FORTY YEARS AGO, on June 08, 1982, a friend of mine and I made our way to Campo, CA. At that time Kyle Railways was operating the former Southern Pacific subsidiary, the San Diego and Arizona Eastern. There was a bridge over the Tia Juana river in Tijuana that was washed out and the Mexicans were taking their time in repairing it. Consequently, Kyle was having the crews go on duty at Campo and one day they would make a round trip to Tijuana and then the next day they would make a round trip to Plaster City. After making a few phone calls to learn of this, we showed up at Campo on the day they were going to Plaster City and we managed to find a co-operative crew who allowed us to ride. We were able to ride through Carriso Gorge twice in one day! Here's our train crossing Goat Canyon trestle on the eastbound trip and the view is looking back at the train from the lead unit.

This line is now out-of-service and there have been some bridge fires and collasped tunnels over the years. It's anyone's guess as to whether or not trains will ever run here again. It's going to require a lot of money to re-open the line and the numbers crunch now in about the same manner as when John D. Spreckles and SP were trying to squeeze a profit out of the operation.

The SD&AE was known as "the impossible railroad" and the eighteen miles through Carriso Gorge show how the railroad achieved that description.