Pacific Southwest Railway Museum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Pacific Southwest Railway Museum

Founded	18 October 1959 (1959-10-18)
Founder	Eric Sanders, et al.
Type	Public-benefit corporation
Focus	Railroad museum, historic preservation
Location	750 Depot Street Campo, CA (excursion station) 4695 Nebo Drive La Mesa, CA 91941 (business office)
Origins	San Diego County Rail Museum
Area served	San Diego County
President	Stephen Hager
Formerly called	San Diego Railroad Museum

The Pacific Southwest Railway Museum is a railroad museum located in Campo, California, on the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway line. The museum also owns and manages a railroad depot located in La Mesa, California.

Facilities

Campo

Since 1986, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum operates all-volunteer train excursions from the restored 1916 Depot in Campo, in the Mountain Empire area of southeastern San Diego County, California. These trains are powered by vintage diesel-electric locomotives. The facility sits on a 140 acres (0.57 km²) property.

The museum also has approximately 90 historic railroad cars and locomotives on display, including five steam locomotives, eighteen diesel locomotives and many other pieces of rolling stock. A large display building houses part of the railroad equipment collection which allows visitors to view or walk through the equipment. This includes an exhibit titled "Signal Science" which uses retired railroad signals to demonstrate how railway signals work. The museum is also home to the Southwest Railway Library, which opened in Campo in July 2014. The library contains the second largest collection of railroad history in California.

La Mesa

The museum manages the original La Mesa depot in downtown La Mesa, next to the La Mesa Boulevard stop on the Orange Line of the San Diego Trolley. It is the oldest building in town and is the sole surviving San Diego and Cuyamaca Railway station. The museum's renovation of the depot won an award from San Diego's historic preservation society, Save Our Heritage Organization.

Next to the depot is a display train consisting of saddletank steam locomotive 0-6-0ST Mojave Northern Railroad #3, a Pacific Fruit Express reefer car, and a Southern Pacific Railroad caboose.

See also