Qualla: Pacific Southwest Railway Museum

Pacific Southwest Railway Museum: Introduction

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jason Kardos Mt Helix Lifestyles, CC BY-SA 4.0. The locomotive roster reads like a roll call of American railroading: five steam engines, eighteen diesels, and nearly ninety pieces of historic rolling stock gathered in a dusty corner of San Diego County where the tracks once connected California to Arizona. Since 1986, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum has operated from a restored 1916 depot in Campo, running all-volunteer train excursions along what remains of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway - the "Impossible Railroad" that conquered the Carrizo Gorge against every engineer's better judgment.

Image: Jason Kardos Mt Helix Lifestyles | CC BY-SA 4.0

Pacific Southwest Railway Museum: The Campo Collection

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit mliu92 from San Mateo, CC BY-SA 2.0. The main facility sprawls across multiple acres in the Mountain Empire region of southeastern San Diego County. Here, volunteers maintain and operate vintage diesel-electric locomotives that pull excursion trains through terrain that challenged railroad builders a century ago. Th...

Image: mliu92 from San Mateo | CC BY-SA 2.0

Pacific Southwest Railway Museum: La Mesa's Survivor

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit mliu92 from San Mateo, CC BY-SA 2.0. The museum's reach extends beyond Campo. In downtown La Mesa, adjacent to the Orange Line trolley station, stands the original La Mesa depot - the oldest building in town and the sole surviving station of the San Diego and Cuyamaca Railway. The museum's restoration of this Victor...

Image: mliu92 from San Mateo | CC BY-SA 2.0

Pacific Southwest Railway Museum: Hollywood's Backlot

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit mliu92 from San Mateo, CC BY-SA 2.0. The photogenic locomotives and frontier-era depot haven't escaped Hollywood's notice. In 1994, the children's video "There Goes a Train" featured the Campo facility, with the museum closing for a full week of shooting. The museum's ALCO MRS-1 locomotive, originally built for the ...

Image: mliu92 from San Mateo | CC BY-SA 2.0

Pacific Southwest Railway Museum: Keeping the Rails Alive

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Bekins (talk · contribs), CC BY-SA 3.0. What makes the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum remarkable isn't just what it preserves but how it operates. Every excursion train runs on volunteer power - engineers, conductors, and docents who show up on weekends to keep history moving. The San Diego and Arizona Eastern line t...

Image: Eric Bekins (talk · contribs) | CC BY-SA 3.0