Train Ride To Historic Downtown Redlands CA Inland Empire Hidden Gems

[ChrisLA]

The last few weeks I spent time in San Bernardino at some of the offices I support with my new I.T. position I just started with another state agency. It was partially a meet and greet, and also making sure the project went smoothly.

Anyway I had been wanting to take the new train extention that the city of Redlands built to connect it with the Metrolink commuter train from Downtown San Bernardino to Downtown LA. Metrolink already services Redlands, but I guess they wanted another train that just goes from SB to the Redlands.

The start of my day in San Bernardino so when I was done for the day I spent the late afternoon riding the train and checking out the area.








Why is Redlands called Redlands?
They named their city "Redlands" after the color of the adobe soil. So large had the area grown by 1888 that it was decided to incorporate.


Welcome to the Beautiful City of Redlands. A Big Town with a Small Town Feel.

Redlands – known in 1900 as “The City of Millionaires” and later as “The City of Beautiful Homes” welcomes you! Founded in 1881 and incorporated in 1888, Redlands is a quintessential “big town” with a “small town” feel. For much of its history Redlands was the “Washington Navel Orange Growing Capital of the World” with the citrus industry as the main focus of its economy.






















































































































Redlands is such a beautiful city with also a lot of wealth, unfortunately I couldn't explore those neighborhoods on foot, and I would have love to visit the University of Redlands, founded 1907. It's like night and day compared to San Bernardino city and only a short ride away. It's definitely worth a drive or train ride from LA on the Metrolink, one of the many unknown gems in the LA/Inland Empire area.



Back in San Bernardino














This is the new train that runs from Redlands to Downtown San Bernardino that I rode.








A few extra photos from my colleague's car driving back to LA from our work trip. This is San Dimas one of the many eastern suburbs in metro Los Angeles

[Architype]

Nice images, train rides are great aren't they?

[OhioGuy]

Nice to see with sunshine. I stopped by downtown Redlands on my way to Palm Springs last month and it was rainy & chilly... made it difficult to appreciate the downtown area though I could tell it was a pleasant place despite the less than pleasant weather.

[edale]

Redlands really is the gem of the IE. I decided to explore the town a bit driving back to LA from Palm Springs a couple years ago, and it really impressed me! The historic district with the old Victorian mansions, the healthy and intact downtown area, the mini Hollywood Bowl they have...all very charming. Thanks for sharing your photos!

[EastSideHBG]

Beautiful! And San Dimas High School football rules!

[craigs]

Thanks for posting! I've always wanted to check out Redlands, and now even more so.

[sopas ej]

Great photos!

Redlands is indeed a gem in the IE. It's been quite a few years since I was last there; my sister's husband grew up there (they met at UCLA), but by the time they started dating, his parents had already moved to northern California, so I didn't go to Redlands until many years after he had already married my sister.

The downtown is cute, and yes, the historic residential neighborhoods with the Victorians are really very interesting, some very unique Victorian architecture.

I was also curious about that new Metrolink extension to Redlands, when I first read about it last year. I guess I can look into it, but I was wondering why they used a different kind of train for the extension vs. just extending the regular Metrolink service into Redlands.

Again, great photos!

[ChrisLA]

Thanks everyone!

If you haven’t been to Downtown Riverside I highly recommend visiting that area. I checked it out back in December and was in shock at how much activity was happening there. The Mission Inn just takes your breath away, it’s not something you expect to see in the Inland Empire. The surrounding neighborhood was also impressive and was a very well kept area of historical homes. I sometimes forget these areas exists and prospered long before the current trend of newly developed communities in the Inland Empire.

Even as bad as San Bernardino is, and to their credit there are some decent spots still. I worked one week the downtown area as well and I could see it has a lot of potential if they can get their act together. I was also surprised at how much traffic there is in San Bernardino, must be the government workers (lol), UPS and Amazon both have a huge facility and the airport is close by. It looks like they may have a decent bus system with a BRT line or two. I’ll share a few photos I took in Downtown Riverside back in December, I would have loved to get some of the historical residential neighborhood surrounding downtown.

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Great photos!
I was also curious about that new Metrolink extension to Redlands, when I first read about it last year. I guess I can look into it, but I was wondering why they used a different kind of train for the extension vs. just extending the regular Metrolink service into Redlands.

I wondered about that too, especially since both trains service the area and they share the same tracks. Hopefully they can extend the service further east into the growing communities further east, I heard from a lot of the people at the offices who live out that way complain about how bad the traffic has gotten. One of the RN’s in the office I was at said she lived in the Coachella Valley and commuted to San Bernardino. She said it has grown a lot and also becoming more expensive too.

[ChrisLA]

Riverside-Downtown

Sorry about the quality, these were taken with my iphone.

[202_Cyclist]

Thank you for posting these photos. Redlands looks like it has a very nice and walkable downtown.

Riverside also looks nice. When I grew up in Southern California 25 - 30 years ago, Riverside seemed to be a backwater place that suffered from smog. It looks like it has really improved in recent decades. I suppose it has benefited from housing in coastal Orange and LA Counties becoming so expensive that the only people who can afford to live there now are venture capitalists and hedge-fund managers. There has been a proposal moving in fits and starts to build a streetcar in downtown Riverside.

https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/...y-headquarters

[plinko]

Redlands is a gem. I’ve stopped there a few times over the years on the way to or from the desert. Excellent variety of restaurants and some great architecture.

[Chip15213]

Thanks for posting the photos from your trip to Redlands.

For those who are not aware, there is a series called "Restored" that is hosted by Brett Watterman. The series is in its sixth season (currently on Magnolia Network) and each episode features Brett and his crew of experienced contractors, craftspeople, artists, and network of salvage shops meticulously restore a historic property in the Redlands area.

The show captures the process of stripping away renovations and alterations done over the years and uncovers clues of the original design. The transformations from "before" to "after" are nothing less than amazing.

The Redlands has an eye popping wealth of architectural gems that fortunately are being given a polish to reestablish their unique beauty.

[geomorph]

I like the effect of all those umbrellas capping the narrow lane.

[Cory]

Nice set Chris! You always have the detailed tours for us.

[SLO]

Great set, yeah San Berdoo is rough right now, great shots of Redlands and I agree on Riverside...

[hauntedheadnc]

San Bernardino? Were your activities there related in any way whatsoever to selling lamps and chairs to San Ber'dino squares?

If not, why not? Inquiring Frank Zappa aficionados want to know.

[ReDSPork02]

Great Pictures of my birth town.
Redlands is really nice, many local bars, restaurants and small town feel events year round.

For those who asked, OMNI (SBCTA) transit services (the local transit agency), started the Light rail service planing and construction many years ago, a little before construction, Metrolink took over operations. Light rail service called "Arrow" was retained and with Metrolink later adding their one station, one train service.

Metrolink only has one AM and one PM LA service on the new track. To one station, the DT Redlands Station.

[ChrisLA]

Thanks for the comments, I’m glad to share photos of the many hidden gems in the Southern California region whenever I get the opportunity.

[Buckeye Native 001]

I always liked driving through Redlands on my way up 38 to camping near Loch Leven. It always reminded me a bit of Old Towne Orange