Last night I attended a presentation by Reena Deuch at UCSD on The Impossible Railroad. I didn’t know how traffic would be going all the way across town so I arrived an hour early. Shortly after I arrived a fellow forum member, John (lechee), arrived. We had never met but we knew each other would be there. I enjoyed meeting John. He is a retired phone guy and I am a cable guy, somewhat similar fields. We talked about that mostly and I found some of his stories fascinating.
There were about 60 people in attendance. The presentation was 2 parts. The first hour or so was on the history of the line. John Speckles of Speckle sugar fame was the driving force of the San Diego & Arizona. He secretly conspired with E. H. Harriman to get SP financing to begin construction (in 1906 I think). Construction began on both ends and was to build into the Carisso Canyon (yes it was originally spelled SS). After Harriman died John Speckles channeled funding from his many other San Diego area businesses into the railroad. There were many challenges and setbacks during the construction and early operations including tunnel collapses and political troubles. Housing the workforce was a major challenge in its own right. Tents and shacks were built with much difficulty on precarious perches carved into the hillside. During WWI all new railroad construction was ceased. Speckles successfully lobbied in Washington for permission to continue construction during the war. The RR was eventually completed (I don’t remember the date) and freight and passenger operations began. After John Speckles died his remaining family was not interested in the railroad and it became a SP subsidiary and was renamed the San Diego & Arizona Eastern in 1932.
This was a difficult piece of railroad to maintain and fires and tunnel collapses were common. When the tunnel at Goat Canyon suffered a slide it was damaged beyond repair. So a new tunnel was bored and the spectacular Goat Canyon trestle w
THE SAN DIEGO RAILROAD MUSEAM( CHECK THAT SPELLING) CAN GIVE A LOT OF INFORMATION ON THE SD&AE AND OTHER ROADS IN THIS AREA. I’VE SPENT HOURS ON IT. DONOT COFUSE THE SAN DIEGO RAILROAD MUSEAM FOR THE SAN DIEGO MODEL RR MUSEAM, TWO DIFFERENT ENITIES!
The San Diego Railroad Museum has changed there name, I don’t remember what the new name is cause it’s a long name. Anyway the lecturer got a lot of info from them and several people from that organization were there last night.
Not to mention the TV documentary on the SD&AE done a few years ago by the local PBS station, KPBS, called “The Impossible Railroad” … interesting, if somewhat slow-paced.
You can still get a VHS copy of the program from the station:
The “Carizzo George Railroad And Preservation Society Incorperated” (I Think thats it) has been in continiuos operation from around 86’ untill present, although the track they run on has changed here and there. One of the operations is a excoursion down to the Tecate brewery for a tour of the brewery. I don’t know how often it runs but aparently it is quite often. I am going to try to take that ride this summer. If I do I’ll give you all a report, that is after I recover from the brewery tour [;)]
Ericsp, I don’t think the lecture had a point other than the professor showcasing her favorite hiking area that happened to have a railroad, thus providing a topic.
The railway is now the San Diego and Imperial Valley (SDIY) and is (according to one of the nudist camp owners just north of Interstate-8 next to the tracks) running a train almost every evening. (This is second-hand information from one of my regular Wednesday lunch group who hikes out in the area every month or two.) I am wondering, though, if it is the string of ballast cars I’ve been seeing down west of Ocotillo that is what they are hearing at night.
I believe that the trackage is still actually owned by the transit board over here in San Diego.
See what UPRR has to say about them, with slightly out of date information:
Chad thanks for the kind words. It was a pleasure to meet you , talk about railroading and our similar careers.
I stopped at campo on the way home. They were doing some switching with three UP units. There were three center beam flat cars loaded with lumber , several tank cars and a string of hopper cars loaded with sand which they were unloading and reloading on trucks to be hauled to San Diego for making concrete . They are loading sand just west of plaster city which is being hauled there by truck from a local sand and gravel pit and the taken to Campo by rail. At Jucumba there are several late model passanger cars on a siding, a railroad employee told me they belong to the museum. I then drove to coyote wells, there were several more tank cars set out there. I met two railroad employees in a chevrolet surburban hi railer inspecting the track at plaster city. I briefly spoke to them as well as the man hauling the sand and then headed for Flagstaff . I had a nice trip and took allot of pictures.
The Carrizo Gorge Railway picks up sand near Plaster City and the freight train hauls
it out to Campo. I sent a letter to the General Manager of the Carrizo Gorge Railway
if he can e-mail me digital photographs of the train in the Carrizo Gorge. Hope to share
those on the web.
Did she express disappointment at trains returning? Did anyone ask her why she finds it necessary to tresspass in order to hike? I wonder if the lecture was to showcase a potential hiking trail in order to get people to lobby their representatives to try to stop the return of the trains. How was this advertised to the public?
Ericsp,
I don’t know how the lecture was advertised, I heard about it here on the forum(I think from a ad in the paper). The lecturer had illegaly hiked the line before she found out she was breaking the law. She then stopped. Then the speeder tours and hikes were organized in cooperation with the railroad. They only lasted long enough for the insurance company to find out about it and it came to an end (winter 1999-2000). During that time there were 4 events (I think).
She was not disapointed that the trains were running again. She seemed excited at the future excoursion possibilities, and spoke highly of the existing train rides like thwe one to the brewery in Tecate. If it was a ploy for a trail she picked the wrong crowd as most of the 60 people there were railfans. Some of them more knowledgable than her. Like I said there seemed to be no point other than showcasing the George.
The Carrizo Gorge Railway picks up sand near Plaster City and the freight train takes
the sand out to Campo. There is mention of a train excursion through the Carrizo
Gorge later this year. All I have heard so far that permission has not been granted for
the train to run.