She'll be comin' round the mountain....

One of the great pictures of The Goat with a few covered wagons and F-unit

Working on my version of the New River trestle...

Something new from the web on my SDAE search

San Diego Union Newspaper, July 17, 1950 full page add

Reasons for abandonment of passenger service on the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway

No doubt you have read recent magazine and newspaper reports on countrywide railroad losses from passenger service.

A great deal of this loss is due to the operation of trains that are really not needed, if the amount of public patronage is any criterion. In other words, the development of railroad passenger services which are popular is burdened and handicapped by losses from passenger services which the public does not use.

The losses are a burden on freight service, too, and shippers are be coming restive.
This general subject now becomes specific to the residents of San Diego served by our subsidiary, the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway Company.

The operation of passenger service over this line has resulted in heavy losses over the years. They are now so burdensome that they can no longer be absorbed, and we are now asking for public authority to discontinue passenger service over the line.

Based on present patronage the operation of the passenger trains Nos. 362 and 363 between San Diego and El Centro (and Calexico) is resulting in an out-of-pocket loss of approximately $300,000 per year. This does not consider any return on the heavy investment, or taxes.

Plaster City and US Gypsum Part 2

I am still working how I will place US Gypsum into my portion of Plaster City on The El Centro Branch of The Southern Pacific's Yuma Division or the old SD&AE. This plant is so huge, I have to decide if some of it will go on the backdrop, all of it or model portions of it. The San Diego Model Railroad Club on their SD&AE layout have a few small buildings as Plaster City. Some of the tower building and tanks can be scratch built and I know I can incorporate some of the structures I have. I know my Walthers N ADM Grain Elevator will end up as part of US Gypsum. The fine part is getting it all together and then dusting it white.

Plaster City and US Gypsum

There are so many buildings, tanks and manufacturing units, I have no idea how I can model these? In the plan from Tom, that David refined, I have a three track arrangement coming into the plant from the mainline. I would love to have the center beams loading and shipping and the incoming covered hoppers and ACF Center Flows.

Think I'm just gonna jump in and go through my structures and she what I can do to kit bash and mash this all together.

New River cut out of foam PT. 2

So a fellow modeler on RAILWIRE offered me the parts to a Heljan trestle set. It has a curved deck and the tall bents can be bashed into smaller ones.  So Tom on Trainboard sends me the picture last month and the picture is actually The Holtville Interurban (Holtville Branch) bridge coming into Holtville. Are they the same bridge? Like it matters I'm building it on a curve.


This is so cool, modeling on a shoe string budget. The kit has a ton of stuff:

If I can make this work, it will be grand.

New River cut out of foam

This is the cutaway for the New River bridge and SD&AE crossing. I will need to scratch build the trestle or use Central Gems trestle bents. More shaping of the sides is in store too. The difference from the protoype: It's not a curve, it's a straight sections just before Seeley.

It's almost the real thing!

The San Diego and Arizona Eastern in HO scale at the San Diego Model Railroad Musuem in Balboa Park is truly several awesome layouts. The San Diego & Arizona Eastern is the HO scale (1/87th actual size) layout of the San Diego Model Railroad Club. HO is the most popular scale in model railroading . The SD&AE models the prototype railroad of the same name connecting San Diego with El Cajon and El Centro. The San Diego - San Ysidro and San Diego - El Cajon portions are now part of the San Diego Trolley. This layout features an impressive 10 ft. high model of the Carriso Gorge (north of Jacumba in eastern San Diego County) and the Goat Canyon trestle. The actual trestle was the largest timber railroad trestle in the world at the time of its construction in 1932.

Because of the rough terrain, the SD&AE has been coined "The Impossible Railroad". The San Diego Model Railroad club meets every Friday evening.

It's 1928 and a big party for The Clover Flat water tower

Love and leave em'

Derailment in the 70's or 80's? (not sure) on The SD&AE near Goat Canyon. It was easier to leave them instead of trying to haul in a crane and tow them up and re right them on the track.

This is the turn coming into Plaster City and my Grandson helping!

Caption added by layout designer David K. Smith.

Here we are lining up the flex track section.

One of the coolest things about The SD&AE

...is the different terrain this line goes through. From the coast, through the mountains into the desert and below sea level to 3800 feet. I love this picture and will replicate this near Plaster City on the layout. The mainline is covered with blowing sand. I wonder how they cleared it when got like snow and covered the rails. Did a covered wagon have a snow plow or something on the front and push it a side?

Guess where? One of my favorite places on the SD&AE Dos Cabezas

Trying to get the color of the rail in El Centro right

Working with Burnt Umber and Gray acrylic paints. I have the flatness with no roadbed in this section started.

Those ramblin' SD&AE SW-8's

A bit of a set back with new layout

I ran into a wall with my SD&AE HCD layout this weekend when laying out the track plan. David Smith did it for #5 turnouts and I am using #6's. I had to make an adjustment on the mainline from El Centro-Calexico. I think it's going to work just fine. I guess that's why they call it a plan.

More of my shots of Plaster City and US Gypsum

Don't inhale the LOCTITE PL-300

Finally - We are getting there!

Here we go - Pandora is on...Some Memphis Blues and putting the HCD up....Built a frame with 1x3's and secured the frame to the door from below and above. Legs are from 2x3's and at 48" height, they need some support. Going with leg and frame supports. Want to get foam down tonight.

This ended up being real sturdy, had to account for the 4' legs. Fascia will cover up the steel gusset plates.

Good weekend to get a lot of building done. Weather is cold and foggy and plenty of football on. Loved the Seattle and New York up-sets. 

Foam is down and trimmed. I am having a problem taking the metrics from the track plan and adhering it to the foam in 1"=1' ratio. Turnouts must be #5 on the plan and I have #6's.

Plaster City Narrow Gauge Switchstand

Dos Cabezas siding from Jessica Rae's collection

I love this siding so much, I wish I could model it. If I didn't model Plaster City, I could do this siding on the new SD&AE layout (under construction).

The SW's rambled past J&W Redwood in El Cajon

A good friend of mine's dad owned J&W Redwood in El Cajon and The SD&AE's SW's with a few cars would rumble by on the way to the rest of the industries just up the street. Now J&W Lumber, it's still on Marshall in El Cajon just off I-8. All part of what local foamers referred to as The City of El Cajon, the back to back SW-8's chugging their way to El Cajon from Downtown.

This makes me sad

Freight Gateway Study - SD&AE Railway Improvements

The San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway straddles the U.S./Mexico border, connecting San Diego, Tijuana, Tecate, and the Imperial Valley. The U.S. section of the railroad is owned by the Metropolitan Transit System, and the 44 miles in Mexico are owned by the Mexican federal government and assigned to the state of Baja California for operations. The rail line east of Tecate was taken out of service in late 2008 for bridge repairs.

Trainboard has Hollow Core Door layout society

Who would have thought? Check this out TRAINBOARD I wonder if it's like AA, when we enter, we must say I'm Chuck and I'm an HCD-aholic. This is a great place along with RAILWIRE where members have built HCD layouts. I was going to begin Sunday, but Saturday my father in-law passed away. So next weekend, we will try again. Charlie (My father in-law) was from National City and really liked The SD&AE when we talked about it. He remembers when there was passenger service on it.

How long is the wait at the border?

When The Pacific Southwest Railway Museum runs excursion trains on The SD&AE, they have to cross the border. Wonder if they have to show passports and declare any items purchased? This was the massive excursion ten trains in 1983 detailed here by The PSRMA.

Video of SD&AE (San Diego Model Railroad Museum)

Welcome to 2011 and some revisions

We have a tour with photos from my collection on the top of the homepage. You can see shots I took from El Centro to Coyote Wells. I plan to finish the tour through to San Diego by using borrowed shots and noting the source on the page. You can track the progress of my SD&AE El Centro to Plaster City HCD N Scale layout on the top of the homepage as well. Enjoy and tell your SD&AE friends about this site.