San Diego, California

The San Diego U2 cars were the first modern light-rail equipment I ever rode as a boy, and they made quite an impression. I was schooled on street railways in my hometown of New Orleans, so the words "modern" and "streetcar" were to me strange bedfellows. Needless to say, I was impressed with the German-built units that sailed down the Blue Line at better than 40 miles per hour. At the time of our visit, the trainsets were only a few years old. Dad and I rode the Blue Line during a family vacation to southern California. We boarded downtown at the old Sante Fe depot and rode a shiny U2 set all the way south to the end of the line: the Mexican border. I remember that day well. Before we left our friend's house in San Diego, my mother kept warning me "not to eat any of the food across the border." It was my first time to leave the country, and in my anxiety I remember repeatedly asking my father how the border police would know I was a citizen upon our reentry — seeing as how I did not possess a driver's license or the like. Of course, I was about as Anglo-looking as they came; the patrol people at the gate didn't even notice me on the way back in. Relief! We rode another MTS set northbound to the city center, and later in the week at the Santa Fe Depot we hopped one of Amtrak's San Diegans for our return trip to Los Angeles.

It turns out that my hotel for a late summer 2015 conference in San Diego was just across the street from the famous Santa Fe station. Seeing the iconic blue and white "Santa Fe" sign peering out from between the new condo skyscrapers all around made me realize: I was last in this city, and last at that station, some 28 years ago! Given the personal history of our wonderful 1987 family trip to SoCal, it was great fun to make my way across the street to catch all the rail action at the still-very-busy Amtrak and San Diego Trolley station. Funny, I had remembered the large depot being uncluttered, the track area open all the way out to the bayfront. But then I hit me: That was nearly 30 years ago. A lot has changed!

The station is now hidden among several high-rise residential and office developments, and the entire area has been redeveloped at least once, if not multiple times. But the depot building itself has not changed a bit, thank goodness. I caught an Amtrak push-pull Surfliner train in the station, and later a push-pull "Coaster" train as well. Both operations make use of the slant-front F59 units — not my favorite body style on a passenger locomotive, but that slant front and triple windshield look grows on a fan after awhile. I also caught several of the San Diego modern trolleys coming and going from the station area during my walk around. It was fun to snap lots of roster shots to update this page. After all, when is the next time I will be here in this city? Who knows. Maybe another 30 years from now?

I decided to take an evening ride from the old city center in San Diego down to the Mexican border, on the red trolley, retracing a ride I took with dad back in 1987. I have such good memories of that first to-the-border ride. Yet I remember the sense of dread I had as a kid, noted above: a fear of not getting back across the border without any papers! That was long before 9/11 and the tighter border controls. But I remember that the ride itself was quite fun, passing the Navy Yard and the ocean harbors, finally getting all the way down to the Mexican border. These days, the trolleys are much newer and even more modern looking than before. The right-of-way has clearly been upgraded and adjusted over the 30 years since my first visit, and most of the clientele on the ride south are clearly laborers and workers — not as many tourists as I remember. I got to the border plaza just as the sun was setting, so I stepped off, bought another ticket, and stepped back on for the return ride north. It was good fun, retracing those steps by re-riding that great route.