Mount Lowe Railway

CHAPTER THREE

And So It Began

Professor Lowe retired to Los Angeles in 1887. At 55 years of age, he still continued with his magnetic charisma and tireless developments. He established Citizen's Bank of Los Angeles, not to mention several ice making plants.
.	He moved up to Pasadena in 1890, purchased the Pasadena Opera House, and built himself a 24,000 square foot behemoth of a Victorian mansion on South Orange Grove Boulevard.

Preceding Prof. Lowe to Pasadena was one David J. Macpherson. Born in Ontario, Canada in 1854, and graduated from Cornell University in civil engineering, Macpherson was a prominent railroad builder known throughout the Americas. In the thick of the scenic mountain railroad scene, Macpherson himself had come up with an excellently engineered plan to run a steam cogwheel line to the summit of Mt. Wilson 1. This would be similar to the scenic railways already used at Mount Washington, Vermont, and Pike's Peak, Colorado.

Macpherson had the plan, but no one had the money…that is until Prof. Lowe came on the scene. It was actually Perry M. Green, president of Pasadena First National Bank, who put Lowe and Macpherson together. The Professor, unafraid of undertaking risky ventures, set up the Pasadena Mount Wilson Railroad Company in 1891 using his Opera House as the main office.

The first problem they were met with was an inability to procure rights-of-way from land owners who lived along Mt. Wilson. The Professor, in a quick fit of independence said, "Hell, then, we'll take our railroad in another direction!" This may have been for the better, because Macpherson was able to plot a right-of-way that would be gentle enough in grade to allow them to use an electric traction railroad–a streetcar!

The plan took him toward a Mountain top a bit west of Mt. Wilson, Oak Mountain. The photo above shows Lowe (center) with his enclave of prospective investors. On the trip was Andrew McNally 2, the map printer from Chicago. With respect for Prof. Lowe, the first white man to reach the top of Oak Mountain and place the American flag, McNally made official the renaming of Oak Mountain by printing Mount Lowe on all his maps. This newer route, though it is easier on electric traction railroads, did have in its path one steep climb that was going to have to be overcome. This would be done by the installation of a cable incline making this electric scenic railroad a one-of-a-kind ever.

To provide a better appreciation of the magnitude of the Mount Lowe Railway, I have drawn up this scaled map to delineate its route. This map will become available throughout the story to indicate to you, the reader, where you are located along the way. Like this: see map. Take your time scrolling to the bottom of this map where you can find a detailed legend of the map. This should make it easy for you to cross-refer.

Starting at the bottom and working north (up) is Mountain Junction at Lake Avenue and Calaveras Street (where the red line meets the black box.) The line travels north to about Las Flores Street then veers right across the Poppyfields to Rubio Canyon. This red line represents the mountain Division of the MLR.

From the platform at the Rubio Pavillion (red line meets the pink line) everyone transfers to the Great Incline funicular, the pink line. It climbs the Echo ridge and arrives atop where the black squares represent the buildings of Echo Mountain.

The orange line represents the Alpine Division which is a narrow gage train running from Echo to Crystal Springs, end of the line.

The major canyons are marked along stream routes. Thin green lines mark elevations and mountain contours. Dotted green lines mark trails. The black dotted line at the top of the map is an access road. The thin red line at the top is marked O.M. & M. R.R., the one man and a mule railroad. X marks the summit of Mount Lowe, obviously the train didn't go to the top.

1. Mt. Wilson is a prominent peak in the San Gabriel Mountains first explored by Benjamin Wilson, a distinguished white American landowner of the properties now known as Riverside and Pasadena during Mexican rule. Mt. Wilson is now a metro-media broadcasting center for the Greater Los Angeles and Orange County areas.

2. Andrew McNally had moved to Altadena in 1887 on the invitation of the developers, the Woodburys. His mansion still stands on its original site near Santa Rosa Avenue and Mariposa Street.