San Diego railroad celebrates 100 years
CAMPO, Calif. — Taking off his suit jacket and taking hold of a spike maul, a John D. Spreckels impersonator drove a replica gold spike — after an initial swing and a miss — into the San Diego & Arizona Railway on Saturday. The act commemorated the 100-year anniversary of the completion of what is often referred to as the “Impossible Railroad.”
The reenactment, a celebration of Spreckels’ unwavering commitment to finish the $18-million cross-border line in November 1919, was the culminating moment for the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Assn., which hosted an allday affair at its Campo facility.
“We’ve spent the entire year celebrating the 100th birthday of the completion of the San Diego & Arizona Railway ... and today is the biggest event,” said Martin Caestecker, the nonprofit’s 25-year-old vice president.
At the time, the connection was the last link of what historians consider the transcontinental railroad. The Spreckels portion allowed San Diego to access the rest of the world, Caestecker said.
“People today don’t really know how important train travel was in our history,” he said. “So by celebrating this event we hope to raise some awareness not only in local areas but in communities that [are] maybe more distant.”
Families from across San Diego County came to enjoy the day’s festivities, most visiting the museum for the first time in anticipation of taking a 45-minute train ride on a five-mile portion of the 148-mile track that stretches from San Diego to El Centro.
Today, the museum is the only leaseholder for the U.S. portion of the line, as most of the California-based railroad is inoperable and in need of repairs.
However, a freight operator continues to use a portion of the railway in Mexico. Saturday, the railroad association ran two sold-out train rides, allowing roughly 500 visitors the chance to ride in cars that date to the 1920s.
“Our 3½-year-old son Max loves trains, so we came out to check out the event,” said Peter Smith, a 51-yearold resident of Serra Mesa who was joined by his wife, Gilda.
Del Cerro resident Brandon Davis, 42, came with his partner Eric Salzmann, 41.
“We both like all things old,” Davis said, adding that he researched the history of the railway and was excited to take in the gold spike ceremony.
A group of around 20 people, including Laurie Guidry of Northern California, had a personal reason to visit the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum. All descendants of Spreckels’ children, the group was organized by author Sandra Bonura, whose biography of the San Diego newspaper baron and real estate tycoon is being published next year.
Some in the party came from as far away as Germany for what turned out to be a reunion of sorts, as Spreckels’ great-great-grandchildren met some of their cousins for the first time.
“I wanted to get as many people here as I could,” Bonura said. “When I wrote this biography ... I realized that [I needed] to get the family to meet each other, to connect.”
Before the gold spike ceremony, county Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who presented the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Assn. with a proclamation commending its work, said the railroad is important to her.
“I hope that in my lifetime that I will see [the restoration of the railway] completed,” she said.