The Redlands Central Railway Company car barn is a historic

car barn A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...

located at 746 East Citrus Avenue in Redlands,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. The building was used to house

electric railway Railway electrification is the use of electric power for the propulsion of rail transport. Electric railways use either electric locomotives (hauling passengers or freight in separate cars), electric multiple units ( passenger cars with their own ...

cars, first for the Redlands Central Railway and later for the

Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

. It is the only extant Pacific Electric car barn, and one of only two trolley barns remaining in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

History

The Redlands Central Railway was formed in 1907 by Henry and John H. Fisher, and its car barn was built the same year; it served a line along Citrus and Brookside Avenues in Redlands. The company merged with the San Bernardino Valley Traction Company (SBVT) in 1908, and its car barn became a secondary barn for the consolidated system. In 1911, the SBVT merged into the Pacific Electric (PE) Railway, Southern California's sprawling electric

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

network. The car barn was used intermittently by the Pacific Electric for the next two decades; Pacific Electric's

Redlands Line The Redlands Line is a former Pacific Electric interurban railway line in the Inland Empire. The route provided suburban service between San Bernardino, California, San Bernardino and Redlands, California, Redlands. History Constructed by the ...

mainly used the larger SBVT barn. In 1926, the barn was officially no longer being used. It went out of service when the Citrus and Brookside Avenue line was converted to bus service. PE and its successors leased the barn to various businesses until its sale in 1987. The city of Redlands purchased the barn to save it from demolition, but could not afford renovations. The building was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on January 3, 1991. In 1994, the barn was sold by the city. It now houses an

automobile repair shop An automobile repair shop (also known regionally as a garage or a workshop) is an establishment where automobiles are repaired by auto mechanics and technicians. The customer interface is typically a Customer service representative, service adv ...

; the shop purchased the barn in 1999.

References

Railway buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in California Mission Revival architecture in California National Register of Historic Places in San Bernardino County, California Buildings and structures in Redlands, California Pacific Electric infrastructure Railway buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures completed in 1907 Public transportation in San Bernardino County, California Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in California History of Redlands, California Transportation buildings and structures in San Bernardino County, California {{California-struct-stub

History

See also

References