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Impossible Railroad Carrizo Gorge

They've Been Working on the Railroad

Story and photographs by Richard Elgenson
RailNewsNetwork staff writer

             

Beginnings

J.D. Spreckles built a railroad known as the impossible railroad.  This railroad was constructed over a 10 year period with the Carrizo Gorge portion of the Desert Line taking 2 years to build.    The 163 mile line opened as the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway between San Diego and El Centro in 1919 with a 44 mile portion built through Mexico.  The company reorganized as San Diego & Arizona Eastern in 1932 as a subsidiary of Southern Pacific.  SP suspended service in 1976 after a tropical storm washed out the line.

             

Recent History

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) purchased certain segments of the railroad in 1979 for $18.1 million which include San Diego to El Cajon, San Diego to San Ysidro, and Division (international border with Mexico) to Plaster City.  MTDB obtained the right-of-way for establishment of the San Diego Trolley lines.  The MTDB contracted with Kyle Railways who operated the lines as the San Diego & Arizona Eastern, including the 44 mile portion in Mexico, until 1984. 
             

At that time, the MTDB signed an agreement with RailTex to operate the line as the San Diego & Imperial Valley Railroad (SDIV) and service began October 15 1984.  After the Desert portion of the line became inoperable due to natural disasters and fires RailTex was reluctant to invest capital to restore the line.  Plans to reopen it stalled and the political climate kept it closed.  A new problem was encountered with the privatization of Mexican railroads.  The 44 mile Tijuana to Tecate section concession came under the control of the State of Baja California who in turn signed an agreement with the Carrizo Gorge Railway on July 2 2001. 

             

Carrizo Gorge Railway, a Lakeside California based privately held company, received an agreement with MTDB on May 17 2002 to operate the Desert Line from Division to Plaster City California.  RailAmerica took over RailTex in 2000 and  operates the portion of the railroad known as San Diego & Imperial Valley Railroad (SDIY), a BNSF feeder,  from San Diego to San Ysidro and the Santee Branch in San Diego.

             

The Present

Currently one business operator, Carrizo Gorge Railway, controls the railroad on both sides of the border.  Until the Desert Line is opened, CZRY currently has traffic over the 44 miles of track in Mexico.  According to Geoffrey Scheuerman, General Manager of CZRY, traffic volume through San Ysidro is about 500 cars per month.  He hopes for 2000 cars per month after reopening of the Carrizo portion of the line. CZRY currently has 5 dedicated road locomotives and is looking for 5 more in the 3,000 horsepower range.  Major commodities presently are grain, lumber, plastic and steel.  The producer of Tecate Beer, Cerveceria Moctezuma, utilizes rail service for grain deliveries.  The brewery has a 3 track facility for which the CZRY sets out and picks up the grain cars.  After Desert Line resumes traffic the brewery will have an option of sending export product to the eastern U.S. vial rail.  From west to east, Mexican traffic is handled at Commercial Station in Tijuana, Agua Caliente, Garcia, Matanuco, Valle Redondo, Tecate and Lindero.  Facilities include an LP gas terminal for Texas Gas & Oil in Tijuana which is being replaced further along the line with a 45 car yard by late first or early second quarter of 2004.  At kilometer 8 in Mexico there is a team track with capacity for 35 rail cars.  CZRY handles cars of cattle feed for Alimentos.  Past the international border, the next railroad locations are Campo, site of the San Diego Railroad museum, and Jacumba Station, one of the staging areas for construction work on the Desert Line.  Work trains access the Carrizo Gorge from both the west (Jacumba) and east at Plaster City.  The project to restore the railway has been under progress for 7 years in different incarnations with Carrizo Gorge Railway being the entity to bring it to fruition. 

The Challenge

Carizzo Gorge Railway officials ran a special train for local government officials on Saturday December 7 2003 to showcase the progress of reopening the line.  The 3-1/2 hour excursion provided grand views of the terrain involved in completing the rail link between San Diego and Plaster City California in the extreme southern part of the state which borders Mexico.  The difficulty of the original construction and maintenance necessary to keep open this railroad is indeed aparrent.  Railroads that traverse hot and cold mountainous terrain are very labor intensive to maintain and operate.
Progress is continuing on the reopening project  for the Carizzo Gorge Railway.  By the first quarter of 2002 the Carizzo Gorge Railway expects to be operating one through freight train each day each way from San Ysidro to El Centro.  Gary Sweetwood, president of CGRy is confident that by cleaning up the long shuttered  route businesses in and around the San Diego and Imperial Countiy areas bordered by Mexico will benefit by a new choice to ship their goods, commodities and products.  Mr. Sweetwood, pictured at the west portal of tunnel 16 has 25  feet of collapsed debris to clear before the line becomes through again and  traffic can resume.



The Future

Theory of GCRY business plan.
San Diego has little or no intermodal train service.  The BNSF does not operate any intermodal to San Diego via the Surfline.  Although there is no intermodal service yet, tunnel track clearences will be improved to allow doublestack trains by lowering the roadbed in certain tunnels.  This railroad has the capability to take truck business off of U.S. Interstate 8.  The scale of economy of a train with 200 containers operated by 2 or 3 employees versus separate trucks will be attractive to shippers originating or receiving freight in the San Diego area. Intermodal service could be scheduled for the benefit of the shipper or receiver.  The CZRY hopes to develop a transload facility at Coyote Wells near I-8.  The Port of San Diego could potentially be interested for moving containers eastbound through Carrizo Gorge except for the height restrictions on the SDIY which moves traffic overnight from San Diego to San Ysidro.  Refurbishment of the Coronado branch line out of the port to San Ysidro is an economic impossibility at this time.  There has been proposed a rail link from Ensenada, Baja California, to Tecate to allow the port at Ensenada to expand.  Increased traffic levels on the 44 mile Mexican portion of the railroad will involve public education along the lines of Operation Lifesaver Inc., a national, non-profit education and awareness program dedicated to ending tragic collisions, fatalities and injuries at highway-rail grade crossings and on railroad rights-of-way.  Laws for motorists are somewhat different in Mexico.  Either side of the border, one would rather not get hit by a train which out weighs your car by a 4000 to 1 ratio.