The stairs going up from the parking lot in Santa Susana Park.
Open Saturday & Sunday (except holidays) 1-4 pm.
The depot still sits next to the tracks where Amtrak and Union Pacific freight trains still travel.
Built in 1903, Southern Pacific Santa Susana Depot sat on Los Angeles Ave. East of Tapo Street; it served the Rancho Simi area until the early 1970s when the SP closed it. Falling prey to age and vandalism, the deteriorating building was sold by the railroad for $1.06, and moved 2 miles east to its present site in May 1975 (6503 Katherine Road). After extensive restoration, the depot was reopened in 2000, as a museum and home of the local model railroaders club.
A passenger station, freight station, and telegraph office, it was based on Southern Pacific’s standard No. 22, combination depot plans; the depot has a recently restored stationmaster’s apartment on the second story.
Ticket sales and waiting room.The other side of the ticket window. The hub of the depot, ticket sales, dispatch, telegraph office.Note the mail bag hanging on the door; the train slowed but didn’t need to stop to pick up mail.
Exhibits between today’s Union Pacific tracks and the depot:
HO Model Railroad in depot:
The Santa Susana Depot in HO scale: the model railroad in the depot recreates the Southern Pacific through the region in the 1950s. Businesses near the Depot in the 1950s.
Freight Deck:
As recently as June 2018, the freight deck (street side today) was rebuilt to original specifications.
Also on the grounds:
A telephone booth, made of cast concrete by Southern Pacific in Oakland: they were used by the SP, Pacific Electric, and San Diego Arizona and Eastern Railways. This one dates from the early 1920sSafe Journeys!
I grew up in the Coachella Valley; my parents were "heavy earthwork" contractors, mostly building government projects, so I spent a lot of time on the back roads of the West. I'm a graduate of Vassar College (history major) and the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary. Retired from the Law, I now grow dates, sweet limes & figs on the family ranch, and am the State Senate appointee to the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy.
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