of Depot Restaurants along the Southern Pacific, including Mojave, Bakersfield and the Grand Canyon.

Martin and Richard Wood purchased Tolfree's restaurant in 1899 and changed the name to the Saugus Cafe. They moved the restaurant across the street to it's current location in 1905.

The Train Station has been host to two U.S. Presidents. Benjamin Harrison stopped in Saugus in 1891 as part of a nationwide whistle stop re-election campaign tour (unfortunately for him, he lost to Grover Cleveland in the 1892 election).

Theodore Roosevelt passed through the station in 1903, presumably on his way to stay at the Acton Hotel and visit with his friend California Gov. Henry T. Gage, who happened to own some gold mines in the Acton area.

The station has also done duty as a movie location, most notably Charlie Chaplin's 1923 silent "The Pilgrim", Frank Sinatra's 1954 thriller "Suddenly" (shot on location also in downtown Newhall), and the 1989 film "The Grifters" starring Angelica Huston and John Cusack.

By the 1970s, the Saugus Train Station had lost its importance to the Southern Pacific Railroad. The last passenger service came through in 1971 and the last freight train in 1979. The station was closed down by its last station master James Guthrie on Nov. 15, 1978.

It was moved to its current location in Heritage Junction on June 24, 1980 after a protracted community effort to save the station. It is amusing to note that while the town of Newhall and the original Newhall Train Depot were started in Saugus (present day), the Saugus Train Station is now located in Newhall. A most confusing turn of events!!

Jarel will share his insider's view as an engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad to give attendees a flavor for how the Saugus Train Station was operated during it's heyday as a working depot on the Southern Pacific line.

The talk will take place within the historic train station itself. The general public is welcome. Admission will be free.

For more information on this and other upcoming programs from the SCVHS, please call Pat Saletore or Alan Pollack at 661-254-1275 or visit www.scvhs.org.

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