Final Boarding Call : Nostalgia: Hundreds turn out early to watch the last train pull out of Pasadena’s picturesque station. The depot is being closed and the tracks converted for commuter service.

For 108 years, the tiny train station was a place of emotional farewells when people came to see their friends off.

The saddest came Friday, however, when hundreds turned out to say goodby to the Pasadena train depot itself.

The picturesque station, famed as a backdrop for movies and as a favored departure point for Hollywood stars, was closed so its tracks can be converted for a future commuter rail line.

Starting today, the transcontinental Southwest Chief passenger train that stopped twice daily at the downtown Pasadena station will be rerouted through Orange County by its Amtrak operators. Start-up of the $847-million light-rail line is expected in 1998.

Officials hope to preserve the station itself--perhaps as a museum or community center. But it will be boarded up until its fate is decided.

Nearly 400 people showed up before dawn Friday to watch the last westbound passenger train pull into the station. Some brought cameras. Others brought children.

“This is a very sad day,” Altadena resident Paula Aghajanian said as she sat on a curb next to the tracks with son Gregory, 5, and daughter Lauren, 3. Gregory was wearing a pint-size conductor’s hat and talking of becoming a train engineer when he grows up.

Ray Carlson, a Pasadena video distributor, was with 13-month-old Lindsay Johnston and her brother, Timothy, 3. “I was determined that my grandkids get to ride a train out of this station,” Carlson said. “They may not remember it, but I will.”

Near the rusty signal tower that once flagged down crews from trains with such proud names as the California Limited, El Capitan and the Grand Canyon Limited, Barbara Boekenoogen stood clutching a blowup of a photo of the station taken in 1941 by her husband, Glenn.

Little seemed to have changed about the elegant little structure, built of stucco and concrete with a red tile roof and pastel-framed windows. It was constructed in 1935, the third depot building to serve the site.

“I saw the first Super Chief come through when I was a kid in the ‘30s,” said Glenn Boekenoogen, a lithographer from Altadena. “I’ll tell you, it was something.”

Nearby, Bob Finan surveyed the lights shining from inside the station for the last time. The morning gloom around him matched his own.

“I swapped shifts with someone at work and got up at a quarter to 4 to come,” said Finan, 41, a high-rise building engineer from West Los Angeles. “This is a melancholy day.”

Inside, ticket agent Susie Brown was experiencing something rarely seen during her seven years there: People clamoring for tickets.

She was pleased that the depot’s waiting room--with polished wooden benches and ornate Western-style chandeliers beneath a ceiling of hand-hewn open beams, was busy on its last day.

“The roof leaks. And sometimes I think there are ghosts in here,” said Brown, who will be transferred to Amtrak’s Fullerton depot. “But this is a lovely place.”

In the end, the last train was late. Snowy weather encountered two days ago near its Chicago starting place was blamed. The crowd passed the time reminiscing.

In the 1930s and ‘40s, celebrities such as Clark Gable, Mae West, Will Rogers, Gary Cooper and Jeannette MacDonald favored the Pasadena station over the larger Union Station in Los Angeles, remembered Ralph Melching of the Pasadena Historical Society.

About 320 passengers were already aboard when the train finally pulled into Pasadena moments before 8 a.m. There was room for only 75 more to ride the last 10 miles to Downtown Los Angeles. And only one true traveler was among them.

Brian Smith, 20, of Monterey Park was headed for Seattle. “I didn’t expect so many people would come to see me off,” he said with a laugh.

The others, such as Barbara Sibert of Alhambra and Greg Gneier and Janine Duffy of Pasadena, were more subdued as they climbed aboard and took seats.

“We’re going to miss the trains’ whistle,” said Thelma Vickroy.

Finally came Susie Brown’s voice over the station loudspeaker: “And now, for the final time, this is the final boarding call. . . .”

To the toot of its horn and the cheers of its friends, the train pulled out.