A fact from Palms-Southern Pacific Railroad Depot appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 22 September 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that Palms Depot(pictured) was known as the "Grasshopper Stop" because "grasshoppers were present in veritable clouds" when it opened?
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The reference to a cloud of grasshoppers was debunked in the Arcadia edition of Los Angeles's The Palms Neighborhood and should be removed from the article. It is a term quite often used in railroad terminology to refer to a station where one train laid over to allow another train to pass it in order to use the same set of tracks. 69.111.51.110 (talk) 05:59, 23 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting. The two instances that I can see in the Google Books digitization of that reference use "grasshopper" to mean passing siding, but it doesn't say that it was widely used to mean that. You are correct in that it doesn't support the cloud of grasshoppers claim, but it also doesn't appear to debunk it. In my many years of reading about railroad history, I have not encountered this meaning of the term. After a quick Google search, I don't see any other references that define the term in this way either, and I also don't see a reference supporting the clouds of grasshoppers. I always knew "grasshopper" as a term to describe a small locomotive with a vertical boiler and pistons whose connecting rods resembled the legs of a grasshopper, i.e. a grasshopper locomotive. Until we find a more definitive reference, the current phrasing seems appropriate with a note about the dispute to check here for more information. Slambo(Speak)17:02, 14 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Since I have a Newspapers.com subscription as part of my administrative duties here, I looked up the article used as the reference for the clouds of grasshoppers quote. I found it and linked to it. So, the quote is supported by the original reference, now the task is to find other references that either support or refute it. Slambo(Speak)17:21, 14 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Common sense tells us that "clouds of grasshoppers" did not exist in Los Angeles in the 19th century (just as they don't exist today). I believe the reporter who wrote the Times article was simply making it up. That happens. Also, the line itself used only one set of tracks, so there had to be someplace for a westbound engine to pull off the main line so an eastbound engine could slither by. Still, that said, I agree that the "dubious" label is proper warning in this story. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 04:53, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
An article in the L.A. Times of March 20, 1914, reveals that “At 6:40 in the evening . . . the train that came in from Los Angeles met the train there that came in from Venice and there were passengers disembarking and getting on both trains.” So we know that this station was a transfer point with two sets of tracks there. Single tracks ran off both east and west.BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 05:21, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
