A crane and huge pipes on Friars Road near the site of the San Diego River Double Track (SDRDT) project.
Here are some interesting photos! A new railroad bridge is being installed across the San Diego River just north of the Old Town Transit Station, allowing the Coaster and Pacific Surfliner trains to run faster and more reliably. This work is called the San Diego River Double Track (SDRDT) project. I’ve watched the progress for several months during my daily trolley commute. This construction is being done ahead of another project to install trolley tracks across the river for the Mid-Coast Trolley Project, which will extend Blue Line service up to UCSD and University Towne Center (UTC) in La Jolla.
I took these photos last Saturday during my walk along Friars Road approaching the San Diego River Estuary. I’m no expert on this construction–I’m just an ordinary citizen who was fascinated by what I saw!
A series of three big storms is beginning in San Diego as I post this. Hopefully the flooding in Mission Valley where I work doesn’t get completely out of hand! I might post photos!
I noticed these huge green tanks along Friars Road.I also saw these huge coils of steel cable.A big pile of dirt by the railroad bridge over the San Diego River where the double track work is taking place.I believe new train tracks will be on the other side of the existing bridge you see in this photo.Passing under the train tracks as I walk along a raised area beside Friars Road.Now I’m looking east at all sorts of construction equipment, gravel and other material.This thing looks like a huge drill! Perhaps its used for boring through the ground, but I’m not sure. If you know anything, leave a comment!
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Display inside San Diego’s 1915 Santa Fe Depot. Photos and words provide a glimpse of the train station’s history.
Should you ever step inside downtown San Diego’s handsome Santa Fe Depot, there’s a small exhibit at the information booth worth checking out. Two glass display cases provide a glimpse of the train station’s fascinating history.
To read the signs, click the images and they will enlarge.
Last year the Santa Fe Depot celebrated its centennial. I blogged about that here!
If you ever visit the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego, swing by this information booth to check out the historical exhibit.Several paragraphs recount the history of the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company and the unique origin of North County community Rancho Santa Fe. Eucalyptus trees make poor railroad ties!In a nook right next to the depot’s wall, beside colorful Santa Fe tilework, one can discover more fascinating information.Graphic shows important dates concerning the Santa Fe Depot. The 1887 Victorian-style depot was razed in 1915 after the new depot opened in time for the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park.The train station’s architecture reflects colonial Spanish and Mission history in California; it was designed to harmonize with the Spanish Colonial Revival-style buildings of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park. A century ago San Diego strove to become the western terminus of the Continental Railway.More fascinating old photos of the Santa Fe Depot, today a San Diego transportation hub serving Amtrak, the Coaster, and the Orange and Green Lines of the San Diego Trolley.Original plaster detail removed during the April 2014 restoration of the southeast tower.
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A new 2016 San Diego Comic-Con trolley wrap promotes Dead of Summer on the Freeform cable channel, from the Executive Producers of Once Upon a Time and Lost.
I was wrong! There’s a fourth San Diego Comic-Con trolley wrap for 2016, and I got photos of it this morning!
This brand new San Diego trolley wrap advertises the television show Dead of Summer, which premiered today on the Freeform cable channel! The images are a bit creepy and suggest death in the hot, languid summer. It seems this new horror show, created by the Executive Producers of Once Upon a Time and Lost, concerns a Midwestern summer camp called Camp Stillwater, and is set in the 1980s. Has anyone seen the first episode yet?
This body in the tire swing has no top half visible! Which effectively produces a double-take and horrified reaction!A dead bee lying on the tongue of an open drooling mouth. Not sure about the meaning, but the image is memorable and disturbing!
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Heads up! Lots of Comic-Con related photos should appear on my blog this year! It’s going to be a load of fun!
Just like last summer, 2016 San Diego Comic-Con trolley wraps sponsored by TBS feature Conan O’Brien turned into crazy Funko Pop! characters.
Here are photos of what will probably be the final trolley wrap for 2016 San Diego Comic-Con. I hope I’m proven wrong!
Today a number of trolleys cars featuring brand new Conan O’Brien Funko Pop! figures began heading up and down the Green Line; I counted at least five cars so far. The wrap is quite similar to last year’s TBS Comic-Con offering, but this time Conan has been transformed into four completely different pop culture characters.
In 2016 Conan is Superman, a Stormtrooper, a Ghostbuster and Joker. Of course, movies involving these characters are either imminent or on the way, so the wraps work as advertisements for those movies, for Funko Pop! vinyl figure toys, for San Diego Comic-Con, and lastly for Conan O’Brien’s talk show on TBS.
I’ve heard that like last year, Conan will be performing live at the Spreckels Theater on Broadway in downtown San Diego. Catch him and his inimitable humor starting July 20!
Conan O’Brien will be Live From Comic-Con starting July 20. His talk show antics will be enjoyed in the Spreckels Theater in downtown San Diego.Here Conan is turned into the Joker from the upcoming Suicide Squad movie. He might be damaged, but he has nowhere near enough tattoos.Looks to me as if Conan is a Star Wars Stormtrooper here. He must’ve lost his helmet.Yes, here’s Conan as a Ghostbuster, trying not to be slimed. Even though those black eyes make him look possessed and evil.And finally Conan O’Brien has been turned into good old Superman. Not sure if this is the cranky good old Superman who sometimes kills his enemies.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! If all goes well, I’m gonna have a ton of Comic-Con photos on my blog this year! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
2016 San Diego Comic-Con will bring fans a new version of the familiar Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. trolley wrap. This year, the design features a burning chain! Ghost Rider, perhaps?
We’re still a month away from 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, but a few signs of its approach keep popping up. Today I got some more photos. Most notably, I got pics of another completely new Comic-Con trolley wrap for this year. It appears a bit like the familiar Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. design that fans have seen in the past, but this time the bold graphics includes a fiery burning chain!
I also got pics that show what the San Diego Symphony will be up to this year. Check out the photos to see for yourself!
Another older model San Diego trolley car has been wrapped with the new Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. graphics, for the upcoming 2016 Comic-Con. I’ve seen several of these cars in the past few days!Now that San Diego Startup Week is over, the Doctor Strange street lamp banners have been hung throughout downtown–in the Gaslamp, by the convention center, along Broadway, and along the Embarcadero.Many shops in the Gaslamp Quarter and Horton Plaza have placed pop culture and superhero gear in their windows, in anticipation of Comic-Con.Even the street artists are getting ready. A kid was having fun near the USS Midway posing by this Incredible Hulk art!The San Diego Symphony has nearly finished erecting the stage for their outdoor summer concerts. The portable box office advertises two special performances during Comic-Con.During Comic-Con, there will be two performances by the San Diego Symphony at the Jacobs Music Center. Final Symphony includes music from several Final Fantasy video games; music from The Legend of Zelda will be featured the following evening.
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A new FOX television show, Son of Zorn, advertised on a San Diego trolley. Comic-Con graphics are slowly beginning to appear in San Diego.
Today I spotted the first cool trolley wrap for the fast-approaching 2016 San Diego Comic-Con!
Check out these photos. I had to time my shots strategically, because the trolleys don’t wait at a station for very long!
Each side of this San Diego trolley car advertises a separate television show; both will debut this coming Fall season on FOX. First up you see graphics for Son of Zorn, which involves an animated warrior character among live-action family members. It’s a unique comedy idea that sounds weird but fun! The second side of the trolley wrap advertises The Exorcist, which is already a cultural phenomenon.
I’m positive more 2016 San Diego Comic-Con trolley wraps are on the way, so stay tuned!
Animated warrior Zorn will be coping with live-action family members (including his son) in an unusual hybrid television comedy on FOX this Fall. Taking a stab at the real world.The first 2016 San Diego Comic-Con trolley wrap has debuted in June! Both sides of this trolley advertise upcoming television shows on FOX.And here comes the other side of the exact same trolley car. Another brand new FOX television offering, The Exorcist, is being promoted with eerie blood red graphics.The Exorcist appears on one side of a San Diego trolley. This enormous moving ad for the new FOX show will be seen by thousands of pop culture fans attending Comic-Con next month. Today it’s operating on the Green Line, which goes right past the convention center!Starting July 20, which is Preview Night, San Diego Comic-Con will become the international center of entertainment and popular culture. I expect to see more trolley wraps in the weeks ahead!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! In addition to other San Diego places and events (like the MLB All-Star Game–also in July), I’ll be checking out Comic-Con and taking tons of photos this year!
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There’s more than refreshments and snacks at the National City Depot. There’s a huge, cool collection of local railroad and trolley history!
If you’re a train or streetcar lover, prepare to go nuts! The friendly guys at the National City Depot, which is home to the Trolley and Railroad Museum operated by the San Diego Electric Railway Association, allowed me to take loads of photographs a couple weekends ago! The place is so crammed with cool stuff, I hardly know where to start!
(Before I get started, however, I learned the National City Depot is in desperate need of volunteer docents and cashiers. So if you live around San Diego and have some free time, please consider this opportunity. Railroading enthusiasts would be in heaven. If you’d like, you might actually roll up your sleeves and help work to revitalize several vintage streetcars. You can have a great time preserving and enlivening our local history of trolleys by explaining exhibits and sharing knowledge with curious visitors, tourists and school students. SDERA’s stated mission is to restore and preserve the history of electric railways and trolleys in the San Diego region. Click here for more info.)
As you can see from the first photo, the depot has a number of old railroad cars and streetcars sitting outside on either side of it. The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, MTS, has provided the private association with three old Vienna streetcars and one Presidents Conference Committee (PCC) streetcar. The latter is undergoing restoration, and will eventually be used as a cool tourist attraction, running over the Coronado Belt Line of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railroad!
You might recognize the name San Diego Electric Railway. It was the mass transit system built by locally famous “sugar heir” and entrepreneur John D. Spreckels. His network of railroads was established in 1892, and active streetcars served a large area of the city for many decades. The San Diego Electric Railway Association proudly displays some examples of the rolling stock that were utilized in those glory years of electric streetcars.
The National City Depot has its own fascinating history. It was built in 1882 by the Santa Fe Railroad, and became the first Pacific Coast terminus station of their transcontinental line. Today, it’s the last representative of the original stations built on the West Coast by the five different transcontinental railroads. After various changes in its operations over the decades, the depot was abandoned in the 1960s and suffered severe neglect. Before finally reopening as a museum, it was also used as a unique building for a couple of restaurants. It’s now owned by the city of National City.
I learned so much during my visit, my brain is still whirling. If I’ve captioned the photos incorrectly, or have made some sort of factual error, please leave a comment!
Here come the photos, just a taste of what you might see should you swing on by. Enjoy!
The National City Depot was built in 1882. It was the first Pacific Coast terminus station of the Santa Fe Railroad’s transcontinental line.Plaque in front of National City Depot, the first Pacific Coast terminus station of Santa Fe’s transcontinental railroad. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 1023.Sign describes Santa Fe Rail Depot in National City. It’s the only original transcontinental railroad terminus still standing.Inside the small depot are display cases full of model trains and streetcars, plus artifacts and memorabilia. The walls are covered with old photos and historical information.The famous old train station sits alongside BNSF tracks which are still active. The National City Depot played in instrumental role in American railroad history.There’s so much cool stuff crammed inside the museum, a railfan could spend hours closely examining all of it!A magazine article on display for train buffs and history enthusiasts to check out. Buses finally replaced the old network of San Diego trolleys in 1949.One of many old photos in the museum depicting San Diego’s very rich electric streetcar history.A collection of old lanterns. Everything imaginable concerning San Diego railroads and trolleys can be found inside the National City Depot.Faded writing on the brick fireplace recalls when the eventually abandoned depot was used as a restaurant. Black panels on the walls cover graffiti.One section of a wall has lots of photos of vintage streetcars and trolleys.A second room inside the National City Depot contains a huge model train layout! The exhibit is run when the depot is open Thursdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm. It appears that SDERA members have a lot of fun!The best photo I could get of a big antique Raymond and Wilshire safe in the historic transcontinental depot. I had to squeeze up against the model train layout.Now we’re outside beside the depot at a picnic bench! I like these two planters in the shape of steam locomotives!Two of National City Depot’s three old Austrian streetcars. These were going to be used by MTS for the San Diego Trolley in the Gaslamp Quarter, but couldn’t meet ADA standards, as I understand it.Sign inside one Vienna street car details the history. They were originally built at the Simmering Machine and Railcar Works, Simmering, Austria.Now we’re stepping like a passenger into one of the old Austrian streetcars!The controls used by this electric streetcar’s operator. Notice a seat that folds under the dashboard.Looking back where passengers would sit. There didn’t seem to be much capacity in the small cars.Now we’re checking out Birney Car 336, out in the open lot beside the National City Depot. This is one type of streetcar that transported people in San Diego decades ago.Birney Car 336 was built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1917, and first served in Bellingham, WA. It later was used for dining inside the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Diego, from 1971 to 2004!Inside the old Birney Car. I’m hungry for some spaghetti! Where are the chairs?Cool vintage advertisements along the car’s ceiling include this one for Burma-Shave.A big, heavy tamping machine used for maintaining railroad tracks and placing them more firmly onto packed ballast.A second ballast tamper outside the National City Depot. I always wondered what these unusual machines that you see on train tracks are for.Part of the machinery that pushes down on the steel rails and ties. This makes sure train tracks are solidly in place and level.Gazing back north past various rail exhibits outside the National City Depot. Isn’t this fun?Now we’ll check out PCC Car 539, which was donated to SDERA by the Metropolitan Transit System.PCC Car 539 was built in 1946 by the St. Louis Car Company. It served as a streetcar in St. Louis until 1956. Restoration is underway. One day it might run nearby as a tourist attraction.Inside the fabulous PCC car. The San Diego Trolley now has two completely restored cars of this type, running in a downtown loop called the Silver Line.I believe this is a Fairmont Speeder Car. Tiny crew cars were used to transport a few individual workers up and down tracks. I’d love to ride one!Oh, man! I bet you’d love to sit in one of these seats and ride the rails! Just turn the throttle to go!Seriously? This one is basically a bicycle for train tracks! Except it has four wheels! And a bike chain, of course!This luggage cart near the entrance to the National City Depot was donated by the Maritime Museum of San Diego–it evidently was aboard the steam ferry Berkeley at one time.One of several cool vintage handcars. Just like you see in those old Western movies.This unusual three-wheeled handcar reminds me of a canoe outrigger!San Diego Electric Railway Association’s fun Herbie is a Brill streetcar replica. A parade and car show’s popular Streetcar on Wheels!An antique open air streetcar at the National City Depot. This a grip car, like the cable cars in San Francisco. Few people realize that San Diego had a cable car line that briefly ran from the Gaslamp to University Heights in the early 1890s!Elegant number 54 is a unique composite, built using two different San Diego Cable Railway cars. I see panes of stained glass. The yellow paint is peeling.The third Vienna streetcar in the National City Depot’s collection, number 6888, is yellow.There’s a ton of very cool stuff to see at the National City Depot, in San Diego’s South Bay!
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A group of young skateboarders cruises down C Street.
Here are a few scenes from my walk (and trolley ride) today around downtown San Diego. There is beauty, there is color, there is grit, there is life. My fascination with the dynamic city that I call home is never-ending.
Graffiti on a truck, an old blue house, and a modern high-rise, together in one photo.Colorful art by a downtown San Diego doorway.Someone out for a walk passes a window of the Smart Corner building.A truck waits to haul pianos away at the backstage door of Copley Symphony Hall.Clean and Safe equipment in the foreground, as a Silver Line vintage trolley approaches the Fifth Avenue station.Passengers will take a ride on this restored PCC streetcar of the San Diego Trolley. I joined them!Looking out the vintage trolley window at people walking through the City College station.Heading down Park Boulevard, and people camped on the sidewalk. San Diego, unfortunately, contains many homeless.Looking out the trolley window at the Park and Market station.A crane above construction near Petco Park holds a POW/MIA flag. Banners along Imperial Avenue show Monster Energy Supercross stars. The event is happening this weekend.Supercross Party in the Pits is taking place in a parking lot adjacent to Petco Park.Sign near Downtown Johnny Brown’s at Civic Center Plaza reads Eat Drink See Dinosaurs if you drink enough.Someone looks up at inflatable dinosaur arch outside the entrance to T. Rex Planet at the Community Concourse.
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Superman has been spotted walking through the Gaslamp two weeks before San Diego Comic-Con!
Two weeks to go until 2015 San Diego Comic-Con! Signs and omens of the super popular event’s coming are popping up around downtown, especially in the Gaslamp Quarter. Here’s what I spotted in the past couple days…
MTS has Comic-Con trolley passes that can be purchased with your smartphone.Game of Thrones advertisement at a trolley station. A Conan Live at Comic-Con trolley wrap passes by.The latest Comic-Con trolley wrap promotes soon to debut The Muppets television series on ABC!Kermit drives a trolley full of Muppet fun. Naked frogs. Egotistical pigs. Welcome to Hollywood.Miss Piggy gets her own personal section, because she’s such a big star.Who attending Comic-Con wouldn’t love to have Kermit driving them on the San Diego trolley?Shops in downtown San Diego have stocked up on superhero gear for coming throngs of pop culture fans and cosplayers.Shirt in store window features Darth Vader saying: “Soy tu padre, mijo.”Here come Batman, Thor, Wonder Woman and other powerful heroes. Villains in San Diego, beware!Trust me. I’m a superhero. The San Diego Trading Company on Fifth Avenue will have lots of Comic-Con deals, so swing on by! The lady at the counter is really nice!Comic-Con Weekend at the Onyx Room is an unofficial party many will attend!The House of Blues asks whether you’re ready to rock. San Diego will be rocking big time in a couple weeks! I can’t wait!The Hulk is busting loose! He’s coming to San Diego!
A new San Diego Comic-Con trolley wrap features Conan O’Brien turned into what appear to be Funko POP! toy figures. Here he’s a blank-eyed zombie, plus his own ordinary bland self.
I spotted another 2015 San Diego Comic-Con trolley wrap in the past couple days! This one promotes Conan O’Brien’s television show on TBS. He’ll be hosting his talk show live from Comic-Con July 8-12. I’ve read that he’ll also be moderating two panels in Hall H: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and The Last Witch Hunter.
The images on the trolley wrap seem to show Conan turned into several Funko POP! toy figures! Cool!
Here Conan O’Brien has been transformed into Batman and a green Frankenstein monster.Here’s a wrap on an older version San Diego trolley at America Plaza. Conan will be live from Comic-Con July 8-11.Finally, here we have a commuter who’s entirely unconcerned that Frankenstein Conan is threatening him with scary outstretched monster arms.
Stay tuned for a ton more cool Comic-Con stuff in the coming few weeks!
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