I had arranged with AC Adam to pick me up in Solana Beach and we would drive out to Campo to the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum. I arose Sunday morning and after getting some money out of the bank, drove to the Santa Ana station.
Pacific Surfliner 562 arrived and I boarded, taking a seat in the Superliner coach for the trip to Solana Beach.
The San Clemente Pier on a dark foggy morning. The train took me to Solana Beach on time and I found AC Adam waiting for me. After a visit to the Coca-Cola machine, we left the the station and drove out to Campo, stopping only at the rest area at Bucklin Road. We drove into Campo but made a stop before parking the car.
Southern Pacific tank car 62844, builder and date unknown.
Carrizo Gorge Railway cab car 8758, ex. Metra 8758, nee Chicago and North Western 259 built by Pullman-Standard in 1967. We parked at the museum's parking lot and started taking pictures.
The former Southern Pacific Campo station built in 1916.
Mine cars.
San Diego and Arizona wooden boxcar 2041 built in the 1900's. Little is known about this old boxcar. It probably pre-dates the San Diego & Arizona Railway, incorporated in 1906. It may possibly have been acquired from the San Diego & Southeastern Railway when that line was sold to the SD&A in October 1917. (The SD&SE was formed in March 1912 from other railways whose predecessors dated back to 1886 and 1887). When its career as a boxcar ended, SDA 2041 was retired, lifted off its trucks and placed on the ground about 1916 (when the SD&A arrived in Campo and began San Diego-Campo service) or shortly after. The car was owned by the SD&A until 1933 and then by Southern Pacific's subsidiary San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway. The boxcar is still the property of the SD&AE, which was sold by SP to the San Diego County Metropolitan Transit Development Board in November 1979. The boxcar has been in use by the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association as a small theater for their passengers waiting for excursion trains.
I was surprised when I visited the restroom, which was one of the nicest I have ever been in, complete with railroad pictures on the tiles.
The body of San Diego and Arizona wooden coach 239, nee Southern Pacific 51 built by Gilbert and Bush in 1875.
The body of San Diego & Arizona wooden coach 240, nee Southern Pacific 195 built by Barney and Smith in 1889.
A piece of track from the National City and Otay Railway.
Museum scene.
Railroad wheels and a museum sign.
Union Pacific H20-44 1366 built by Fairbanks Morse in 1947 as demonstrator 2000 and was then sold to the Union Pacific where it was renumbered 1366. It was bought by Southwest Portland Cement and renumbered 66 in 1962 and then 408 in 1969. SWPC donated the unit to the museum in 1985, where it has been restored to its original UP number and livery.
Union Pacific diner 4054, nee Union Pacific 328 built by Pullman in 1929, rebuilt to buffet-lounge in 1964.
California Western 2-6-6-2 46 built by Baldwin in 1937, and was the second to last logging mallet outshopped by the company. 46 was built with saddle tanks for Weyerhaeuser Lumber as 110 and operated out of Camp McDonald, Washington, in the Longview area. In 1954, 110 was bought by the logging company Rayonier, Incorporated. Renumbered 111, it worked on the ex-Polson Logging Grays Harbor County, Washington, lines and then as a standby on the New London-Railroad Camp-Crane Creek mainline until 1967. At some time, it was mated to a slope back tender from Polson Logging 18. In 1968, 111 was bought by the California Western for the Fort Bragg-Willits Super Skunk tourist trains. Its tanks and fuel bunker were removed and the current tender added. It worked until 1981 when steam on the CW ceased, and was then donated to the museum.
EJ Lavino & Company 0-6-0T 10 built by Alco Cooke in 1923 for the Lavino Furnace Company, later E.J. Lavino & Co. It spent its entire operational life switching at the company's ore processing plant in Sheridan, Pennsylvania, on the Reading Railway's Harrisburg-Reading mainline. During the 1960s, 10 was fondly remembered by railfans for exchanging whistles with steam locomotives hauling the Reading's "Iron Horse Rambles" through Sheridan. After a request by the museum, 10 was donated to the PSRMA in 1966 and was moved to rented tracks at the Orange Empire Trolley Museum, later the Orange Empire Railway Museum. In 1981 it went on display at La Mesa and then in 1983, was moved to Campo.
San Diego & Arizona Eastern 2-8-0 104 built by Baldwin in 1904 as 2720 and bought by the San Diego & Arizona in 1921 and renumbered #104. It was used on freight as well as passenger runs, and appeared in the 1923 promotional film, "Carriso Gorge", "The Magnificent" and in 1926, the MGM movie "Red Lights" with Marie Prevost and Jean Hersholt. 104 was requisitioned on long-term lease by the Southern Pacific in 1941, and returned to its original 2720 number. It then worked across the Southern Pacific system until 1948, when it returned to the SD&AE and was renumbered 104. Leased back to the Southern Pacific in 1950, it worked as 104 at the SP's Bayshore yards in Brisbane, California, until retired in 1954. In 1955, the SP donated 104 along with ex-SD&AE Carriso Gorge Business Car 50 to the Southern California Exposition/San Diego County Fair in Del Mar, California, where it went on display for the next twenty-seven years. In 1982, the fair operator donated it to the museum, and it arrived in Campo in August 1983.
Santa Fe RS-2 2098 built by Alco in 1949 as Kennecott Copper 103. It hauled ore cars on the nineteen mile line between the company's open pit copper mine at Ruth, Nevada, and the smelter at McGill until 1983. It then worked briefly at the Bingham Canyon, Utah, open pit as 907. Kennecott donated 103 to the museum in 1984 and it was repainted as Santa Fe 2098 in 1988 for Railfair '88 at the Santa Fe's Wright Street yard in San Diego.
Santa Fe S-2 2381 built by American Locomotive Company in 1949. It was assigned to the Santa Fe's Western sections, including yards in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, Barstow, Bakersfield, Fresno and Richmond. 2381 spent many years in San Diego, including working the transfer haul from the San Diego yard to National City. 2381 was retired in 1977 and placed in storage and was later donated to the California State Railroad Museum which, in turn, donated it the PSRMA.
San Diego & Arizona 25 ton switcher 1 built by Porter in 1948. It was sold to the National Supply Company in Torrance, California and numbered 1. When NSC became a division of ARMCO, it was renumbered 1528. By 1983, 1528 was surplus and was sold to Robert W. Babcock of Orange, California, who then leased it to the Mitchell Company, which had contracted to rebuild storm-damaged trackage in northern San Diego County on the Marine Corps Base at Camp Pendleton, California, and the Naval Weapons Station Annex at Fallbrook. Babcock renumbered the switcher 8157X, which was its builder's number. In 1985, he leased it to the PSRMA for $1.00 a year, where it was repainted as San Diego & Arizona Railway 8157, although it never actually worked on the SD&A. Babcock donated 8157 to the museum in December 1988.
Oregon Northwestern AS-616 1 built by Baldwin in 1953 as demonstrator 1601 and displayed at the 1953 Association of American Railroads convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 1610 was the first of the second series AS-616 units, with roller bearings, different trucks and higher hoods that came within two inches of the cab roof. Re-lettered BLH 1601 after the convention, it was tested by railroads in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan then returned to Baldwin's Eddystone plant for storage in the autumn of 1953. Normally costing $145,000, it was sold a year later at a discount price of $90,000 to the fifty-one mile logging railroad, the Oregon & Northwestern in the Silvies River area. Renumbered 1, the unit started service on the Oregon & Northwestern in January 1955. After thirty years service, it was placed in storage when the ONW ceased operations in 1985 and was bought by the museum in 1990.
United States Army 45 ton switcher 7485 built by General Electric in 1941. It was delivered to the Plum Brook Ordnance Plant near Sandusky, Ohio, in 1941 and went on to work at various United States Army and Air Force facilities in California and Utah. It then went into storage at Hill Air Force Base near Clearfield, Utah before being transferred to the United States Navy and donated to the museum in 1973. Still in Army black, it remained at Hill AFB four more years until taken in February 1977 by UP & Santa Fe to the Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego. It was repaired, painted black & silver, and lettered "Pacific Southwest Railway Museum", switched some Navy boxcars and powered the museum's first Miramar Chief trains in 1978. Leased to the MTDB from 1981-83 and equipped with special couplers, it moved San Diego Trolley LRVs before electrification.
When the museum's steam Shay, HLC 3, broke down July 30, 1983 pulling the museum's first "Great Freight", 7485 brought 18 pieces of museum equipment 41.8 miles from Garcia station (Tijuana), Baja California, Mexico to Campo in nine round-trips and a one-way run. Operating 794 mainline miles, half up an almost continuous 1.4% grade pulling up to 191 tons at about 6 mph, its stacks red-hot in the summer heat, 7485 performed flawlessly. It was the first rolling stock to enter the museum grounds on its own wheels and under its own power.
United States Navy 44 ton switcher 65-00608 built by General Electric in 1942. It was sent to the Iowa Ordnance Plant at Dayman, Iowa, as 10-44. After the end of World War II, it moved to various facilities before two cracked cylinder heads rendered it inactive in 1985. Declared surplus, USN 65-00608 was donated to the PSRMA in 1989.
United States Army MRS-1 1820 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1920. It spent most of its life at Fort Eustis, Virginia before being moved to the storage yard at Hill Air Force Base near Clearfield, Utah, in 1971 for disposal and was bought by the PSRMA in 1982.
Simplot RS-32 4004, nee Southern Pacific 7304, built by Alco in 1962. It worked on the San Diego, Arizona and Eastern to work freight over the San Diego Trolley line to El Cajon. In 1981, it was sold to the J.R. Simplot Company, in Pocatello, Idaho, where it worked until 1989 and was then donated to the museum.
AGREX Inc DE-27b 45 ton swticher built by Whitcomb in 1945 for the United States Navy, this switcher was delivered to the Naval Ammunition Depot in Seal Beach, California. Its initial service number is unknown but, in 1949, it was assigned 65-00316 while still at Seal Beach. After eighteen years in Navy service, in 1963, 65-00316 was sold to a used locomotive dealer and stored at the former Pacific Electric Railway 8th Street yard in Los Angeles for four years. In early 1967, it was sold to Koppel Bulk Terminals, a grain bulk-loading firm in Long Beach. Koppel was later taken over by AGREX. After AGREX went out of business, the switcher was abandoned and then acquired by the Port of Long Beach. It was donated to the PSRMA by the Port in 1988.
San Diego and Arizona Eastern box car 1084-MW, nee Southern Pacific 115067 built by the railroad in 1936. After 1962, it was transferred by the Southern Pacific to its San Diego & Arizona Eastern subsidiary for maintenance-of-way use and re-numbered SDAE 1084-MW. When the Metropolitan Transit Development Board of San Diego County purchased the SD&AE from the Southern Pacific in November 1979, 1084-MW was included. For many years, the car was based in the SD&AE yard at Jacumba. In 1990 it was brought to Campo to make room for construction equipment to be used in rebuilding two collapsed tunnels in nearby Carrizo gorge.
After some negotiations, the box car was sold to the museum in 1992. When time and funds permit, it will be rehabilitated and repainted in its original colors as Southern Pacific 115067. It is currently displayed in the museum yard at Campo and is being used for the storage of museum equipment.
Trailer Train flat car 470513 built by Bethlehem Steel in 1955. That year, the Rail-Trailer Company's subsidiary Van-Car Corporation financed and acquired 200 75-foot Class F39 flatcars, including this one, the first cars specifically designed for piggyback service. They were leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad, painted Tuscan red with white PRR lettering and placed in service on its initial Truc-Train service between South Kearny (near Newark), New Jersey and Chicago on March 3, 1955, the nation's first major overnight long-distance piggyback service.
Later that year the Trailer-Train Company was formed, initially owned by PRR, the Norfolk & Western and Rail-Trailer, later joined by other railroads. Trailer Train operations began March 17, 1956, the first 500 cars including 470513, which was re-lettered TTX 470513. Its jacks & chains lading devices were never replaced by hitches and it was relettered ATTX 470513 when last weighed and repainted at Kansas City, MO in October 1960. Later its stakes, crossover bridge plates, and most lading devices were removed, and it was used in container service and also in general service, carrying steel plate, machinery and other large items.
In January 1990 the museum requested the donation of two 75-foot flatcars from the Trailer Train Corporation to transport a turntable donated by the Santa Fe Railway from Fresno to Campo, and ATTX 470513 which was at Mira Loma, near Riverside, were donated and sent to Fresno, loaded with the turntable then taken to San Diego and Campo by the Santa Fe and SD&IV in October 1990.
ATTX 470513 is on display near Campo depot, with turntable parts still stored on it pending the turntable's installation on museum grounds. The car will then be restored as time and funds permit.
Trailer Train flat car 470860 built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1955. To standardize equipment and tie-down methods used by railroads operating piggyback service, Trailer Train Corporation was formed, owned by PRR, Norfolk & Western and the Rail-Trailer Company, joined later by other railroads, which began operations March 17, 1956. Its first 500 cars were PRR’s F39, F39A, & F39B flatcars, including PRR 470860, re-lettered TTX #470860. The car served throughout the nation, and for some time was based in Watertown, New York on the New York Central Railroad. Its jacks & chains lading devices were never replaced by hitches, and it was later re-lettered ATTX 470860, Later its stakes, bridge plates and lading devices were removed, and it was used in container service, and also in general service, carrying machinery and other large, bulky cargo.
In January 1990 the museum requested the donation of two 75-foot flatcars from Trailer Train Corporation to transport a turntable donated by the Santa Fe Railway from Fresno to Campo. ATTX 470860 & ATTX 470513 were donated, sent to Fresno, loaded and taken to Campo by the Santa Fe and SD&IV in October 1990.
ATTX 470860 is on display near the Campo depot, with the turntable still on it pending its installation on museum grounds. The car will then be restored as time and funds permit.
United States Army Guard Car G-10 lettered with DAFX 89437 Northwest Fallbrook Annex built by American Car and Foundry in 1942. In 1954, this was one of three hospital kitchen cars converted to guard cars at Fort Holabird in Baltimore, Maryland. The toilet, sink, a wardrobe and six fold-up cots were installed. A glass-enclosed cupola with sliding side windows was built atop the center of the car. It was repainted olive drab with a silver roof; lettered for the Transportation Corps with winged wheel insignia; and numbered USAX G-10. The car transported and housed security detachments guarding shipments of hazardous material and served on ammunition trains between the Naval Ammunition Depot at Hawthorne, Nevada and the Naval Weapons Station at Port Chicago, California. Although always an Army car, its lettering was later changed to DODX G-10 (for Department of Defense). It was retired in 1966, declared surplus, and bought at a 1973 sealed-bid auction in Hawthorne by PSRMA member Walter Barber, who then resold it to the museum at the same price.
Shipped to San Diego on its own wheels at a cost of $816.43, and fire-damaged enroute, DODX G-10 arrived at the museum’s Miramar NAS storage site January 14, 1974. Restored by museum workers, it was painted dark green with silver roof and renumbered DODX G-10, but not relettered. Displayed at the La Mesa depot, it was used on several SD&AE El Cajon branch museum trains from May 1982 to July 1983. It served as tool car on the PSRMA's July/August 1983 "Great Freight" to Campo; on work trains; and was a passenger car on the first 1986 Miller Creek trains. Refurbished in April 1987, the car was repainted olive drab with silver roof. Its Army lettering and Transportation Corps insignia were re-applied in February 1988, but not its number. As USAX G-10 again, the car is being temporarily used as a restroom and refreshment car on museum excursion trains. In the future it will also house displays of military railroading.
Southern Pacific coach 2693 built by Pullman in 1914. This car, one of 20 ordered by Southern Pacific's three Texas subsidiaries, was one of twelve sent to the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway as 554. On March 1, 1927 the GH&SA was merged into SP's Texas & New Orleans Railroad and 554 became T&NO 554.
On July 25, 1931, T&NO 554 was transferred to SP's Pacific lines and on March 24, 1932 re-numbered Southern Pacific 2693. On November 30, 1933 it was paper-transferred to SP subsidiary Arizona Eastern Railroad, which owned 437 miles of track in Arizona leased & operated by Southern Pacific, retaining its Southern Pacific lettering. It was outshopped at Sacramento May 28, 1936 with ice-activated air-conditioning added, in which air is blown over nine 350-lb. ice blocks in compartments under the car and then into it by axle-driven fans. Its 14 windows per side had unusual double frames & panes added, hinged to enable the inside ones to be pulled in and up. Six-wheel trucks were also added to handle the extra weight. It was assigned to the Oakland-Portland Shasta Limited.
On January 10, 1942, reclining seats with rigid footrests were installed in Los Angeles. Probably repainted two-tone gray in the early 1950s, it was paper-transferred back to the SP when the AE was merged into SP September 30, 1955. Repainted silver-gray and lettered "Chair Car" in silver, the classic coach was used in southern California until retired in October 1956.
On February 25, 1957 SP 2693 and SP steam locomotive 2353 were rolled on snap-track into the California Mid-Winter Fairgrounds in Imperial, California and were dedicated by SP to "…the people of Imperial County" on March 3rd. The car was modified into a concessionaires' lounge, with a restroom removed and false acoustic ceiling added. It deteriorated during the next 29 years and on November 13,1984, the 45th District Agricultural Board (the fair operater) voted to donate the exhibit to the PSRMA. Formal transfer was made a year later on November 25, 1985.
In July 1986, the coach was trucked 68 miles west to Campo where repairs were made and the seats, double windows and false ceiling removed, and roof painted a protective yellow. When time and funds permit, the car will be restored to its post-1942 appearance, with seats & double windows reinstalled, and repainted Pullman green for occasional museum train use.
San Diego & Arizona Sightseer 350, nee United States Army hospital car 89429 built by American Car and Foundry in 1945. One of 100 Hospital Unit cars built to transfer casualties from hospital ships to Army medical centers at the end of World War II, this car carried 36 patients and attendants in three-tier racks; had two small roomettes for an officer and a nurse; a tub/shower; kitchen with coal-fired range (the coalbox filled from outside and refrigerator iced via a rooftop hatch); ice-type air-conditioning; and receiving room with desk, sterilizer and side doors for litter cases. It was painted Pullman green (including trucks), and later Olive drab, with black battery boxes and roof; white lettering and Medical Corps caduceus insignia on its sides; red crosses in white squares on sides and roof; and cream, beige and light brown interior.
It was rebuilt in 1962 for the Air Force's Strategic Air Command as a Special Purpose car, with living quarters for 18 men in partitioned cubicles, with lavatory and laundry facilities. Its side doors were deleted and new air-conditioning, sealed windows, 220-volt electric system, accoustic ceiling, fire alarms and other items installed. It was painted Air Force blue, with silver roof and black underframe and lettered DAFX 89429 in white, with the S.A.C. shield insignia on its sides. It housed crews of Bomb Score trains, used to radar-score the accuracy of B-52 bombers, until it was retired in 1970 and stored at Williams AFB near Chandler, Arizona.
In 1972, DAFX 89429 was one of 11 such cars acquired by the Naval Weapons Station at Seal Beach, California and was sent to the NWS Annex at Fallbrook, California. It was stripped, had a loading door cut on one side, was painted white (retaining its silver roof, black underframe and blue vestibule), not numbered, and used for storage. Declared surplus in 1980, it was donated to the PSRMA on March 27, 1981. Stored at the Annex, it was moved in 1985 to Stuart Mesa on the adjacent Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, where it was vandalized until moved to a more secure industrial warehouse area. Brought to San Diego by Santa Fe February 28, 1987, it missed "Great Freight II" by a few hours. The SD&IV took it to Matanuca, 12 miles into Mexico and it came to Campo on "Great Freight II 1/2" in March.
DAFX 89429 has been converted into an open-window Sightseeing, Refreshment and Restroom car (it has holding tanks), for use on the museum's SD&A excursion trains and has been re-numbered 350. The glass has been removed and safety bars installed in its windowframes.
Santa Fe caboose 999371, nee Santa Fe 1782 built by American Car and Foundry in 1927. In August 1969, it was rebuilt into a Class Ce-2 caboose at the Santa Fe shops in San Bernardino where an oil-burning stove were installed. In 1989, it was retired by the Santa Fe and scheduled to be sold to Mexico. But on September 26, 1989, it was selected by Museum staff volunteers from a group of 50 old cabooses at the Santa Fe’s San Bernardino shops, and purchased with funds donated by two members for that purpose. It was delivered to San Diego by the Santa Fe, moved by the SD&IV to San Ysidro and kept inside the engine house until brought to Campo in February 1990 by the SD&IV on "Great Freight III".
Union Pacific caboose 25247, nee Union Pacific 3947 built by the railroad in 1952. It operated in the Pacific Northwest and was one of the cabooses to receive the award-winning slogan "Have Train, Will Travel" affixed to it, suggested by employee Verlyn M. Penry at Hinkle, Oregon. It sustained severe body damage in a collision, was retired and sent to Pocatello, Idaho for scrapping in 1986.
One of ten cabooses on the scrapline and one of only two still on tracks, UP 25247 was purchased from the Union Pacific sight unseen over the telephone on May 27, 1986 by PSRMA Acquisitions Director Roger Garrett. Carried free by the UP and Santa Fe via Colton, it arrived in San Diego in October and was donated to the museum by Garrett on December 2, 1986.
Taken to San Ysidro by the SD&IV and to Campo on the museum's "Great Freight II" February 28,1987, UP 25247 was steam-cleaned in July 1987 by a "Rig-Shine" machine. It was used on a museum work train in 1987 by workers hired by the San Diego & Imperial Valley Railroad to sandblast and repaint the tower bases of the 180-foot high Stony Canyon viaduct over Campo Creek and Highway 94, about seven miles east of Campo. The caboose was used to provide storage space for the work crew's tools and supplies.
From 1989 through 1992, UP 25247's badly-damaged interior and bent steps were repaired, and it was renovated and restored to its post-1974 appearance, with all-light green interior. It is now on display in operating condition on the museum's "Caboose Row".
St. Louis Southwestern Railway caboose 35 built by the International Car Company in 1963. This is one of only 45 cars of this type built for the Southern Pacific-owned line. The 1,561-mile SSW began operations in 1877 and was called the "Cotton Belt Route" because of the large amount of cotton along its routes from Waco, Fort Worth, Dallas and Shreveport via Texarkana and Pine Bluff to Memphis and St. Louis, with several branches. It became the Southern Pacific's principal subsidiary in 1932, providing them with a through route from California to the midwest. Though operated as a division of Southern Pacific, its rolling stock was lettered "Cotton Belt" and it kept its own logo until the early 1960s.
In early 1984, SSW 35, then in the Southern Pacific yard at Tracy, was bought by PSRMA Board of Trustees member Dan Marnell. It was moved by the SP to its Taylor yard in Los Angeles and taken to San Diego by the Santa Fe on November 30, 1984 and then to Grossmont siding in La Mesa by the SD&IV. There it was cleaned, sandblasted and repainted all-bright red (without the silver roof) with black underframe, but was not relettered. On March 28, 1986, the caboose was donated to the PSRMA by Dr. Marnell.
Moved to San Ysidro by the SD&IV, the caboose was brought to Campo on the Museum's "Great Freight II" on February 28, 1987. Its red paint has darkened through the years. Its restoration in mid-1970s bright red will continue as time & funds permit. SSW 35 is one of the last cupola cars.
Southern Pacific caboose 1351 built by the railroad in 1951. In the post-World War II years, new and higher freight cars (which could carry more freight and thus be more profitable) made it very difficult for brakemen and conductors in caboose cupolas to fully observe their trains. As clearance restrictions prevented taller cabooses, bay-window ones came into use on many railroads as a new solution even though it meant a crew member could only observe one side of the train at a time. Bay-window cabooses were popular for years, and became commonplace on many railroads, including the Southern Pacific.
After 22 years (its final ones on Los Angeles locals), SP 1351 was retired in 1983, stored at the railroad's Taylor yard in Los Angeles and scheduled for scrapping. In response to a request from the PSRMA, it was donated to the Museum on September 19, 1984 by Southern Pacific Transportation Company, its first donation to the PSRMA. SP 1351 was moved free by the SP, the Santa Fe and the SD&IV to Grossmont industrial siding in La Mesa, where it arrived on November 30, 1984.
While stored at Grossmont, the caboose was knocked through a bumper post and across a paved parking lot in a 1985 switching accident. The damage was repaired by the railroad and it was cleaned and painted Mineral brown with Daylight orange ends and end-facing bay window panels by Museum members. It was taken to San Ysidro by the SD&IV and to Campo February 28, 1987 on "Great Freight II".
The restoration and refurnishing of this caboose to its post-1956 appearance in Freight Car red with Daylight orange ends and panels will be completed when time and funds permit. It is kept in operating condition on the Museum’s "Caboose Row".
Missouri Pacific caboose 13936 built by the railroad in 1980. It had "KC 2-84" and "KC 6-84" scratched on one side, and "Corpus Christi" on one end, which may indicate use at Kansas City and Corpus Christi, Texas. It served on the Missouri-Pacific (which merged with the Union Pacific in December 1982) until January 1993. The caboose was withdrawn from service at Grand Island, Nebraska and sold by Union Pacific to the SDRM and brought to San Diego by the Santa Fe on March 18, 1993. This final version of the American caboose is now on display in operating condition on the museum’s "Caboose Row".
Santa Diego and Arizona coach 252, nee Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 2581 built by Pullman and General Electric in 1930.
Santa Fe baggage-buffet-library car 1304 "Chief Manakaja" built by Pullman in 1927 for the Chicago to Los Angeles Chief. The 12 cars in the series were named after Native American chiefs, 1304 for Manakaja, chief of northern Arizona's Havasupai from 1900 to 1942, who led the fight to have tribal lands taken in 1908 for Grand Canyon National Monument returned to the Havasupai. The coach green car had four upper berths for crew use and it was air-conditioned in February 1934. Replaced on the Chief in 1938 by lightweight cars, it was rebuilt as a bar-lounge/dormitory at the Topeka shops. Renumbered nameless ATSF 1351 February 28, 1939, it was assigned to the Chicago-Los Angeles California Limited.
In January 1948, it was rebuilt as a baggage/bar-lounge/dormitory with seating capacity of 34, re-numbered ATSF 1303 (second; again with no name) and painted aluminum with shaded black shadow striping to blend with the new fluted-side cars on January 23, 1948. It was repainted two-tone gray on September 11, 1950. It often served on seasonal trains between Los Angeles and San Diego County's Del Mar racetrack, carrying large quantities of ice in the baggage room for its bar. It also ran on specials as far south as Guadalajara, Mexico in the 1960's before being retired in 1967.
ATSF 1303 was purchased in 1968 in Chillicothe, Illinois by PSRMA Life Charter member Jack Stodelle and partner Dick Ritterband. They brought it back to California for proposed excursion service, storing it in the Union Pacific coach yards in Los Angeles and at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, where it was briefly leased by the PSRMA in 1971. When reconditioning costs proved too high, Stodelle and Ritterband sold the car in 1972 to the Depot Restaurant in National City, California, located in the 1882-built former California Southern/Santa Fe depot.
It was stripped bare except for its four upper berths, the baggage room and vestibule doors were cut off, its air-conditioner removed and new utilities and furnishings installed. It was painted two-tone red with a silver roof and used as a bar/lounge for ten years. The industrial-area restaurant failed on two occasions and in July 1982 the cars were donated to the PSRMA.
The car was taken to La Mesa depot to be refurbished and moved to a proposed spur north of the depot for use as a meeting room/lounge by the La Mesa Chamber of Commerce, which was to fund the work. The plans were changed and it was moved to the Grossmont industrial siding in La Mesa, where it was cleaned & boarded up. The car went to Campo February 28, 1987 on "Great Freight II", was sandblasted and repainted green. Some window boards were painted silver with black outlines of people for backdrop use in the 1987 film "A Time of Destiny" with Timothy Hutton and William Hurt. Due to its lack of furnishings, its bar and wide side doors, it may be rebuilt into a lounge/snack car with handicap restrooms for museum train use, repainted coach green, and renumbered ATSF 1304 Chief Manakaja.
San Diego & Arizona 80 ton switcher 7285 built by General Electric in 1943. First assigned to the New River Ordnance Plant in Radford, Virginia, and then the Volunteer Army Ammunition Depot in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1946, it transferred to the United States Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, California, in 1965 and renumbered 248391. In January 1993, a flash flood covered the engine's traction motors and, although cleaned up, they were not repaired and 248391 was declared surplus. It was donated to the museum in 1993, repaired by PSRMA members at the San Diego & Imperial Valley Railroad shops in San Ysidro and arrived at Campo in 1995.
Museum scene.
Passenger car of unknown origin.
Pullman sleeper/lounge/observation car "Commandant" built by Pullman in 1910. "Commandant" has ten open sections, each with upper and lower berth. By day each lower berth was converted into two facing seats, the forward-facing one assigned to the lower-berth occupant, who paid a higher Pullman fare. (Pullman passengers required both a first-class railroad ticket for travel and a Pullman ticket for Pullman sleeping-car space). The upper berths were swung closed during the day and folding section-divider panels (used at night) stored in them. Pullman porters made up the berths in the evening and closed them in the morning. "Commandant" has large restrooms and its wood interior has detailed pin-striping and painted ornamentation. It has an original upper-berth ladder, Pullman coathangers, and other accessories, a vestibule at the front end and a rear lounge with open observation platform and recessed circular light fixture.
It was owned and operated by the Pullman Sleeping Car Company and for years assigned to the Southern Railway. Retired in December 1944, "Commandant" was sold to 20th Century-Fox Films and kept at Fox's West Los Angeles lot until all its rail equipment was moved about 20 miles west to Malibu Canyon in the late 1950's. It may have been used for interior scenes in "Berlin Express" and "Some Like It Hot". It was rarely used in film-making and not modified or altered much. It was kept well-maintained and its interior is in good condition. It may have been painted gray and then dark green with black roof.
In January 1972, 20th Century-Fox sold all its railroad equipment to Short Line Enterprises for tourist railroad use. In August 1973, "Commandant" was sold for use in Railroader Restaurants, but was never modified or used for that purpose; instead being stored on a Union Pacific industrial siding in Mira Loma, just west of Riverside.
The "Commandant" was purchased by the PSRMA in early 1984 with funds donated for that purpose by museum members John and Marlene Ashman and the Reverend Art Dominy. They also provided the money needed to move it on the Union Pacific to Los Angeles. From there it was moved free by the Santa Fe to San Diego, and by the SD&AE to the Grossmont industrial siding in La Mesa, where it was cleaned up by museum volunteers. In February 1987, the "Commandant" was taken to San Ysidro by the SD&IV and to Campo on the museum's "Great Freight II".
United States Air Force MRS-1 1809 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1952 as USAF B-1809 and sent to Marietta Air Force Station in Marietta, Pennsylvania. It then moved about from Alaska to Utah and California on different assignments before being sent in 1979 to the National Transportation Group, Rail Service Division storage yard at Hill Air Force Base near Clearfield, Utah, for disposal. In early 1982, 1809 was donated to the PSRMA after being released surplus. It has been restored to the "black widow" scheme of the first SP diesels used on the SD&AE in the 1950s.
I next visited the Display Building.
Southern Pacific 4-6-0 2353 built by Baldwin in 1912. It started work on San Joaquin/Fresno-Los Angeles Express trains then was leased in 1927 to the San Diego & Arizona, which became the SP-owned San Diego & Arizona Eastern in 1932. It hauled passenger trains on the San Diego-Campo-El Centro mainline, as well as racetrack specials from San Diego to Agua Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico. After returning to the Southern Pacific in 1939, the locomotive moved to the San Francisco area to work in freight service. It then served as a switcher at the Bayshore Yards in Brisbane, California in the 1950s, as well as hauling San Mateo-Watsonville, California, gravel trains and switching at a San Mateo lumber mill. 2353 retired in January 1957 and the following month, was moved using compressed air into the California Mid-Winter Fairgrounds in Imperial, California where it remained on static display for the next twenty-nine years. In 1984 the fair operator donated the locomotive to the museum. After a ten-year restoration effort, 2353 steamed again on the old SD&A, running until 2000 when close examination revealed the cost of repairs required to keep it in operation was too prohibitive. It has been in storage in the display shed ever since.
San Diego and Arizona Eastern business car 50 "Carriso Gorge", ex. Southern Pacific 135, exx. Southern Pacific 101 "Tucson", exxx. San Diego and Arizona 50 "Carriso Gorge", nee Southern Pacific buffet/smoker/observation car 1733 built by Pullman in 1910.
On December 18, 1919 the SD&A agreed to purchase SP 1733, then in the Sacramento area. It was delivered to the shops of the SP-controlled Pacific Electric Railway in Torrance on December 23, 1920 and converted into a business car for SD&A president John D. Spreckels, with purchase date of January 1922. The interior was rebuilt with a solarium lounge; office; two bedrooms with sink, toilet and connecting tub bath; dining room; stall shower; galley; pantry and steward's quarters with berth and toilet.
In 1923 the car was used to film "Carriso Gorge, the Magnificent" which new SD&A president Armand T. Mercier (Spreckels retired in 1923) showed in its lounge with other films on a publicity trip to New Orleans and other cities. He also used it on a 1928 Seattle trip. In February 1933 the SP acquired the SD&A, renamed it San Diego & Arizona Eastern and relettered the car SDAE 050 "Carriso Gorge". Little used, it was placed on sale by SD&AE president F.L. Annable in 1937 but never sold. It was leased to the Southern Pacific on August 7, 1940 and renumbered SP 101 "Tucson".
On April 13, 1945, it was converted into a medical examination car and re-numbered Southern Pacific 135. Its furnishings and some walls were removed, medical facilities installed, the interior painted Hospital green, and exterior Pullman green. Operated as far east as El Paso, in 1951 its ownership was transferred to the Southern Pacific and it was assigned to Dr. Sydney Talbot.
In 1955 SP donated the car (repainted gray) and SDAE locomotive 104 to the San Diego County Fair. Members of the Railway Historical Society of San Diego raised $1,600 to place them in the Del Mar fairgrounds after their arrival September 2, 1955. The exhibit was opened June 24, 1956, and the re-lettered SDA 050 "Carriso Gorge" staffed at fair time for 25 years by the RHS, which became defunct in the 1980's. In February 1982, the 22nd District Agricultural Board (the fair operator) donated the exhibit to the PSRMA due to its deteriorated condition, caused by sun, wind, ocean air, rain and lack of maintenance.
The equipment was moved to Solana Beach on February 15, 1983, taken to San Ysidro free by Santa Fe and SD&AE and brought to Campo in August on our first "Great Freight". Now in the carbarn, "Carriso Gorge" has been cleaned and repaired, had many walls carefully stripped of paint to expose the inlaid woodwork, and an exhibit installed in its solarium. Because of the tremendous amount of time, effort and money required a major fund-raising campaign is being organized to restore this major San Diego historical artifact to its 1922 operating appearance.
Santa Fe Railway Post Office Car 74 built by Pullman in 1927. It was often assigned to the Kansas City to Albuquerque run. Its final runs may have been on the Clovis-Lubbock-Temple-Houston run on Santa Fe's Panhandle & Santa Fe and Gulf Coast & Santa Fe subsidiaries, as its pigeonhole box headers were set for cities on that route. The car was retired in 1968 as the United States Post Office transferred its mail contracts to airplanes and trucks (the last RPO run was June 30, 1977). ATSF 74 was sold to Intercontinental Steel for scrap on April 9, 1971, then bought for use as a gift shop selling railroad paraphernalia in Houston, Texas.
The SDRM purchased it in December 1989 and it arrived the next year. After a full restoration, the car took its inaugural run to Tecate, Mexico on November 23, 2002. It won the Tourist Railway Association's 2002 national award for best passenger car restoration of the year. It is run on occasional special museum trains to demonstrate picking up mail "on the fly".
Mail stand. Now I would walk through this car.
Entering railway post office car 74.
Mail sorting area with mail pockets.
Mail bag and the hook with mail bag attached.
The mail sorting area.
Unsorted mail bags.
The mail sorting area.
Rockdale, Sandow and Southern open platform segregated combined passenger-baggage car 3 built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1886 as 3736. In May 1916, by which time the Class 1 railroads were forced by federal law to retire wood passenger cars, it was sold by car broker E. H. Wilson & Company, and sent from Birmingham, Alabama to the Dardanelle & Russellville Railroad, a five-mile Arkansas shortline opened in 1883 and still in business. Numbered D&R 10, it had a "Jim Crow" racial segregation divider installed roughly in the middle of the car to comply with Arkansas railroad segregation law, with eight windows per side in the "white" section and seven in the "colored" section.
D&R 10 was retired on October 31, 1936 and sold to the six-mile Rockdale, Sandow & Southern Railroad in Texas, which like the D&R, was then owned by the McAlester Fuel Company of McAlester, Oklahoma. The 1936 sale price was $125 plus $625 to rebuild it into a combination passenger and baggage (combine) at the D&R's North Dardanelle shops. A baggage room/coach wall replaced the racial divider, and a new segregation wall was added, creating an eight-seat "colored" section next to the baggage room and 22-seat "white" section. Sliding baggage room doors were installed and five baggage room windows on each side were paneled over. Numbered RS&S 3, it was sent to Marjorie in November 1936. Texas laws required that all railroads offer passenger service at least once daily, except Sunday, with every train segregating the races.
In February 1945, RSS 3 (with its lettering removed) was sold to 20th Century-Fox and sent from Rockdale, Texas to the West Los Angeles (Century City) studio, arriving July 24th with D&R 14. It was mis-identified as D&R 13, a number D&R never had. Appropriately relettered "Pennsylvania Railroad" for its first role, it was used from 1946-72 in many films, including "Centennial Summer", "The Raid", "Love Me Tender", "The True Story of Jesse James", "The Second Time Around", "Walls of Jericho", "Powderkeg" and the Nichols and Bearcats television series. At some point Fox removed the ceiling lamps and other fixtures. It was moved to a Malibu canyon ranch in the late 1950s and sold to Short Line Enterprises for tourist railway use in 1972.
RS&S 3 (listed as D&R 13) and D&R 14 were traded in April 1976 to the PSRMA, trucked to Poway, California and displayed for seven years at Old Poway Village, where roof and other repairs were made. Trucked to Campo in 1983, they were the first museum passenger cars there. It was finally identified as RS&S 3 in 1988.
The car has being restored to its 1936-1945 Jim Crow years, when it operated as the Rockdale, Sandow & Southern's sole passenger car. Interior restoration, including reupholstered seats and replica ceiling oil lamps, was finished in 2009. A $3,000 grant from the National Railway Historical Society, awarded in 2008, helped pay for recovering the seats and casting 90 replica pieces of clerestory glass. The car is on view in the Display Building, accompanied by the Museum's African American railroad heritage display, the most comprehensive photographic exhibit about black railroaders in the country.
The baggage section of the car.
The Colored Section.
The White Section. Now let's look at the African American Railroad Heritage display.
African American Sleeping Car and Coach Porters.
African American Dining and Lounge Car Personnel.
African American Brakemen, Conductors, Firemen and Engineers.
African American Slavery, Construction & Maintenance of Way.
African American Jim Crow Segregation and Railroad Racism.
African American The Communal Life of Black Railroaders.
African American at Stations, Offices, Shops and Roundhouses.
African American Women Railroaders.
Santa Fe wooden caboose 1413 built by American Car and Foundry in 1923. It was used for about forty years on various Santa Fe lines. Santa Fe replaced its mainline wood cabooses with safer steel ones in the 1930s, but they remained in local and branchline use. It was later retired and used as sleeping quarters for railroad employees in a car repair shed at Riverbank, California. ATSF 1413 was sold to the California Railroad & Salvage Company in Tustin, California for scrapping in the 1970s, in very deteriorated condition. It has since been restored.
Rails Conquer the Desert display.
Fruit Growers Express refrigerator car 56415 built by the company in 1928. The Fruit Growers Express Company was formed March 18, 1920 as the outgrowth of a government antitrust suit against the Armour Packing Company, which had operated a large fleet of refrigerated cars. The Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Norfolk & Western and New York, New Haven and Hartford railroads had a proprietary interest in the FGE, which had its headquarters in Washington, DC and its major shops at Indiana Harbor, Indiana, Alexandria, Virginia (Potomac yards) and Jacksonville, Florida. It provided service primarily east of the Mississippi River.
The early history of this car is unknown. Its first appearance in the Official Railway Equipment Register was in January 1948 when 55000-56999 were reported as FGEX "additions", indicating it may have been acquired from another company as part of a fleet purchase in 1947.
While in San Diego in 1971, FGEX 56415 was "bad ordered" & placed on a siding. Noticed and inquired about by the PSRMA, it was donated to the museum by the Fruit Growers Express Company in July 1971. It was stored at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and Miramar Naval Air Station, later moved to the La Mesa depot, repaired & repainted by museum members, displayed for several years and used as a storage car. In February 1987, FGEX 56415 was taken to San Ysidro by the SD&IV and brought to Campo on the museum's "Great Freight II" on February 28, 1987. Full restoration began in December 1988. Final painting of the restored car was completed in October 1992 and it was lettered in late 1992 and early 1993. FGEX 56415 is displayed on "Reefer Row" and used for storage.
Chesapeake and Ohio wooden caboose built by Standard Steel in 1924. It served 56 years on the Chesapeake and Ohio, which ran from tidewater Virginia to the midwest, with many branches in mountainous coal-mining areas. The C&O claimed it was the oldest railroad company in the country, because predecessor Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company pre-dated all railroads. It's now part of the CSX Corporation.
General America Transportation Corporation flat car 60010 built by the company in 1922. In October 1945 the flatcar was rebuilt by the Haffner-Thrall Car Company of Chicago Heights, Illinois. Sometime after that it was acquired by the United States Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, California. It was painted Boxcar red and numbered USMCAS 262097. Later it was repainted gray, still at USMCAS El Toro. In mid-1967, 262097 was noticed on a government surplus list, bid on and acquired by the PSRMA, being taken by truck to Campo.
The car was immediately cleaned by museum volunteers, revealing its past colors and markings. Its deteriorated decking was replaced with new boards in 1987-88 by museum volunteer workers and the car was repainted and given back its earliest known number, GARX 60010. The restored flatcar is on display in operating condition on the museum's freight car line near the Campo depot. On May 25, 1991 it was used as the stage for a country and western band during the local "Campo Days" weekend fair. GARX 60010 will also be used in hauling rail and other components for repair and replacement work on the museum's SD&A demonstration railway.
I then returned outside.
