I walked back to the Campo station for what we will call our short train ride. There are two bridges between Campo and Miller Creek that are out of service, including the Campo Creek trestle just east of the museum. Near the International Border, Tunnel 3 had another cave-in and has been like in that condition for about four years. With no operator for the railroad, the museum is thus limited to where they can now run. On Saturdays they run the Golden State Excursion from Campo to Division, the Valley Flyer runs on Sundays between Campo and the Stone Store, and they run east to the out-of-service Campo Creek bridge. That is the train we would be riding today.
Our train's consist would be San Diego & Arizona 80 ton switcher 7285 and San Diego & Arizona Sightseer 350.
San Diego & Arizona 7285.
Our engineer operating this morning's train. All six passengers boarded and Diana Hyatt was our conductor. The train departed, going east across the Campo Valley.
A beautiful clear, but hot, day for a trip on the Valley Flyer.
If this was Wisconsin, I would know where these boulders came from.
The old hand car building.
More boulders.
The Campo Valley is really beautiful this late morning in July.
We were approaching more of the museum's equipment.
PSRMA flat cars 1316 and 1330 were once used by both the Ventura County and the United States Navy and built about 1910.
Joseph Levin & Sons crane 7036 built by Brown Hoisting Machinery Company in 1920.
San Diego and Arizona Eastern tank car MW-1027.
The train passed the Campo Jct sign.
A look back towards the museum.
More views of the Camp Valley.
You can see the out-of-service Campo Creek trestle just ahead.
This is as far as the train could be run east and we would now shove west, with our brakeman being our engineer's eyes. "You are good for fifteen cars" et cetera until we get beyond the Stone Store.
Another view of the Campo Valley.
Rolling west down the Campo Valley.
Campo Jct.
Looking into the museum.
The Campo Valley.
Coming to our first and only passenger stop of the trip.
Part of the collection of this unique railroad museum.
Here we stopped.
Two of our six passengers detrained to look at the collection of railroad equipment as I did earlier.
Coming back into the Campo station yard.
Rolling by the station.
The Campo station.
Rolling west down the rails.
Carrizo Gorge Railroad Cab Car 8758.
We reached the end of the yard.
The view ahead of our train.
Crossing a small bridge.
We stopped this car as our train crossed California Highway 98.
Passing the store at the crossing.
We pulled down the tracks to clear the crossing circuit.
For once at our end point on the rails, I can say that I have already been west down these rails. We headed back to Campo.
Returning to Campo.
The Stone Store where no one got off on this trip.
We have returned to the Campo Valley.
The trip ended back at the sation and we thanked the crew for the most excellent trip then started to drive off but had one more picture to take.
Carrizo Gorge Railroad cab car 8758. From here we drove to Poway but found they were not running.
Southern Pacific caboose 1037 built by the railroad in 1937 at Poway. AC Adam and I drove back to Solana Beach and once there, stopped at The Habit for lunch where I had a Tri-Tip Sandwich and then a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cone. We drove me back to the Solana Beach station and a stop at the Coca-Cola machine was made before we headed to Track 2.
Coaster 688 arrived.
My Pacific Surfliner 579 then came in and I boarded, saying goodbye to AC Adam and thanked him for a good day of railroading in San Diego County. It was a quick trip back to Santa Ana and I would write this story over the next couple of days.
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