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SD&A Railroad Centennial
By Maria E Curry
September/October 2019
 A Ferrocarril Tijuana y Tecate ticket for December 24, 1949 cost 1.40 pesos. The second line indicates this train's possible connections with other railways on both sides of the border. Photo courtesy of Juan Cabuto, Fundacion de Ferrocarriles de Baja California |
 The Tijuana train station built circa 1922 is used for offices by ADMICARGA, which built the new, three-level building. Though partly blocked by the Tecate Brewery expansion, the station has great potential for becoming a railroad museum. Photo courtesy of Juan Cabuto, Fundación de Ferrocarriles de Baja California |
 The first Tijuana railroad station hugged the U.S. border until it was destroyed by fire in 1917. The design is similar to other Southern Pacific depots of that era. Photo courtesy of Coleccionistas de Tijuana |
 The remodeled Tecate depot, built circa 1919 by San Diego Master Architect William H. Wheeler, can only be seen from inside the railroad patios. The Tecate Brewery has encroached upon the historic building with 10-foot concrete walls. Richard Borstadt took this photo in 2002 for the Mountain Empire Historical Society of Campo |
November 15 marks the 100th anniversary of the completion of the last line of the U.S. transcontinental railway: the San Diego & Arizona Railroad. The SD&A stretched 148 miles, and includes 44 miles south of the border in Mexico on tracks built by the Ferrocarril Tijuana & Tecate (T&T). Celebrations will take place in San Diego with Tijuana and Tecate joining in for several events. Representatives of ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) Mexicano and Fundación de los Ferrocarriles de Baja California (FFBC), a non-profit railroaders group, and the Pacific Southwest Railroad Museum (PSRM) in San Diego have already been presenting the railroad's history on TV and radio, and at universities and cultural centers, and to organizations in Tijuana, Mexicali, Tecate, and Ensenada.
On September 7, you're invited to the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association's Campo Railroad Park and Museum for a fun-filled festival to mark the railroad's groundbreaking 112 years ago. Then on November 16, one day after the actual anniversary, PSRM will commemorate the completion of John D. Spreckels's "Impossible Railroad" 100 years ago with a golden spike ceremony and reenactment in Campo. Special guests will include the governor of Baja California, the mayors of Tijuana and Tecate, and representatives from ADMICARGA (the T&T railroad's administrator), RailAmerica, and Baja California Railroad. For more information and tickets to these events, visit www.psrm.org/centennial. View the event flyer.
Recently, I met with Juan Cabuto, FFBC's president, to discuss working together with ICOMOS Mexicano, which I represent, in order to further honor this transportation corridor through historic preservation and curated displays for public enjoyment.
We considered the promising potential for adaptive reuse of the borderlands train stations. Since 2003, FFBC has wanted to create a railroad museum in the historic Tijuana depot. This Spanish Colonial style, one-level structure with a moderate side-gabled roof stands close to the border fence. Built circa 1922, it replaced the first depot, which burned in 1917. ADMICARGA uses the depot for some of its offices, and its director expressed interest in using the station for Baja California's first railroad museum, according to a recent interview in Agencia Fronteriza de Noticias. FFBC members and friends are being asked to help establish the museum by contributing or lending artifacts and documents from their own collections. They can also become docents and guides for tourist train rides currently offered by FFBC from Garcia to Tecate stations.
The Tecate depot is probably the finest in Baja Norte, architecturally speaking, and needs to be included in any vision for promoting and interpreting railroad history. San Diego Master Architect William H. Wheeler designed this beautiful, Prairie style structure circa 1919. SOHO recognized its significance along with severe neglect, and placed it on the annual Most Endangered List for several years. At the urging of SOHO and other groups, the Baja California state government restored it in 2002, with support from the federal and municipal governments.
However, ongoing expansion of the adjacent Tecate Brewery has encroached on the depot and hidden it from street view. ICOMOS is asking the state and federal government to allow either public access to the station through the historic railroad patio or to move the depot to another location. Together, Tecate Brewery, and the municipal, state, and federal governments could finance either adaptive reuse or moving the depot as an investment in the city's cultural infrastructure.
Public view of the Tijuana station is also limited, but less so than in Tecate. It can be seen through an alley where people walk when they arrive from San Ysidro. If the depot were to become a museum, visitors could enter through this alley or via the main entrance, patio, and parking lot now used by ADMICARGA for its office workers.
Preservationists envision an exciting role for the Ferrocarril Tijuana-Tecate through adaptive reuse of its historic depots for museums or cultural centers. Such welcome transformations would benefit railroad buffs, of course, but also tourists, students, and Tijuana and Tecate residents interested in our regional history. Looking beyond November, let's be sure we protect and enhance the depots to celebrate our cross-border heritage and historic transportation system for years to come.
Editor's note: Maria Curry, who recently rejoined the San Diego Railroad Museum board, wrote her PhD dissertation on Mexico's railroad stations. "There are 2,611 stations there, and I've seen all of them. I know that there is no other railroad station like [the Tecate depot] in Mexico," she told The Reader in 2002 in an article about researching and saving that depot. Read it HERE
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