Pacific Southwest Railway Museum facts for kids
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| Founded | 18 October 1959 |
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| Founder | Eric Sanders, et al. |
| Type | Public-benefit corporation |
| Focus | Railroad museum, historic preservation |
| Location |
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| Origins | San Diego County Rail Museum |
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Area served
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San Diego County |
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President
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Stephen Hager |
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Formerly called
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San Diego Railroad Museum |
The Pacific Southwest Railway Museum is a cool place where you can learn all about trains and their history! It's a museum about railroads located in Campo, California. The museum also takes care of an old train station in La Mesa, California.
What You Can See and Do
Campo Location
Since 1986, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum has offered fun train rides from the old 1916 Depot in Campo. This area is in the Mountain Empire part of southeastern San Diego County, California. These trains are pulled by old diesel-electric locomotives, which are a type of train engine. The museum property is quite large, covering about 140 acres (about 0.57 square kilometers)!
The museum has around 90 historic train cars and locomotives for you to see. This includes five steam locomotives (the really old ones that use steam!) and eighteen diesel locomotives. There are also many other types of train cars. A big building at the museum holds part of this amazing collection. You can walk through some of the equipment and get a close look.
One special exhibit is called "Signal Science." It uses old railroad signals to show how trains communicate and stay safe on the tracks. The museum is also home to the Southwest Railway Library, which opened in Campo in July 2014. This library has one of the biggest collections of railroad history in California!
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La Mesa Location
The museum also looks after the original La Mesa train station in downtown La Mesa. This station is right next to the La Mesa Boulevard station for the San Diego Trolley's Orange Line. It's the oldest building in La Mesa and the only remaining station from the old San Diego and Cuyamaca Railway. The museum did a great job fixing up the depot, and they even won an award for it from a group called Save Our Heritage Organization.
Right next to the depot, you can see a special display train. It includes an old saddletank steam locomotive called Mojave Northern Railroad #3, a refrigerated car from Pacific Fruit Express, and a Southern Pacific Railroad caboose (the last car on a freight train).
More to Explore
- Carrizo Gorge Railway
- List of heritage railroads in the United States
- List of railway museums
- List of museums in California
- Non-profit organization
- Pacific Imperial Railroad
- San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway
- San Diego and Arizona Railway
