Locations of buildings served by the railroad in the 60's - 70's

In creating this map, I drew the route of the railroad right of way as it existed as I was growing up. South Mission Road used to be Hill Street, and the portion of S. Mission Road south of Fallbrook Street did not exist until the late 1960' or early 1970's.

Fallbrook Creek is the blue line, and the railroad crossed it on three curved wooden pile bridges: one at College Street and one each on both curves of the wye at E. Mission Road.

At one time there was a bulk oil distributor located just east of the depot; I don't know if it was ever served by rail. You can see it in the background of the photo of the Fallbrook depot elsewhere on this site. There may have been other industries served by rail throughout Fallbrook's history; and although I am not personally aware of any, the Fallbrook.org website indicates that there once was "a Union Oil bulk oil plant with a siding on Mission and Santa Margarita (roads) . . . to receive and distribute oil products." 

Another reference indicates that the building I have marked in location 4 on the map below as "Unknown packing house" was actually a freight or storage depot used by the railroad. Today it houses an art studio, as it has since they acquired the building in 1988. An aerial view photo of Fallbrook, taken in the late 1950's, clearly shows this building (4), the depot (5), and the oil distributor (6) along with another small building between 5 and 6. Another aerial view shows the south side of the depot as well as the #4 building. These photos are posted on the FallbrookDirectory.com website.

To Oceanside

As of the last time I visited Fallbrook in 2003, a shopping center occupies the area which used to be Fallbrook Lumber Company. Fallbrook Feed and Fertilizer occupies the Green Goddess Avocado building (this building actually pre-dates the railroad).  The feed store used to be located approximately adjacent to the "i" in "Main" on the map. The mobile home park shown next to the tracks at Aviation Road is now a self storage facility (I used to live where the "+" is), and a large shopping center occupies almost the entire triangular area between Aviation and Ammunition west of S. Mission.

Not much is left of the old right of way; a community revitalization plan has created a nice walking path along the r.o.w.'s location along Fallbrook Creek between Fallbrook and Beech Streets, the depressions in the sidewalk where the tracks used to cross Main Street have been filled, and even the depot's twin palm trees are now gone.  A new Sheriff's station was recently built where the old depot used to be.  A small portion of the right of way is still evident, paralleling Brandon.  The building in the middle of the wye, which used to be another avocado packing plant, is still there; it is now an equipment rental company, I believe.

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Photocopies of vintage Santa Fe Los Angeles Division Water Service Record for Fallbrook, CA dated April 14, 1952 are available for purchase, click here for more information!