street railways in San Diego - growth, demise and renaissance

The Santa Fe Depot remains the main station for both long distance and light rail, although it is today dwarfed by the buildings around it and the annex in front has today gone.

 

The origins of electric street railways in San Diego date back to 1891 and as in other western world cities they grew until cars and buses began to compete seriously in the late 1920s and 1930s.  The streetcars closed in 1949.

But after a few decades, serious studies began in the 1970s on a new system for the needs of a substantially increased city.  In 1978, the Metropolitan Transit Development Board successfully negotiated with Southern Pacific to purchase the San Diego &Arizona Eastern line, a storm damaged spectacular route that went through Mexico, as far as the border station of San Ysidro to preserve both rail freight services to the Imperial Valley, and to preserve available right-of-way for future transit use. In light of cheaper light-rail options the choice was made for this. The San Diego Trolley opened in 1981 with 13.5 miles (21.7 km) of operations on the South Line (now Blue Line),  which was mostly double-tracked by 1984.

The East Line (today Orange Line) opened to Euclid Avenue in 1986, and was extended to El Cajon in 1989 and Santee in 1995.  The northern West-East line (Green Line) in Mission Valley meeting the Orange Line at Grossmont was complete in 2005 giving a system length of 54 miles (87 km).  More extensions are planned. The system is standard gauge and operates on 600 Volts from overhead.

Details on the historic streetcars here and here
Geoff Churchman pics below.

A train of recent Siemens cars arrives at the Santa Fe depot from the north.  On the mainline can be seen a Coaster double deck passenger train which travels as far north as Oceanside.

a view roughly looking the other way, with a dome of the Santa Fe Depot visible

the end of line at the northeast station of Santee in the middle of a recently built shopping center.

electric trams in Pula, Croatia

 

This standard gauge system in Pula (Italian: Pola), on the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, lasted from 1904 to 1934 and seems to have comprised 3 lines.

'Kaiten' type WW2 Japanese human torpedo

Like the Muslims today, the Japanese had suicide Kamikaze bombers who wanted to die for their Emperor in the later stages of WW2; most were flyers of planes laden with bombs who would crash their planes into American warships, but there were also about 300 pilots of these huge Kaiten ("The turn toward heaven")  type torpedoes, of which one is on display at the naval museum in Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii.  Details on this page (Geoff Churchman pic)

traffic in Queen Street, Auckland, early 1930s

Rudolf Diesel - a fundamental figure in world transport history

The internal combustion engine, replacing the steam piston engine, revolutioned transport and the diesel motor, named after inventor Rudolf Diesel, is still used in the transport of the vast majority of merchandise and on land and sea. 

Rudolf Diesel died under mysterious circumstances in 1913 shortly after Julius Springer Verlag published his Die Entstehung des Dieselmotors, of which we have a facsimile edition in our library.

Of course, the diesel engine was given much further development after his death. According to wikipedia:

"Because the diesel engine required a heavier, more robust construction than a gasoline engine, it was not widely used in aviation (but see aircraft Diesel engine). The Diesel engine became widespread in many other applications, however, such as stationary engines, submarines, ships, and much later, locomotives, trucks, and in modern automobiles. Diesel engines are most often found in applications where a high torque requirement and low RPM requirement exist. Because of their generally more robust construction and high torque, Diesel engines have also become the workhorses of the trucking industry. Recently, diesel engines that have overcome their weight penalty have been designed, certified, and flown in light aircraft. These engines are designed to run on either Diesel fuel or more commonly jet fuel.

The Diesel engine has the benefit of running more fuel-efficiently than gasoline engines due to much higher compression ratios and longer duration of combustion, which means the temperature rises more slowly, allowing more heat to be converted to mechanical work. Diesel was interested in using coal dust or vegetable oil as fuel, and in fact, his engine was run on peanut oil. Although these fuels were not immediately popular, during 2008 rises in fuel prices, coupled with concerns about oil reserves, have led to more widespread use of vegetable oil and biodiesel. The primary source of fuel remains what became known as Diesel fuel, an oil byproduct derived from refinement of petroleum." 

1970 Twin Coach TC-25 advert

elegance for the masses with a Paris commuter train

A Paris commuter train on the RER C line, which serves Versailles, has had its 6 double-deck cars transformed to resemble rooms in the Chateau de Versailles.

(thanks to Cliff for sending this in)

Polish railway stamps

Left to right, top to bottom:

Electrification of the line from Warsaw to Silesia, 1957; 0-6-0 museum loco; 4-6-4 loco exhibited in Paris, 1937 (see earlier post); first electric multiple unit between Pruszow-Warsaw-Otwock, 1936 (see earlier post); 0-6-0 loco from 1907; mainline 2-10-0 for hauling coal from Silesia to Gdynia, 1933; first locomotive factory in Polsce-Chrzanow, 1920; 'Cockerill' on iron road Warsaw-Wiedenska, 1848.

AC spark plug advert, November 1953

With a 1954 Chevrolet Corvette.

Port Chalmers, Dunedin, drawing 1886

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