Locomotive Gets a Lift to Last Stop in La Mesa : Old Rolling Stock Makes Way for New Trolley Line

For decades, iron horses with blowing whistles and belching smoke roared through La Mesa, a sign of prosperity for the town that was once a citrus grove.

To many of today’s La Mesa residents, the trains of yesteryear also symbolize part of history that was sidetracked Thursday.

As young and old train buffs milled about, a crane lifted a steam locomotive and two railway cars off the track where they had been on display and put them on a new one.

The vintage railroad rolling stock was relocated to make room for an extension of the San Diego Trolley’s East Line, which will cut through part of downtown La Mesa and displace a whole lot of history.

“It’s sort of like watching a vanishing piece of Americana,” said Robert Eickel, president of the San Diego Railroad Museum, which owns the equipment. “These trains used to haul fruit from all over in this region. Now they’re being rolled onto these tracks. These people are seeing the last time (they) will ever roll on their own wheels.”

First to be dropped onto the new track laid down by the Metropolitan Transit Development Board was a dusty, black locomotive built in 1923. The engine was once owned by a small railroad in the Mojave Desert.

It was followed by an old Pacific Fruit Express refrigerator car and a caboose used by the Southern Pacific railway until the mid-1960s.

“It’s like a big toy,” Tom Rykowski said as he watched the locomotive roll to the end of the 150-foot stretch of track that is its new home. “I’ve got a 4-year-old daughter who I have to bring here once a week to sit on the train.”

“They’ll still be here,” said Lori Atkinson, who had brought her 5-year-old son, John, to watch the big lift. “That’s good. We’re big train buffs. In fact, we always go up to Northern California and watch the trains roll down the tracks.”

“It’s gives you a feeling of nostalgia,” said Gil Therien of El Cajon. “People just love the power of a train.”

The rolling stock is part of a collection owned by the Railroad Museum in Campo, about 45 miles southeast of San Diego.

In a recent outpouring of community support, the equipment was restored by museum volunteers.

“These trains are a very important part of La Mesa,” Eickel said. “They represent the origins and history of this community and have almost become a symbol.

“The children come down here all the time to play on the trains. This (lifting) wasn’t meant to be a public event, but people just showed up.”

As the 49-ton locomotive came to a halt, older spectators recalled the days when the steam engines ruled the rails.

Power, Steam, Size

“It was the power, the steam, the heat, the size” that mesmerized Pete Blake in those days. Thursday, he stood amid a crowd of children watching the old trains as they were lowered onto the tracks.

“It was fascinating, the way they could transport a tremendous amount of goods across the country in little time,” Blake said. “When I was these kids’ age, I used to try to draw those things.”

Blake said the trains represented a phase of America that now resides only in the pages of history.

“Trains like this are . . . the last stage of America’s real development,” he said. “It looks kind of simple standing on a track that short, but it wasn’t long ago that you had trains running from one end of the United States to the other.”