View of the lit dome of San Diego’s downtown library, seen from the 9th floor at night.
Yesterday evening after work I walked a bit in the darkness. The air was cool, downtown was quieting. I was drawn to the San Diego Central Library, and of course I had to ascend to the 9th floor. Few others were about. I lingered high above the city, outside under the lattice steel dome. I watched small trolleys slip past below. A thousand distant lights stretched toward the South Bay. The world seemed remote. Paths of gentle light were traced above, around and below. I seemed to float in a swirled galaxy; but I saw no stars.
Inside a glowing steel lattice. The new library’s dome in the past couple years has become a distinctive feature of San Diego’s skyline.Gazing through the unique dome toward the 12th and Imperial Transit Center’s clock tower.Nine stories below, a trolley heads north into the heart of East Village.Looking down into the large reading room of the San Diego Central Library after dark. Under the dome, people were quietly studying, or just gazing out into the nighttime.Meshed paths of light seem to radiate like a halo from the top of San Diego’s amazing downtown library.
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Dad and son check out old steam locomotive on display at La Mesa Depot Museum.
I’ve driven past the La Mesa Depot Museum many times over the years, but have never stopped to check it out. Today I remedied that very unfortunate situation!
Here’s a ton of cool pics. The small display train and historic railroad depot are found along Spring Street near the center of La Mesa, in San Diego’s sunny East County. I walked from south to north with my camera.
A friendly volunteer told me a little bit about the locomotive, reefer (refrigerator) car and caboose on exhibit, plus facts about the old La Mesa depot and San Diego and Cuyamaca Eastern Railway line. The depot is La Mesa’s oldest building and the only surviving San Diego and Cuyamaca Railway Station. Over the years it has experienced a colorful history, serving as an antique store and a worm farm! Please refer to the interesting signs, and my captions. Hopefully you get an idea of how awesome this place is!
The La Mesa Depot Museum is operated by the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum, which displays many old trains in Campo, an hour’s drive east of San Diego near Mexico. I went there with my family when I was very young and took a fun train ride. I plan on going again one day!
Locomotive was donated after 43 years of service to the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association.Looking up into door of steam locomotive Mojave Northern Railroad #3.Old No. 3 originally hauled lime from a quarry near Victorville, California.Part of the complex machinery and controls in the steam locomotive’s cab.Pacific Fruit Express reefer car on display at old train depot in La Mesa, California.Southern Pacific Railroad caboose can be boarded free by visitors on Saturdays, 1-4 pm.I saw a bunch of people during my short visit. There were many excited kids!Entering the caboose, to check out what life was like working on the railroad.The conductor had high windows to see around the train during operation.A freight train’s conductor or crew could sit up here to see in every direction.That’s quite a climb, even for a tall guy like me!The small La Mesa depot sits near tracks now used by the San Diego Trolley Orange Line.The depot opened in 1894, and this 44-star flag would’ve flown above it.Information sign outlines the early history of La Mesa’s train depot.Historical photograph of a train stopping at La Mesa.In the early 20th century the depot was sold and moved on various occasions.McKeen Car at the La Mesa Depot.This very small building contains lots of cool stuff!City of La Mesa Historic Landmark No. 6 on side of 1894 train depot.Ticket office in depot contains various old telephones and a telegraph.The telegraph key still works!Telegraphic messages were received here!Looking out through ticket window at the tiny train depot waiting room.In one corner of the office is an old-fashioned manual typewriter.This old wood stove still works and provides a lot of heat!Signs bring to life the old train time table and Western Union office.An old railway hand cart for hauling freight or luggage.Sign tells complex story of the San Diego, Cuyamaca and Eastern Railroad.Here comes the San Diego Trolley, approaching the nearby La Mesa Boulevard station.The La Mesa Depot Museum is a fun place to visit on a Saturday afternoon!
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Here comes the San Diego Trolley’s cool Silver Line, approaching America Plaza!
Do you love riding on trains? I do! Please take a ride with me on a cool restored streetcar that runs in a circle through downtown San Diego!
Here comes PCC 529 now, coming down the track toward the America Plaza trolley station! This beautiful President’s Conference Committee car was built in 1945 and is an example of the sort of transportation common throughout San Diego during that era. Streetcars have run through San Diego’s history since the 1890’s. Today they’re making a bit of a comeback with this Vintage Trolley, which runs on a downtown loop called the Silver Line.
PCC 529, before it was lovingly restored by volunteers, sat rusting under some pine trees in South Lake Tahoe. How it got there, I don’t know. But here it comes now, getting closer to the station, so lets tap our Compass cards on the ticket reader and hurry up to hop aboard!
PCC 529 is a meticulously restored President’s Conference Committee streetcar.As we ride down C Street, a modern red trolley is seen on the opposite track.
We immediately head up to the front seat to watch the friendly MTS driver pilot this old streetcar down the track. Unlike modern trolleys or light rail, this vehicle really clatters and jerks along and makes you feel like your laboring forward! Whenever the door opens, a bell rings!
Turning around, we notice the beautiful streetcar appears almost empty at the moment.No, there’s one more passenger looking out the window at downtown San Diego.Images inside the Silver Line show streetcars on San Diego roads and bridges long ago.
Walking down toward the rear of the refurbished car, we check out some old black-and-white photos. It’s cool to envision the streets of San Diego filled with streetcars over half a century ago!
Here’s an old photo of a streetcar that was pulled by a horse–or is that a mule.Another passenger steps onto the restored trolley at the Fifth Avenue station.
The bells rings, the door opens, and another passenger steps aboard!
These windows open, so riders can enjoy the fresh air outside.
You can dangle your arm out a window if you like, I suppose. It’s fun to just sit and watch the buildings and people flash by. This is what I call riding in style!
As we get off at City College, other folks step aboard the historic streetcar.
Our short ride is over!
I turn around to enjoy another glance at this classic example of public transit.There goes PCC 529. That was one super fun ride!
Thanks for joining me. That was fun!
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These might be super secret agents from the pages of Marvel Comics.
A little more than a week to go until the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con! So far I’ve noted two different trolley wraps. I posted awesome pics of Gotham character graphics a few days ago, and now I’ve got photos of the S.H.I.E.L.D. RISES black trolley wrap! Watch out all would-be supervillains! These trolleys are patrolling both the convention center and Gaslamp!
Stay tuned for lots more cool Comic-Con stuff!
San Diego Comic-Con black trolley wrap reads S.H.I.E.L.D. RISES.S.H.I.E.L.D. emblem on a San Diego trolley for 2014 Comic-Con.
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Poison Ivy, Catwoman, the Penguin and Riddler on a San Diego trolley!
Okay! I finally got pics of the cool 2014 San Diego Comic-Con trolley car wrap that promotes the upcoming television show Gotham. There are images of nascent Gotham City supervillains Poison Ivy, Catwoman, the Penguin and Riddler. A young Bruce Wayne (after the murder of his parents) and James Gordon (before he became police commissioner) are also shown. Looks awesome! I hope the show lives up to the hype! If I spot any more wraps in the coming couple weeks, I’ll post ’em!
Gotham television show on a special San Diego Comic-Con trolley.Characters include Bruce Wayne, Harvey Bullock and James Gordon.San Diego Comic-Con wrap shows Bruce Wayne before he became Batman.
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San Diego Trolley stops at cool America Plaza station.
There are a few San Diego Trolley stations that are unusual and especially interesting. One is the partially enclosed station at America Plaza. Every busy day, long red trolleys snake through the skirt of the tall, glassy building. One America Plaza is the highest skyscraper downtown, and stands just across Kettner Boulevard from the Santa Fe Depot.
Looking outward from the partially enclosed trolley station.Silver Line trolley stops at America Plaza.Taking a walk through the shady station on a sunny day.
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Check out this cool public art! A series of beautiful, detailed scenes from San Diego history decorate ten columns just north of downtown’s Santa Fe Depot, where they can be viewed by trolley riders as they head toward Little Italy. The handmade tiles which form the exquisite sculptural mosaics were pieced together by Betsy K. Schulz in 2008. Located on the west side of downtown’s Sapphire Tower residential condominium, the artwork is titled The Tracks We Leave Behind.
As one proceeds north one moves forward through time, from the earliest days of San Diego right up to the present day. I sorted these photos in such a way that you move backward into the past…
San Diego arts and the Gaslamp.San Diego on the move.San Diego a generation or two ago.Palomar telescope and Coronado Bay Bridge.Tuna fishing and ship building.Lindbergh and the San Diego Zoo.Half a century of history.From sagebrush to city.An American town.Citizens of Old Town San Diego.San Diego’s Californios.Spanish missions and early settlements.In 1769 the Presidio and Mission San Diego are established.Cabrillo and early explorers map San Diego Bay.Native Americans in San Diego.Wild nature and wide open spaces!
I happened to be at the Smart Corner building, the location of the City College trolley station, when a historic car belonging to the Silver Line came through! It was servicing the downtown loop.
This shiny, beautifully restored Presidents Conference Committee (PCC) trolley car was built just after the end of World War II. A whole fleet of electric trolleys like this one traversed San Diego until 1949.
Here are more pics of the same trolley taken on different days:
Cool restored Silver Line trolley at Fifth Avenue station.Silver Line trolley near the Convention Center.
This red trolley belongs to the blue line. Makes sense, right? It’s waiting for passengers at the America Plaza station, across the street from the Santa Fe Depot. The blue line stretches from downtown San Diego all the way down to the Mexican border.
In this photo you can see both domes of the historic train station.
Old black-and-white photos of the Santa Fe Depot pretty much show nothing around it. It just sits there in the middle of nowhere, seemingly. Today the city rises and surges all about it, and it can almost seem lost among the many bright tall buildings.
San Diego Trolley pulls into Santa Fe Depot from the south.
The Santa Fe Depot is downtown San Diego’s train station. Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner, the Coaster, and the San Diego Trolley’s orange and green lines all stop at the historic building.
The Santa Fe Depot, built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, was opened in 1915 to serve thousands of visitors to Balboa Park’s Panama-California Exposition.
This photo shows one of the Santa Fe Depot’s two colorful domes and some palm trees against a backdrop of high-rise condos. The architects a hundred years ago probably didn’t imagine that glassy skyscrapers would tower nearby!
Birds fly over one of the distinctive tiled domes.Looking up through palm trees toward one dome.
Here are some more photos taken at a later time. Black material now covers up part of the two domes. I learned that the terracotta columns are cracking.
The east side of the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego.Buildings rise behind the domes of the Santa Fe Depot.The two domes of San Diego’s Santa Fe Depot.Amtrak train parked by historic Santa Fe Depot.
Cool San Diego Sights! 