On Monday we had to pull Funeral Trolley "Descanso" out of Car Barn 1 to do some overhead electrical work in the barn. LARY 1201 did the pulling. The sun was bright and I could not help but play with her with my camera. Look at that magnificent controller with all that light and reflections bouncing around. Sorry I can't show you full screen-size pictures.

The Descanso is a blowout renovation.

Marty Bernard
Orange Empire Ry Museum
Perris, CA

What a pretty car! What a nice piece of LA Railway History that managed to survive long after it was declared surplus.

She's beautiful!

Later!
Mr. Ed

Wow, what a great looking trolley! I'd die for a ride in it (oh c'mon, somebody had to say it).

Charlie, the volunteers at OERM are very accommodating.

Ut oh, that sounds like a threat!?!

Descanso has to be towed because her motors were removed in 1939, a year before she was given to the Railroad Boosters (original name for Pacific Railroad Society). There used to be a rumor that the motors were taken during a World War II scrap drive, but this was not the case. As far as I know, there are no plans to remotorize Descanso; unless she has to be moved to accommodate work in the barn or to bring out another trolley, the venerable car will "rest in peace." She's set up as a display, with an authentic old time coffin (empty!) in the casket compartment, and a platform so visitors can see inside.

Funeral services at a Perris or similar museum certainly are doable, and would, IMHO, be quite poignant and dignified. After an officiant conducts burial rites, pallbearers could load the casket for the last ride to the end of the line or some designated point (mournful bells and whistles etc.) There, the funeral director transfers the casket to a hearse for transport to internment.

Sloan

I think railfans should be put to rest in the outback of OERM among all the other junk (oops, valuable rusting artifacts).

The reason for moving the Descanso out of the barn Monday was to drop power from the barn roof for interior lighting for it. Now when a visitor climbs the car's viewing stand a motion sensor turns on interior LED lighting. The LED lighting gives off no heat and stays on only five minutes after the visitors leave. It's under 50 W with about the equivalent of 500 Watts of incandescent lighting.

So, when you die, come see it! Better yet, don't wait.

I don't think OERM is a licensed place of interment, so being buried among the "chicken coops" is not an option. An alternative would be Live Oak Memorial Park in Monrovia, across the street from the former Santa Fe 2nd District. In a few years, the Gold Line light rail service will be running there, and the Monrovia station is less than two blocks away. It will be like riding the Market St. Ry. "40" line to visit the cemeteries in Colma as San Franciscans did in the old days. Among those laid to rest at Live Oak is Walter Abbenseth, pioneer in preserving Pacific Electric cars. There are also burial grounds in East LA that are served by the other end of the Gold Line. Some of them may even have traces of the spurs that allowed Descanso to leave the LARy tracks for undisturbed unloading.

If I happen to be in Barn 1 when visitors are trying to figure out the Descanso and I tell them many other cities had similar cars, they all shake their heads in disbelief because they never heard of such a thing. When I remind them that cemeteries were located on cheaper land just outside city boundaries and city streets were pretty much impassible much of the year they begin to understand.

Growing up in the Chicago suburbs I first heard of the Chicago Rapid Transit System serving Calvary Cemetary just across Chicago's boarder in Evanston. When I go, doing it on the CTA would be just fine. But one of the old 4000 series cars please.

Several memorial services have been held at OERM. One or two of these have been held in the Descanso. Others have used our meeting room and then the party took an interurban or train ride.

The Railroad Boosters took the Descanso up to the summit of Cajon Pass where it became a club room with bunk beds for its members to stay overnight particularly on weekends. It stayed up there for years and its member-caretaker was also a long-time train order operator at the nearby Santa Fe station. After the train order office closed and the SP began grading its line over Cajon the car needed to be moved.

The PRS membership choose Orange Empire over Travel Town in Los Angeles. The car and its adjoining flag pole moved to Perris. The car was in a prominent out-door location at the edge of the park across from the carbarn. Then after a second narrow-gauge barn was built (with help from PRS) the car moved inside and a number of joint PRS/OERM members undertook the restoration of the car. The overnight accommodations were removed; the seats were retrieved from members and friends and the car nicely restored. It was last year when the car was moved from the second barn to barn #1.