Large Scale Central

High Steel - The Bridges of Campo Creek

Prototypes
#1

https://youtu.be/qwIdzLHD0ng

Here’s another video in my series featuring historic sites and structures along the former San Diego & Arizona Railway. In this video we’ll take a look at a pair of large, riveted steel viaducts, including the spectacular “High Bridge" over Campo Creek. And there’s also a brief look at two lesser items of interest - a small deck bridge over Highway 94, and an old concrete call box at Division.

For more in this series, check out my Carrizo Gorge videos. And be sure to subscribe to find out about future videos in this series.

Music:

“Traveling Through Life”

by Acoustic Elements

Licensed by AudioJungle

https://audiojungle.net/item/travelling-through-life/6959320

Parchment texture:

copyright www.myfreetextures.com and licensed under a creative commons attribution license.

http://www.myfreetextures.com/worn-parchment-paper-2/

#2

Damn, Ray, that’s professional quality. Love the phone booth!

#3

Beautiful video, Ray. The landscape along the RR is gorgeous, but your video of the bridge in the setting (rising) sun really makes the whole video. Thanks for sharing this little bit of RR history.

#4

Good one Ray, thanks for sharing!!

#5

Thanks guys!

BTW, the “vintage movie” clip is actually an animation I created from a still photo.

#6

Most Excellent. You have as much talent for photography and editing as you do modeling. And your narrator voice ain’t bad niether (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

#7

Wow! I am surprised no one has torn these down to prevent some sort of liability claim. Glad you are around to preserve these images!

#8

The whole line is still in place (mostly). It’s owned by the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, which has long held out hope that the line might be reopened someday. And in fact there is currently a company in Mexico seeking to do that. They have a lot of hurdles to overcome though, including the need for a US Customs inspection station where the tracks cross the border from Mexico. (The border actually runs through Tunnel #4, which is in my video.)

The Pacific Southwest Railway Museum at Campo runs trains on part of the line, but I don’t think they cross the high bridge. From 1987 until 2009 they ran excursions to Tecate. The Tecate excursions ended when a fire damaged Tunnel #3 in Mexico.

My worry is that there has been zero maintenance on the bridges in the past 50 years or so. Almost all of the paint is gone and there’s a lot of rust. I don’t know how long they can go like that before they become too rusted to be restored to use.

#9

Another great video Ray.  Nice work with your drone, liked the old video with train and the car.

#10

Great documentary Ray …enjoyed the history with the video. If SDMTS would reopen the line there would be some major modifications necessary but would the ridership balance out the investment ? Probably not …still cool bridges and territory!

#11

There are no plans for passenger service, except on the sections of the line that are in the San Diego metropolitan area. But if it could be reopened it would have value as a freight route. Currently the only rail route out of San Diego is on the Santa Fe line to the north. It’s a long way around for material headed east. In addition, much of that line doubles as a trolley route, and the catenary wires limit the size of freight (no double-stacked containers.)

This is why the company in Mexico wants to reopen the SD&A – shorter shipping routes plus double-stacked containers, equals significant savings on shipping costs.

#12

A pleasure to watch, Ray. The other guys here have said everything there is to say.