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stewart Posts: 25
4/17/2011
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I was going to tag this post onto the back end of one containing Daren's excellent photos, but figured I might as well just post it fresh, here. There's a lot written about Carrizo Gorge, but I wanted to share a book I've been reading, "Baja California Railways," by John A. Kirchner. Though he focuses mostly on the Mexican side of things, what he writes about the Carrizo Gorge is fascinating. He also gives the details of the flooding of the Colorado River into the Salton Sea, 1905-1907.
For instance:
The San Diego to Yuma line was actually two railways, the Tijuana Y Tecate and the San Diego & Arizona. Tycoon John D. Spreckles drove the last (gold) spike in 1919. It was his efforts, and money that kept the railway construction alive when Southern Pacific backed out (SP owned the right-of-way rights granted by the Mexican government to build in the first place).
The completed line was a big hit, as San Diego had been vying for a railway east since 1850. Traffic was good initially, particularly on the Mexican side, but the railway began its history just as bus and automobile traffic was about to run between San Diego and Yuma more quickly and more cheaply. And San Diego never developed into the international port it thought it would, so freight traffic that could be carried east remained limited.
50,000 tickets were sold each year during the 20s and 30s, but as freight and passenger traffic declined, eventually only a caboose was available for passengers. Tropical storm Kathleen severely damaged the line in 1976, and a 1983 fire in a Carrizo Gorge tunnel was the fatal blow, at least to the US side. That is, I think, more or less the state one finds the railway in today.
The Carrizo Gorge section was, and perhaps is, the most expensive railroad ever built. due to the vulnerable tunnels and trestles. The notion that the railway could be resurrected is not entirely a dream, I think, though it's difficult to see how a freight or tourist line could pay its own way, given the line's expensive history.
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hikerdmb Posts: 423
4/17/2011
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Thanks for the info Stewart. Sounds like a good book. Since the 1983 fires, the railroad was fixed and ran for a short time a few years ago. They made a big deal out of it when it reopened (stay off the tracks, we will prosecute trespassers, etc), but as of late it doesn't seem like much is running again.
David
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2609
4/17/2011
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That's pretty cool...history in general is amazing, we all seem to forget how things came to be.
I have been down in the gorge (south of the trestle) 3 times now and it really is like a place forgotten by time, I don't even see signs of illegals (although it is up on the tracks). It is very difficult to navigate though, there is just so much catclaw and cholla it keeps travel to about 1/2 mph at best. We searched for a 1/2 hour this last trip just trying to find a place to cross the water.
I know that one section of train I visited a couple of months ago has been there for at least 1 year, I suspect the railway was functioning at some point but after the Easter quakes last year I know several tunnels have collapsed again. We saw a Bobcat last year out there clearing debris from the trestle.
Thanks for posting Stewart, any other interesting bits from the book would be great to read. All I can say from my time down in the gorge is it is very peaceful, you really don't want to leave. It is really just a different experience then other more visited areas of the park are. We actually found morteros and pottery sherds deep into the gorge, very strange places we thought.
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stewart Posts: 25
4/17/2011
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That peace and quiet is why I hope the railroad never reopens. I've not gone up canyon past the end of the 4x4 road, due to fear of cat claw (California's only native acacia, btw).
Have always hiked the rails or to Goat Canyon from the east. Those tunnels are so interesting, impossible to stay out of them, like mines in Death Valley. There's a tunnel under the US/MEX border, or was, anyway. The Mexican part has/had a giant double bow loop, big bridges across the Tijuana River. I think the Mexican line was still in service when this book was writ, 1988. And maybe a little bit is in service near Campo? Some San Diego train buff would know. That rolling stock Daren photographed is way cool, particularly in that it's sitting there without graffit or vandalism.
Sorry for the stilted syntax of this, I'm writing it on my phone.
<em>edited by stewart on 4/17/2011</em>
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2609
4/18/2011
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stewart wrote:
I think the Mexican line was still in service when this book was writ, 1988.
I don't have the full picture on this computer but my avatar on this forum was actually taken while riding on the train that runs from the old railway station out near Campo. It was taken probably back around 2001, I went with my kids and we did the tourist train ride. Is that same tracks do you know? I really don't remember it much now, maybe I need to go back and revisit.
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stewart Posts: 25
4/18/2011
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Yes, those are the same tracks, though I've never been over to that area. Building the railroad right of way was a monumental job, took a circuitous path from Tijuana to Tecate, through the Campo region and then on to Carrizo Gorge and eventually El Centro and Yuma.. Those mountains are all granite, so tunnels were blasted through, slowly. Four tunnels on the Mexican side, seventeen on the U.S. side. Tunnel #3 (1305 feet long) had a fire and collapse in 1932 and so became #3 and #3 1/2. In 1916, before the line was opened, 12 inches of rain fell in Campo within 24 hours, wiping out big sections of newly constructed railway. Spreckles said: "Put it back."
Kirchner's book is really great and he also recommends another by Robert M. Hanft, "San Diego and Arizona; The Impossible Railroad," Glendale Trans Anglo Books, 1984.
I just did a Google map search for "Canyon City near Campo, CA" and found myself near the site of Division, CA, where the Tijuana Y Tecate and the San Diego and Arizona meet, underground. You can see tunnel #4, with tracks leading in and out on both sides of the border. The Southwest Pacific Museum advertises rides from Campo to Division, which is what you (Daren) took, I guess, ten years ago. Jeeze, now I'll have to put Campo on my "must visit" list. And I'm not even a train buff.
I'll bet border patrol action in that area is heavy. When I lived in San Diego in the nineties, one often heard that the backcountry of San Diego County was popular with the methamphetamine crowd. That, and the border patrol, made me stay away from the southern county areas. Of course, wandering around way north, in Chihuahua Valley, I ran into ex-Hell's Angel Hank and his little Chihuahuas, racing around in a dune buggy. But that's another story (and to be fair to good ol' Hank, unrelated to meth). San Diego County is full of adventures, that's for sure.
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2609
4/18/2011
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Here is the pic from the campo train ride with kids, we are sitting in the railway car that has no windows, just steel bars. You can see where I cropped out my avatar from. The other is just a train at the station. These photos are dated 4/2002.
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http://www.sefcik.com
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http://www.carrizogorge.com
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2609
4/19/2011
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Guess they just had a big party also
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/5958
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http://www.carrizogorge.com
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stewart Posts: 25
4/19/2011
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Great photo, Daren. Looks like your son is having a blast.
Me thinks I should update my avatar...
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surfponto Administrator Posts: 1362
4/25/2011
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Shoot, that would have been fun to attend.
Seems that i always find out about theses events after the fact. 
dsefcik wrote:
Guess they just had a big party also
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/5958
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