What is the smallest operating railroad car you’ve ever seen? Have you ever seen a moving train so small that bits of dust on the track can stop it?
Incredibly diminutive trains are coming to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park! Each car is about two inches long–the size of your finger!
A new Z scale permanent exhibit is being built in the museum and should be completed later his year. As a sign in the museum explains, this cool project is being supported by a grant from The Norris Foundation.
Z scale model trains are so tiny a complete oval layout can fit inside a briefcase. They have a scale ratio of 1:220. They’re even smaller than the N scale trains one can see in the museum’s incredible Pacific Desert Lines layout, which is operated by the San Diego Society of N Scale.
A sample Z scale layout is already on display (above photo). Plans for the not-yet-built layout can also be viewed…
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In San Diego, hundreds of Comic-Con fans walked through a toxic waste site today. A truck hauling biohazardous material overturned overnight, spilling a slime-like blue substance in a downtown parking lot. The toxic waste is thought to have mutagenic properties.
Workers in pink hazmat suits and gas masks proceeded to open the rear of the truck, allowing curious Comic-Con fans to walk through it. Inside the tanker truck fans discovered all sort of cool toys adhering to the gooey walls! With any luck, these happy visitors won’t mutate into some sort of horrible monster or beast!
Yes, you’ve realized by now that I’m kidding. The truck and the blue slime are actually part of a Comic-Con 2024 offsite activation produced by MrBeast Lab. They make all sorts of cool toys.
When I exited the offsite, I got free swag! A monstrous miniature figurine!
I believe the offsite will be open throughout Comic-Con during the day. Look for it north of MLK Promenade and east of First Avenue, on the back side of the Bathroom Battlestation!
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
What was Santa Claus doing in San Diego this morning? Good question!
As I waited at the Fashion Valley Transit Center for a bus, I spied Santa on the side of a box truck in the mall parking lot. So of course I had to walk over and investigate!
Turns out I had discovered a wonderful charity.
CHiPs for Kids sponsors an annual holiday season toy drive by the California Highway Patrol. The toy drive typically begins in mid-November and runs through mid-December, just in time for Christmas.
CHP area offices around California are where the unwrapped and unused toys are collected. The donated toys are distributed to families who are in need.
Santa on the side of a truck and the promised delivery of holiday cheer!
In late April!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Do you know any kids who love trains? If you do, there are many opportunities for fun coming up in both La Mesa and Campo!
Yesterday I was passing the La Mesa Depot Museum when I noticed it was open and someone was working inside.
That someone was Station Master Timothy. He was building a new HO scale train layout in the old depot’s baggage room!
After showing me a few nearby historical exhibits, he explained this new layout will eventually be a fun, free activity for visiting kids. There will be a dynamic little town named Kerville (the tracks curve), and a module that can be added that includes both desert and mountainous terrain!
Meanwhile, the La Mesa Depot Museum has a curvy, twisty toy train layout in the adjoining ticket and passenger room that small kids can play with by hand.
Cooler yet, there are those real life train cars outside that one can explore up close and personal! If you’ve ever driven down Spring Street at La Mesa Boulevard, you’ve no doubt seen them.
You can see more photographs in and around the La Mesa museum here.
The La Mesa Depot Museum is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:00 to 3:00 pm and Saturdays 1-4 pm.
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The old La Mesa depot is a satellite of the much larger Pacific Southwest Railway Museum, located out in Campo. There kids can ride historic trains through San Diego’s scenic backcountry. And big kids (adults) can even take the controls of a big, honest-to-goodness diesel-electric locomotive and run it for a short distance!
Need something fun for the family to do next weekend before Halloween? Reserve a ticket for a unique Campo train ride out to a pumpkin patch. It’s called the Pumpkin Express.
Then, before Christmas, kids will enjoy meeting Santa during an incredible train ride on the North Pole Limited!
If you’d like an idea of how awesome this all would be, check out two of my past blog posts. This one has photographs from the train ride out in Campo. And this one shows the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum during its the big 100th Anniversary of the San Diego and Arizona Railway event!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
A super fun and enjoyable exhibit is now on display at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park!
Toying with Design intentionally coincides with San Diego Design Week 2022, which concludes today. Fortunately, however, this very unique exhibit will continue on until February 2023.
So what will visitors to one corner of the Mingei’s upstairs gallery see? Lots of clever designs! Including all sorts of inspired designs that make common functional household items as playful as toys!
I particularly enjoyed how ordinary kitchen utensils were creatively infused with surprising humor!
Check it out!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The San Diego Automotive Museum is an incredible place every auto enthusiast must visit. In addition to unique and rare cars they have lots of great motorcycles, too!
One motorcycle now on display is Evel Knievel’s “Stratocycle” from the 1977 movie Viva Knievel!
The uniquely modified motorcycle–a Harley Davidson XLCH Custom Sportster–has wings and a rocket-shaped exhaust. The Stratocycle is so cool it was adapted for a popular toy!
It had been several years since I last experienced the San Diego Automotive Museum. The current displays are more awesome than ever. Walking around, your eyes will pop out of your head!
1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster.
You might notice I’ve been visiting many local museums the last couple of weeks. I’m taking advantage of the San Diego Museum Council’s “The Big Exchange” reciprocal free admission program. It lasts through May 18, 2022. Learn more here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The big Port of San Diego Holiday Bowl Parade, billed as America’s Largest Balloon Parade, was held this morning along the Embarcadero.
My camera captured a few happy “early risers” before I jumped onto the trolley for work.
The annual parade features all sorts of popular characters, including Garfield, Mr. Potato Head and many, many others.
Several hours before the start of the parade, the balloons were being inflated one after another in a parking lot near the County Administration Building!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
One of my favorite attractions in Balboa Park is the absolutely huge, incredible San Diego Model Railroad Museum. And my favorite room in the museum is the fantastic Toy Train Gallery!
Check out these quick photos of the gallery’s super fun toy train layout operated by the San Diego 3-Railers Club!
The colorful layout features O-Scale Lionel-type trains running through a world full of sound and movement. Signs and billboards light up. Cars pull in and out of driveways. People move back and forth. Ghostbusters contend with a rampaging Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
A Choo-Choo Cam lets visitors experience an engineer’s perspective as one model train passes through tunnels, over bridges, and past nostalgic, often humorous scenery. The view is sure to delight children . . . and the child that hopefully remains within each of us!
If you or your family would like to visit the very cool San Diego Model Railroad Museum and their fantastic Toy Train Gallery, you can learn more here.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
This morning I noticed Conan O’Brien’s name has reappeared on the marquee of San Diego’s Spreckels Theatre. That means Comic-Con can’t be too far away!
Conan O’Brien late-night talk show on TBS is returning to San Diego for 2019, and audiences will have the opportunity to enjoy his wry humor from July 17 to July 20.
With less than two months to go until San Diego Comic-Con, I also noticed a couple of shops in the Gaslamp Quarter seem to be getting ready!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Happy elves magically appear at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion for Christmas on the Prado.
If you would like to give a special Christmas gift to less fortunate children in San Diego, here’s a wonderful idea!
This coming Saturday and Sunday afternoon–December 1 and 2, 2018–toys will be collected by Toys for Tots during the 5th Annual Christmas on the Prado in Balboa Park.
Bring a new unwrapped toy . . . or two . . . or three!
Here’s an even more wonderful idea! Host a toy drive at your work, church or special event and bring lots of toys!
If you happen to swing by Balboa Park on Saturday, you’ll be able to watch the lighting of the community Christmas tree in the Spreckels Organ Pavilion at 6:30 pm, then Sing Along with Santa!
