Western Railroad Discussion > Tijuana-Tecate short line upgrades

1. Old track meets new next to the La Mesa delegation Public Works yard in Tijuana, B.C.

2. Another similar view.

3. Ditto.

These images taken by yours truly and shall NOT be used without previous conset. Thank you.

 

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4. Looking west. Old meets new.

5. Looking west. New trackwork from the subgrade up.

6. Looking east. Kilometer UB 7+350, 115Ib/yd. rail, new ballast and ties.






 

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1. Looking west.

2. Looking east.

3. Gauge rod detail.


 

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1. New track meets old track. Looking east.

2. 75Ib/yd. and 90Ib/yd from SP era meets modern replacements. Step joint detail.

3. More detail. A true miracle for the Tijuana-Tecate line, connecting the main line at San Ysidro, CA with the Desert line @ Division near Campo, CA.



 

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1. Looking east. 30+ miles of more trackwork lay ahead. Daily rail service with modern railcars justified the Federal Grant awarded from SCT to the State of Baja California Government for implementation of this infrastructure. It took awhile to do this because it was done with just a few backhoes and a Hi-Rail boom truck, everything else was done with no tampers, ballast regulators, spikers or anything elese. All done BY HAND!!

Stay tuned!

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/15 18:02 by Geep.

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Great set of photos, is there a customer already in mind that willbe shipping on the reopend line or is this more of a build it and they will come
type of thing? 

That's an amazing amount of work to be done by hand, in this day and age.  I bet Advil or the like is in short supply around there. 

Kris

I must assume the Tecate brewery will be one of the customers.

Work is also being done to daylight tunnel 3, near Tecate. I was part of speeder crew for the train rides out of Campo. At the border tunnel I was able to see earth moving trucks dumping soil in Mexico, Baja
California, looking through the tunnel.

Hey Geep,

Thanks for posting all these great photos, I spent many hours running
trains on that old track when I was with SDIV!! Its nice to see some work
being done on the old SD&AE!!

Mike
 

Very impressive.  Now if we can just spruce up the track between Tecate and Plaster City to that standard . . . 

This reminds me of the track conditions I witnessed on February 20, 1995 in the Presdio, TX - Ojinaga, CHI area.   I was riding a positioning move of a special Denver Rail Car  / Sierra Madre Express that was running from Ft. Worth, TX to Chihuahua, CHI.  On the U.S. side, the track was in pretty sad shape.  Light, jointed rail, sparse ballast and ties that were in bad condition.  On the Mexican side, there was heavy welded rail, concrete ties and thick ballast.  While in Texas, we plodded and bounced along at a slow pace over hundreds of miles.  Once in Mexico, we sprinted up to what seemed like about 70 MPH on very smooth track.  The contrast was unbelievable.

I had to stop and ponder which one was the Third World country.   

The Mexicans obviously felt that the rail line that ran through this region was of more importance and was of a more strategic part of their "big picture" than the Santa Fe and, later, South Orient operators felt about it on the U.S. side.

Today, surrounded by mega-railroads who all have connections themselves to the Mexican rail system, I believe the line is still hanging in there under the Texas Pacifico banner, having been given a new lease on life by hauling frack sand and other commodities.

http://www.texaspacifico.com/   

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/15 23:57 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

Soot4Life Wrote:
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> I must assume the Tecate brewery will be one of
> the customers.

Has been since it was built.

Thank you for sharing these great photos. Would it be possible to share cross streets or a lat/lon for some of the locations? I have no knowledge of the area, but I would like to take a look on Bing/Google Maps to get a sense of the bigger picture.

I have a question about the use of a gage rod here? I have most often seen these on track where the tie & ballast conditions have deteriorated to a point where it can be difficult to maintain gage under the weight of a train. Is there a reason it would be helpful to have one included on track that seems to have been rebuilt to high standards?

I have to think that in photos 10 + 11 the joint between the two rail weights looks terrible?  The near side has 2 ties, but the far one seems to be missing a tie, and presents a big vertical step?

The 90# rail in the 75-90 step joint photo looks like it's had many years of hard use.  That pounded-over like an old cold chisel appearance of the railhead reminds me of the Pacific Electric track that went by my house in Monrovia CA back in the 1940s and early 50s.  Even an 11-year old boy could tell that it was way overdue for replacement.  But that didn't happen--the line was abandoned in 1952 and the rails were lifted in 1952, probably going right to the scrap heap and into the open hearth furnace.

Thanks for the photos and update.  Keep them coming.  Photos of the work at tunnel 3 would be terrific.