Southern Pacific Steam When It Was King

Well not exactly SD&AE footage, this is some awesome Southern Pacific steam action from the 40's and 50's.  Anybody ever seen any rail fan footage of the SD&AE during the 40's and 50's?

The Impossible Railroad DVD

 I just finished watching The Impossible Railroad and let me say it was a very well put together documentary and an absolute must watch for anyone who is a fan of the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railroad!  It was released on DVD for the first time this year and you can get your copy here: The Impossible Railroad DVD 

Be sure to tell them we sent you!

Night on the San Diego & Arizona Eastern

Here are some pics of us experimenting with a "fake" moon!

The Impossible Railroad Ariving Home

Next step is to start adding stuff!

Continuing The SD&AE

Hello everyone we acquired the SD&AE layout from Chuck.  Follow along as we continue to model The Impossible Railroad in N scale, the San Diego & Arizona Eastern!

New blog is up

http://alaskarail.blogspot.com/

Layout is gone and blog will continue (All thanks to fans of The SD&AE)

The layout went to a fan of The SD&AE. His family will continue to up-date this blog, they are fans of the railroad. Couldn't be better.

We've come to the end of the road....

We are moving to Wasilla, AK at the end of April and I need to sell the layout and the entire N scale collection.

Must sell by the end of April, moving and must sacrifice entire collection. Includes: Engines, rolling stock, structures on layout and some new in box, figures, vehicles, scenery materials, paints, tools, storage containers, adhesives, track, air compressor, power pack and more. Runs great!

Layout is a replica of THE SAN DIEGO AND ARIZONA EASTERN RAILROAD in the Desert of San Diego County.

Call Chuck at 559-224-2302 for more information and to schedule a viewing. Layout and collection is in NW Fresno and is portable.

There is at least $2000 or more of layout and collection must sacrifice at $1,000 obo.

Must have your own truck or van to move. 

SD&AE 70 tonner in San Diego yard

An actual article on SD&AE layout to model

http://www.sdmrra.org/MC_0338/article.html

Coyote Wells 1962 - More Dos Cabezos

All of these pictures are from the SDRM Flicker stream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/modelrailroadmuseum/page22/

Dos Cabezos Old School

Campo 1982

SDAE Crossing Tijuana River

Still a great clip

Wonder where the full length is?

New video

New backdrop

This was quite a process to get the mountains right. I took ten-eleven pictures in a row parked on the first off ramp after the climb from the desert floor to The Desert Tower. Back when it was the old US 80 there was a garage there. Mountain Springs is the area. I used these pictures in the first backdrop and wasn't happy with the outcome. Last weekend my grandson and I cut out the pictures I printed at work (shhhh) and I didn't put them in order, I used the pics, but mixed them up. I cut them to seam them and rubber cemented them to the backdrop. Couldn't be happier with the results this time around. The pictures are all on the blog, a few months ago. Here's a link to the In-Ko-Pah area on I-8 (then US 80).

http://gbcnet.com/ushighways/80pics_d.html

Nothing like The SO CAL Desert!

I was watching Huell Howser last night and he was touring Anza Borrego State Park which takes up 70 miles North to South and 30 miles East to West in San Diego County. We know the area as kids growing up and going on grand Sunday drives out to Julian and down the canyon to Anza Borrego. As I became interested in the modeling process of The San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railroad, a little known fact, the line skirts the far Southern tip of the park in Dos Cabezos. I hope to make it down this Spring to see the wildflowers in March and also to see Dos Cabezos.

Patrick and me made a new backdrop for Coyote Wells

1983 When Men at Work was a new group

Grandkids running SD&AE

Don't take any wooden trestles?

The Imperial 1950

San Diego's original railroad outlet to the East was via the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; during the "railroad wars" of the 1880s a locally chartered company, the California Southern, constructed a line from San Diego north through Temecula Canyon to San Bernardino, where it was met by Santa Fe crews constructing a line over Cajon Pass west from Barstow. The first through train to the East would depart San Diego on November 16, 1885.

However, the line through Temecula proved untenable. The canyon was subject to severe flash floods; indeed, even before the link to the Santa Fe had been completed the California Southern had been shut down for a nine month period due to flood damage. After the Santa Fe had secured entrance to Los Angeles by their purchase of the Los Angeles & San Gabriel Valley railroad in early 1887, a branch was constructed southward from Los Angeles along the coast to San Diego and the line through Temecula was abandoned.

But San Diego backers did not easily give up on their hopes of a direct outlet to the East. If building to the north through Temecula had proved impractical, what about the south? And so the San Diego & Arizona Railway was born. Some engineers of its day referred to it as "The Impossible Railroad" due to the logistic challenges involved. But the road was built south through Mexico and eastward to a connection with the Southern Pacific at Calexico; following financial troubles in the Great Depression it was reorganized as the San Diego & Arizona Eastern under control of the Southern Pacific.


http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track9/extras/sdaeterm195103.pdf

Random Thoughts

With my daughter and her family in North San Diego County, I am hoping to plan a trip down there in March and then off to Campo, Coyote Wells, Plaster City and El Centro. I need to take some pictures of the area and I have to see the raised stations. I still can't believe The ONION PACIFIC tore down those old colonaide depots there. I would love to spend some time at the PSRM in Campo and really get a handle for the railroad. I will keep you posted. I have a long three day weekend (This weekend) and plan to get some work done on the layout.

Campo, Tecate and barking dog

We're back....

Sorry posts have been rare lately, been real busy with work and my wife
lost her job a few weeks ago. Been kind of tied up. Ready to get back
at it.

Nice tandem from SP Modeler's page

From Brian Moore in HO in England, nice shot:

Welcome to Mexico (SD&AE)

SD&AE SP 9/86 videos

Mixed up motive power at Dos Cabezos

Another great Dos Cabezos picture

Reeds Hobby Shop on The SD&AE mainline

Nature's stop sign

Old US 80 Jacumba

These are cool links, not rail oriented, but old and historic.There is a wonderful section of old US 80 in Jacumba where time has literally stood still since its construction in 1933. Everything from the road surface to the bridge rails and white painted wooden guardrails has remained untouched and almost perfectly preserved. It is the only stretch of old US highway I know of where so much has been maintained in such perfect condition. This section is also remarkable because it also has the remnants of the original 16 foot wide road, left exactly as it was when it was replaced by the newer 1933 road. Additionally, this is where it crossed the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railroad (SD&AE Ry), which also played an important role in the history of San Diego.

http://gbcnet.com/ushighways/US80/80pics_c.html

Trivia Time

http://www.impossiblerailroad.com/Trivia

Let's go back to a slower pace and a 70 tonner

Weds from the dispatcher

Just got 3 packs of (12) Osborn Models telephone poles, single arms, look like the ones along the SD&AE mainline. Gonna have them together soon. They are wood poles with a cross arm lazer cut. Just gotta green up the insulators and were on.

Ok so they look nothing like these but they are cool and
Canadian.

Tall cool one in Teacte

SDIV yards at San Ysidro

Welcome to Niland, CA on the mainline from West Colton to Yuma

SD&AE SP 9/86 HCD Up-date

I am almost done with the Walthers N Clarksville Depot which will stand if for El Centro. I painted in yellow, green roof and white windows with brown trim. I realized my hand might not be the steadiest to paint small N window sills.

I put a 122 mile marker at Coyote Wells along with a station sign and equipment shed/box.

Going to start working on El Centro yard and small grove of orange trees on the "A" El Centro side soon.

Carrizo Gorge Railway

A visit to the library

The result of a bad day

Heading to El Cajon

Two heads are better than one - Dos Cabezos, CA