Oral History Project Brings Railroad

Oral history project brings railroad's San Bernardino heritage to life 10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, June 6, 2009 By CHRIS RICHARD The Press-Enterprise

It started out as an ordinary class assignment. But in tracking down and interviewing former railroad workers, participants in a Cal State San Bernardino oral history project on the Santa Fe Railway say they have caught poignant glimpses of a fast-vanishing way of life. "Who's going to get a job and work 30, 40 years and just love every minute of it? No one's like that any more," said Kimberly Haysom, an investigator and interviewer on the team. "We should be. We should be grateful for everything."

Rodrigo Peña / The Press-Enterprise Christina Perris, of Redlands, and Kyle Shell, left, are part of a group of Cal State San Bernardino students who are working on an oral history of the Santa Fe Railway. Christina's great-great-grandfather, Frederick Thomas Perris, worked for Santa Fe.

The students are compiling photos and interviews for a Web site that will be complete next week. Team members also may establish a permanent presence on the San Bernardino city Web site, said member Christina Perris. Perris comes from a railroad family. Two of her great uncles worked in the Santa Fe Railway's engineering department, and her great-great-grandfather, Frederick Thomas Perris, was Santa Fe's chief engineer in the early 1880s, Perris said.

She said he did the surveying to bring the railroad to San Bernardino. One family photo shows the first engine, with Frederick at the controls, steaming into town in 1883.

Frederick Thomas Perris was an engineer who helped bring the railroad to San Bernardino.

She's scanning other photos to be included in the online display. Haysom said she found herself increasingly drawn to her research subjects as the project progressed. One interview, with a former railroad messenger, recounts a prank played on new messengers. The newcomer would receive a pack containing a 24-pound rock, and spend the day getting the run-around in a 10-mile web of company offices.

Special To the Press Enterprise The first passenger train arrives in San Bernardino on Sept. 13, 1883. This is among the photos gathered by the students.

Another former manager told her how he worked six days a week -- and had one threemonth stretch with no days off at all. "I asked him why and he said, 'Well, you grow up with these people. They're like family,' " Haysom said. She said she will remember his train room and its floor-to-ceiling shelves crammed with model trains. Cherstin Lyon, who teaches the introduction to public history course that gave rise to the project, called it one of most successful to date. The railroad team had a strong foundation in Perris' family connection to the subject, Lyon said. "They really got into it. They got to choose what they were going to do," she said. "They got real world experience, and they really went above and beyond."