quote:Originally posted by George Harris: If you had gone east out of San Diego, you would have dipped down into Mexico, but you would not have gotten any closer to Mexico than Yuma AZ on the route out of Los Angeles. The train east out of San Diego ran on the old SD&AE which was an SP subsidiary. The Mexican portion was called the Tijuana and Tecate. 37 miles were in Mexico.
Actually, Mr. Harris, the main stem of the Imperial did in fact dip into Mexico for fifty miles between Cantu and Calexico, CA (or Algodones and Mexicali, Baja California, on the Mexican side). This was east of the LA/San Diego section split at Calexico, so if you were headed to/from San Diego you would make a second excursion south of the border between Tijuana and Tecate.
Very interesting . . .
Looked back at the 1945 Official Guide I have in my desk, and do not see that. It must have been an off and on thing. The San Diego train did what you describe, but it is shown as the only train on the route, so, the San Diego train actually made two separate dips into Mexico, which I had not realized before.
The map shows quite a tangle of lines in the area. A trian could have dipped down from Niland to El Centro, and so forth making the east most loop into Mexico, but the only thing on this segment in November 1945 was a couple of buses.
Posts: 2810 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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quote:Originally posted by George Harris: If you had gone east out of San Diego, you would have dipped down into Mexico, but you would not have gotten any closer to Mexico than Yuma AZ on the route out of Los Angeles. The train east out of San Diego ran on the old SD&AE which was an SP subsidiary. The Mexican portion was called the Tijuana and Tecate. 37 miles were in Mexico.
Actually, Mr. Harris, the main stem of the Imperial did in fact dip into Mexico for fifty miles between Cantu and Calexico, CA (or Algodones and Mexicali, Baja California, on the Mexican side). This was east of the LA/San Diego section split at Calexico, so if you were headed to/from San Diego you would make a second excursion south of the border between Tijuana and Tecate.
Very interesting . . .
Looked back at the 1945 Official Guide I have in my desk, and do not see that. It must have been an off and on thing. The San Diego train did what you describe, but it is shown as the only train on the route, so, the San Diego train actually made two separate dips into Mexico, which I had not realized before.
The map shows quite a tangle of lines in the area. A trian could have dipped down from Niland to El Centro, and so forth making the east most loop into Mexico, but the only thing on this segment in November 1945 was a couple of buses.
I should qualify my earlier remarks by saying that they apply to August 1950. I have not examined the schedule in detail for other time periods.
-------------------- --------Eric H. Bowen
Stop by my website: Streamliner Schedules - Historic timetables of the great trains of the past! Posts: 413 | From: Houston, Texas | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by George Harris: Very interesting . . .
Looked back at the 1945 Official Guide I have in my desk, and do not see that. It must have been an off and on thing. The San Diego train did what you describe, but it is shown as the only train on the route, so, the San Diego train actually made two separate dips into Mexico, which I had not realized before.
Looking at a few more years I see that it did change around several times in the latter years of San Diego service. In the immediate prewar years through 1945, I see what you see; the section split occurred at Yuma and only the San Diego section went via El Centro and Calexico (on the Inter-California) to make its two dips into Mexico. In the twilight of San Diego service (1950; service discontinued March 1951) the section split occurred at Calexico after the train as a whole made the first excursion into Mexico on the Algodones-Mexicali line, with the LA section then heading north to Niland via Imperial and the San Diego section continuing west via SD&AE. For still more variety, I see that in May 1948 the Imperial as a whole took the El Centro line and the connecting service to San Diego was actually a section split off of the Argonaut (but connecting with the Imperial at Yuma).
I haven't tracked it down definitively, but it seems that the routing change through El Centro and Imperial came after the name of the secondary train on the Golden State Route was changed from the Californian to the Imperial. Betcha a soda that's why.
-------------------- --------Eric H. Bowen
Stop by my website: Streamliner Schedules - Historic timetables of the great trains of the past! Posts: 413 | From: Houston, Texas | Registered: Mar 2006
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