Coming down San Diego way, are you? If it will be in the next 2 weeks, the weather should be in the 60's-78 range and good for picture taking.

I live in Escondido where the North County Transits District's(NCTD)new Sprinter is being built and should be ready for riding in December or January. The German rail cars are on the property and they test them regularly out of Escondido west. These rail cars are designed and contructed in Germany and usually have a high speed of around 55 mph. The newly constructed maintenance and storage yards are in Escondido. The other end of the line is at Oceanside, CA. The freight on this line is handled by BNSF out of Oceanside, CA. The line follows along Mission Ave. about half of its 22 miles from Escondido.

The yard is at NCTD's Coaster yard and maintenance facility is in Camp Penalton marine base, but next to and seen from I-15. The yard here handles MetroLink Los Angles trains, Coaster to San Diego Trains, and BNSF. You will have problems going through the marine bases if you want to accesss the maintenance yard. About a mile or two, you may see the marine's locomotive. If is usually on the east side of I-15, where the access track goes under the freeway. The marine's railroad goes up into the hills where they store ammuntion. The line was originally the Santa Fe's transcontinental route during the late 1800's - early 1900's. The other end of this line use to go through Parris, CA to San Bernadino, where the Orange Railroad Musium is currently located (a must see).

Currently, MetroLink runs about 6 trains each way a day to and from Oceanside, CA to Los Angeles. Coaster runs about 10 trains each way from Oceanside to San Diego. Amtrak runs 11 or 12 trains a day from San Diego, through Oceanside to Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Louis Obisbo (? spelling). BNSF runs about 4 to 6 trains each way a day from San Diego to Barstow, CA.

San Diego proper is a Trolley town. The San Diego Trolley runs by the San Diego Train Station, makes a U turn around the station and into its own station across the street. The Trolley has 3 lines and they are heavely used. They run about every 10 minutes to: Line 1 - Santee and El Cajon, CA; 2 - Mexican Boarder; 3 - Old Town (original location of San Diego and now a state park) and Mission Valley (Hotel Row and shopping paradise). If you are going to travel all the Trolley lines, allow for 2 days.

At the Trolley Center and shops (you will go through them if you are going to the Mexcian Boarder, you will find the current freight tenent that handles the freight from BNSF to the Mexico. I think the current name is San Diego and Arizona Railroad. It has changed hands so many times. The main freight is grain for the Mexican brewery and oil for for the boarder towns.

The other must see is the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum (www.sdrm.org). You should dial up their website for operations and map. The museum is not close to downtown but in the mountains east. You will need a car. Also, at the museum, you can learn about the opening of the line to El Centro, CA. The line was once the San Diego and Arizona Easter Railroad - owned and operated by Southern Pacific.

One last stop if you are a model railroader - the model railroad museum at Balboa Park, the mail paid in San Diego City - just downtown. Last count was 4 layouts and you will send at least 2 hours their.

I hope this helps.

Ken