Pacific Southwest Railway Museum

Amanda

Doris

This semester of graduate school I decided to intern at a local museum near my house.  The Temecula Valley Museum is having me create digital interactive exhibits to go along with their main floor exhibit.  The first one that I have been working on is dedicated to the trains that ran from San Diego all the way through Temecula to Colton.  This train was built in 1881 and the line opened in 1882.  It started in National City, San Diego and traveled up through Oceanside and into Escondido.  The train then went eastward and traveled through Fallbrook, Temecula, Lake Elsinore and continued its way to Riverside where it eventually meet in Colton to meet the Pacific and the Santa Fe Railroads.

The rail line that command this stretch of track was the California Southern Railroad.  While one of the companies in service for the shortest time, the CS connected San Diego north before the Ocean line had been completed in the early 1900’s.

So in order to create an exhibit I have to spend the time doing the research that is not always at the museum that I am working at.  So I took the time to get in contact with Bruce from the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum.  Bruce is the archivist at one of the largest train libraries this side of the Mississippi River.  The archive has what every train enthusiast could ever wish for.  All the information in original documents on any train that was used on any California line.

The Museum has amazing resources that not only include a complete archive, but also has the original Depot station, along with rebuilt engines, cars, and a wooden caboose.  Though I didn’t do it, the Museum also features a train ride down the original tracks of the Pacific Southwest.

While the museum is rather far south in the small town of Campo, it only took about two hours to get there and enjoy.  Not only does the museum have refurbished engines and cars, it also has the remains of trains used to rebuilt others.  It is a plethora of train memorabilia dating as far back as the 1850’s.

For any train enthusiast out there or anyone with little ones that love trains this is a great place to visit and experience.  Go, visit, ride and enjoy being in a true train environment.

Next week I am going to be visiting another museum on trains.  This one will be the San Diego Model Railway Museum in order to visit their archive as well.