San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway


The San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway Company is a short-line American railroad founded in 1906 as the San Diego and Arizona Railway by sugar magnate, developer, and entrepreneur John D. Spreckels. Dubbed "The Impossible Railroad" by many engineers of its day due to the immense logistical challenges involved, the line was established in part to provide San Diego with a direct rail link to the east by connecting with the Southern Pacific Railroad lines in El Centro, California.
The SD&A's route originates in San Diego, California and terminates in El Centro, California.
The SD&AE uses about of the original SD&A system, broken into four segments:
  1. The Blue Line runs south from San Diego, California to San Ysidro, California.
  2. The Desert Line runs northeast from the Mexico–United States border at "Division" to Plaster City, California.
  3. The Orange Line runs east from San Diego, California to El Cajon, California.
  4. The Coronado Branch runs south from 12th Street Junction, south of San Diego, to Imperial Beach, California
The company took over the SD&A's operations in February 1933 after financial troubles led John Spreckels' descendants to sell their interests in the railroad to the Southern Pacific. Through the years natural disasters and vandalism rendered sections of the line unserviceable, and portions of the line have been sold to various interests.
In 1967 the railroad reported 46 million ton miles of revenue freight on its of line operated.
In 1979 the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System bought the SD&AE railway from Southern Pacific to establish the San Diego Trolley, an intra-county light rail passenger line. The San Diego Trolley carries over 35 million riders annually. The remaining track into Imperial County is used for freight and was part of the sale condition to MTS by Southern Pacific.
In December 1985, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum began operating passenger excursion trains out of their property in Campo, California over the SD&AE. The museum maintains equipment and corporate records of both the SD&A/SD&AE Railways.
As of January 2013, freight operations are conducted by the Pacific Imperial Railroad for the Desert Line and the San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad for the Blue and Orange lines, including the San Ysidro and San Diego yards.
As of October 2017, Pacific Imperial Railroad had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and sold its lease to operate freight for 99 years on the desert line to Baja California Railroad. While BJRR will now operate freight, MTS still owns the line and BJRR must pay MTS US$1 million per year for the rights to operate. BJRR has also announced a three phase plan to rehabilitate the line. Phase 1 will cover the border crossing at Division to Jacumba. Phase two will cover Plaster City to Dos Cabezas. Phase three will be from Jacumba to Dos Cabezas. As of February 2019 no rehabilitation work had begun.
The San Diego Model Railroad Museum maintains representations of the SD&AE's operations in both HO scale and N scale.

Timeline