Pre-Amtrak in San Diego

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jiml

jiml

Engineer
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Feb 27, 2019
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Back in Southern Ontario
I wasn't sure where to post this to attract input from the historians onboard, but this seemed like as good a place as any. I'm currently in San Diego (via Amtrak of course) and after stepping off the train at the famous depot I got to wondering about what long-distance service might have existed from here pre-Amtrak. I'm aware of the San Diegans, which ran on the current route, but IIRC they had distances similar to the Surfliners today. Were there any routes out of here that went elsewhere? Having driven from SD to inland California, bypassing LA, I wondered if there were similar rail routes at any time. Some of it is rugged territory and even the highway drive reflects this, so maybe it was impractical and everything funnelled through the Los Angeles area? There's certainly not a lot of searchable data available, although the criteria may be too specific. I'm really interested to hear from the experts.
 
At one time I think there was a thru sleeper on the Southern Pacific east. And it operated on an interesting route that crises crossed between the US and Mexico.
 
Looking at my June 1956 Official Guide: Santa Fe had six San Diegans to Los Angeles daily, and that was it for San Diego passenger train service. There was a listed connection to trains 3 and 4, which ran L.A. to Kansas City via Amarillo, but I don't see any indication of through cars.

(The Pacific Surfliners of today travel further than the San Diegans did, given that some of the trains run as far as San Luis Obispo.)
 
Up through the early 1950s or so, there was some level of passenger service over the San Diego & Arizona (later San Diego & Arizona Eastern), which ran east from San Diego to a connection with Southern Pacific at El Centro.
 
This is very interesting. I'm been a railfan for a long time, but I've never heard of a San Diego connection to the Rock Island-Southern Pacific trains. Of course, since it was discontinued when I was just a little kid living in the Midwest, I probably totally overlooked it at the time.
 
There have also been through long-distance sleepers to San Diego via ATSF. In the August 1952 OG that was the daily sleeper that went from Washington DC to San Diego and back, over the BO (trains 5/6 Capitol Limited) and the ATSF (trains 19/20 Chief and San Diegan trains 74/71). The through sleeper to San Diego started to run in March 1947. In the first year(s) it ran from Chicago to San Diego (for example in the April 1948 OG). I don't know when exactly the Washington-San Diego through routing was introduced, but obviously at some point between April 1948 and August 1952. I believe the San Diego sleeper ran until early 1954 only. So this was pretty short-lived. It was definitely gone by August 1955 (the OG shows no through service to San Diego anymore).
 
ehbowen said:
Here's the last timetable which I have showing through service between San Diego and the east:

http://streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track9/imperial195008.html

After early 1951, all service was on the Surf Line via Fullerton and Los Angeles.
Click to expand...
That is very interesting... I also learned from that timetable, that there were two "dips" into and out of Mexico on the connecting SD&AE train. I wasn't aware that the Imperial ran that alternate (from the Sunset) line between Yuma and El Centro via Calexico. The Sunset stayed in the States all the way.
 
Thogo said:
There have also been through long-distance sleepers to San Diego via ATSF. In the August 1952 OG that was the daily sleeper that went from Washington DC to San Diego and back, over the BO (trains 5/6 Capitol Limited) and the ATSF (trains 19/20 Chief and San Diegan trains 74/71). The through sleeper to San Diego started to run in March 1947. In the first year(s) it ran from Chicago to San Diego (for example in the April 1948 OG). I don't know when exactly the Washington-San Diego through routing was introduced, but obviously at some point between April 1948 and August 1952. I believe the San Diego sleeper ran until early 1954 only. So this was pretty short-lived. It was definitely gone by August 1955 (the OG shows no through service to San Diego anymore).
Click to expand...
Presumably this was via Fullerton, then south on current Surfliner trackage, or was a stop made in LA?
 
railiner said:
That is very interesting... I also learned from that timetable, that there were two "dips" into and out of Mexico on the connecting SD&AE train. I wasn't aware that the Imperial ran that alternate (from the Sunset) line between Yuma and El Centro via Calexico. The Sunset stayed in the States all the way.
Click to expand...
Yep. The right-of-way of this line between downtown San Diego and San Ysidro was re-purposed as the original (Blue) line of the San Diego Trolley system, although I understand it's still available for freight use in the wee hours.
 
jiml said:
Presumably this was via Fullerton, then south on current Surfliner trackage, or was a stop made in LA?
Click to expand...
Via Los Angeles/LAUPT. The Chief (as well as most of Santa Fe's passenger trains) ran via Pasadena, not via Fullerton. As well, I believe that Fullerton did not have facilities for the switching and temporary storage of rail cars.
0947.jpg 0966.jpg 0972.jpg

Edit To Add: Sorry, but it looks as if the forum software compressed the original images beyond the point of readability. The original images were 1073 by 1510 pixels, easily readable with IrfanView.
 
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ehbowen said:
Via Los Angeles/LAUPT. The Chief (as well as most of Santa Fe's passenger trains) ran via Pasadena, not via Fullerton. As well, I believe that Fullerton did not have facilities for the switching and temporary storage of rail cars.
View attachment 15365 View attachment 15366 View attachment 15367
Click to expand...
Thanks! I love San Diego and find its rail history fascinating every time I visit.DSC05009.JPG Our one hotel there a couple of weeks ago had a great view of the Santa Fe depot and I couldn't avoid staring out the window.
 
Last edited:
jiml said:
Presumably this was via Fullerton, then south on current Surfliner trackage, or was a stop made in LA?
Click to expand...

It was via LA. The Chief didn't run via Fullerton back then, but via Pasadena. (On a side note, the only ATSF long-distance train that went via Fullerton in August 1952 was the Grand Canyon.)

edit: Just saw that it was already answered above. ^^
 

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