The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 136

tVi Ml v. Morning Train Whistles Into Pasadena History The dependable whistle heralding the arrival of early morning trains in Pasadena popped 68-year-old Moses Moreno's eyes open for the last time Friday. And it was 40 minutes late. Moreno joined nearly 400 people who watched Amtrak No. 3 from Chicago squeal to a halt in front of the Santa Fe station on North Raymond Avenue for the final time, marking the end of 108 years of transcontinental passenger rail service in Pasadena.

"I live five blocks from here, and every morning when I was in bed, before I would get up, I would hear that whistle," said Moreno, who retired from his job as a foreman at Kern Foods nine years ago. Moreno said he will miss his Amtrak alarm clock, but he is looking forward to riding the Blue Line, the $841 -million light rail system designed to link the city with Los Angeles by 1998. The Santa Fe station will become a transit center incorporating a Blue Line stop and shuttle service to airports and local hotels, Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole told the crowd. The new transit center will be one of six Blue Line stations along the 13.6-mile route between Pasadena and Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles. The last Amtrak train rolled into Pasadena just before 8 a.m., about 40 minutes behind schedule because of a storm in the Midwest City dignitaries and about 70 railroad buffs who had bought $6 tickets boarded the train for the historic last leg of its trip to Los Angeles.

The remaining crowd yelled a final "All Aboard!" as the train edged forward. Then, about 20 people swarmed over the rails to pick up souvenirs the now-flattened coins they had placed on the tracks in the moments before the train arrived. Fire left Eaton Canyon Nature Center "cleaner and clearer' than it was," Director Mickey Long says. Sprouting Leaves of Recovery Homeless Youths Offered Some Real Street Smarts STEVE SIMMONS ForThTimM building," Long said. There will be landscaping from the park's entrance to the old building site.

"In that area, we'll put in native plants to enhance what's already there, but the rest of the park will be left to recover on its own," Null said. Docents have been leading tours since the beginning of this month, including school groups. However, there has been one small glitch. The fire destroyed the records of which schools were scheduled when, and Null asked that any school that had scheduled a tour during February or March to call the center at (818) 821-3246. "We don't have any way to contact them because we don't know who they are," she said.

The center has reserved January to book schools that were scheduled, and will accept new groups in February. Donations and fund-raising have brought in almost $50,000. The center also has received five grants totaling about $53,000 from organizations for landscaping, office equipment and a fund-raising consultant Money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state Office of Emergency Services will cover the cost of replacing the building and furnishings, but not the planned improvements. Los Angeles County officials have pledged to make up the difference, and the center is hoping to raise money for any shortfaljs. By ANNE LOUISE BANNON TIMES STAFF WRITER I lack skeletons of trees I dot the hills at Eaton Canyon Nature Center in Altadena, reminders of October's fires.

But now you can see them sprouting leaves. Grasses and other plants are sprouting between the rocks of the wash, visible from the trails that have been restored by volunteers working on two cleanup days. Nature is right on regenerating itself on the site of disaster. "It's not that fire damages nature," said Cynthia Null, president of the Eaton Canyon Nature Center Associates, a volunteer support group. "We're showing how fire rejuvenates nature" by clearing out brush that otherwise would not decompose.

"Fire creates ash that acts as fertilizer," Null said. "We teach this is just part of the recycling process. It just happened rather quickly." The park is "cleaner and clearer than it was," Director Mickey Long said. Long-term loss involves mostly man, not the destroyed records from the Pasadena Audubon Society dating to 1904 that cannot be replaced, plus valuable and hard-to-re-place taxidermy specimens and the nature center building. "Everyone was devastated for a couple weeks, but that's beyond us now," Long said.

Plans are in the works to Eaton Canyon Revisited Hoars Daylight hours seven days a week. Tour Family nature walks every Saturday, 9 a.m. Bird-watching walk, Feb. 20, 8 to 10 ajn. Moonlight walks, Jan.

27 and Feb. 25, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Twilight walk, Feb. 10, 6:30 to p.m. How to Help Another cleanup day is coming but no date has beeen T-shirts ($11) and sweatshirts ($27) are on sale to raise money.

They are printed: "I helped rebuild the Eaton Canyon Nature Center." For more information: (818) 821-3246. rebuild the nature center. Although funding and other details need to be worked out, it looks as if the new facility will have several significant improvements, such as a volunteer office, a larger building and solar power. "It was a very nice building, but we all knew of little things we'd want to improve and if we do that now we'll have a better ByRENEETAWA. TIMES STAFF WRITER A Cal Poly Pomona mobile education center will visit Pomona this month, offering free services aimed at enrolling homeless children in school.

The education van will include a bilingual tutor, and parents may get help filling enrollment forms. A therapist will provide counseling, and referrals will be made for immunizations, physicals and other services for children. Cal Poly organizers do not have statistics on the number of homeless children in Pomona, nor on how many are not enrolled in school. But directors at homeless shelters report that the number of children on the streets is rising, said Nancy Harkey, a Cal Poly professor of behavioral science who is organizing the mobile center. "It's so erratic.

They're in school for a little while, and then they're out," Harkey said. Children do not need a permanent address to enroll in Pomona schools. Often, homeless families are so preoccupied with day-to-day survival that they neglect their children's education, said Shirley Abrams, an administrator for the county Office of Education, which is providing funds for Cal Poly's education van through a federal grant The tutor will help younger children reach their appropriate grade level, and older ones do independent study programs and prepare for high school equivalency examinations. The van will be at First Lutheran Church in Pomona on Wednesdays from 1 to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from 8 a.m.

to 4 p.m., starting Jan. 26. Appointments are not necessary. -v PAGE 6 7 20," T994 7 1 VV? "3 i Wb.