These four cities know trains. Or do they?

Sure, freight trains jammed with crates wrapped in colorful labels carried oranges and lemons plucked from fruit trees in Glendora, La Verne, San Dimas and Pomona to points east from the 1870s to the early 1900s. Then in the mid-20th century, the Pacific Electric Railway — an incentive to get people to buy property designed by Henry Huntington — brought passengers as far as Glendora, and on another line, Pomona.

But the last Red Car left the area 60 years ago, replaced by diesel buses and concrete ribbons of freeways. Suburban dwellers today know only cars, commuters motoring in steel boxes on four wheels jammed front-to-back on the 210 and 10 freeways morning and night.

In 2025, time will go backward. That’s when the Gold Line, the longest light-rail train in the state, will cruise through these four cities, stopping at newly built stations, crossing at street level most of the time and high above thoroughfares in concrete bridges at other times.

The Gold Line is under construction and on its way. For a price of about $2.1 billion, it will extend 9 miles from Azusa Pacific University to north Pomona, and if a $450 million funding gap is closed, possibly on to Claremont and Montclair, crossing into San Bernardino County.

This will give a jolt to the roughly 272,000 people living in these four communities. While most won’t give up their Lexuses and Toyotas, many will, and take the light-rail train to work or to entertainment venues in Pasadena, Chinatown and Los Angeles. But all will have to deal with the trains crossing streets, safety gates coming down and lots of bells, whistles and flashing lights.

That’s why the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority is holding open houses in March in Glendora, La Verne, Pomona and San Dimas, in that order.

But before the Gold Line is whisking passengers west and east on sleek, steel tubes, there is the construction period, set to enter full bore in late summer. There will be street delays, detours and stations under construction. The Foothill Gold Line authority’s first order of business is for residents to talk to the folks from Kiewit-Parsons, the firm building this massive railroad project, said Lisa Levy Buch, chief communications and strategic development officer for the authority.

“They will meet the construction team to learn about crossings, and when those will be built,” she said.

As far as street detours, those will be set by the local cities at a later date, Buch said. But at the open houses, the authority will tell for how long and around when streets will be blocked by construction, she said.

The Gold line is currently a 31-mile train running from Azusa to East Los Angeles via Downtown L.A. serving 27 stations — each with an art installation. For example, in the Monrovia station, “River of Time” by Cha-Rie Tang pays homage to the town’s architecture and famous arts-and-crafts era tile-maker Ernest Batchelder.

At the four open houses, the artists commissioned for installations will be there “to present and showcase what their public art will be,” Buch said.

Of note is Pomona Station artist Stephen Farley, who is asking for personal stories and pictures to complete his installation with the working title “A Hall of Gratitude.”

Each of the four open houses will be held between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m:

Glendora: Thursday, March 5, at Bidwell Forum (Library), 140 S. Glendora Ave. Station artist Michael Hillman will attend.

La Verne: Tuesday, March 10, at La Verne Community Center, 3680 D St. Station artist Blue McRight will attend.

Pomona: Wednesday, March 11, at Palomares Park Community Center, 499 E. Arrow Highway. Station artist Stephen Farley will attend.

San Dimas: Thursday, March 12, at Stanley Plummer Community Building, 245 E. Bonita Ave. Station artists Eugene and Anne Olsen Daub will attend.