HELP

[Russ Bellinis]

So the train is moving east in the late morning, close to noon.

The train is coming towards the photographer. Look at the shadows on the trestle, the sun is on the right hand side of the picture, though the shadow at the bottom of the photo does look more like it was over the right shoulder of the photographer. "Close to noon" puts the trestle in an East-West/ Noertheast-Southwest, direction, with South/Southeast, to the right.

the Arroyo Seco bridge on the AT&SF near the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. If it is it is looking East

I'm not that familiar with the "look" of Southern California, and, the photo is well before my time. The "hills" in the background would then be the San Gabriel mountains?

That is correct, but the problem for me is that I just don't know when that area was settled. Obviously, if that picture is of the Arroyo Seco, it is before the area was settled. The first Rose Parade on New Years Day was held in the early 1890's. I'm not sure when the Rose Bowl was constructed. The Rose Parade goes through downtown Pasadena and this area is a more outlying area. Since that area is quite hilly, and "view property" is premium in California, I think the Arroyo Seco would have been settled in the 1920's or 1930's, although some of the houses in that area were built just recently because some of the home sites are in difficult locations.