Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Collection Description
Historical Background
Descriptive Summary
Title: San Diego & Arizona Railway/Tijuana & Tecate Railway Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1928-1929
Collection number: MS 59
Creator:
Hanson, Donald E.
Extent: 1 document box
Repository:
California State Railroad Museum Library
Sacramento, California 95814
Shelf location: Big Four Building or off-site storage. Please contact
the Library in advance of your visit.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Provenance
Gift of Lynn D. Farrar, 1993
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for
permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Senior
Curator. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the
physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder,
which must also be obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], San Diego & Arizona Railway/Tijuana & Tecate Railway Collection, MS 59, California State Railroad
Museum Library, Sacramento, California.
Collection Description
The typewritten report upon balance sheet audit of accounts as of December 31, 1929 (166 pages in a binder) was prepared in
1929 for the Board of Directors of the J. D. and A. B. Spreckels Securities Company, probably in preparation for the sale
of the railroad. It covers the history, cost, engineering features, structures, locomotives, rolling stock, indebtedness,
and investments of the San Diego & Arizona and Tijuana & Tecate. In addition to the text, the reports contains charts, tables
and photographs, as well as photocopies of a description of the San Diego & Arizona records donated by Southern Pacific to
the University of California, San Diego, magazine articles on the railroad, and the arrangements made in 1970 to transfer
the Tijuana & Tecate to the Mexican government.
Historical Background
Incorporated in 1906 by sugar magnate and land developer John D. Spreckels, the San Diego & Arizona Railway was built east
from San Diego to El Centro in California's Imperial Valley. There it connected with a branch of the Southern Pacific. Part
of the San Diego & Arizona's route, from San Ysidro to near Tecate, ran through northern Baja California, Mexico, and was
known as the Tijuana & Tecate Railway (Ferrocarril Tijuana y Tecate).
The road was completed in 1919, and in 1932 was sold to the Southern Pacific by the Spreckels interests. Southern Pacific
operated it as the San Diego and Arizona Eastern. In 1970, Southern Pacific sold the Tijuana & Tecate to the Mexican government.
A hurricane in 1976 damaged large portions of the remainder of the line, and Southern Pacific sought to abandon it. The San
Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board currently controls the line.