Pacific Southwest Railway Museum — Attraction in Tecate

Date of visit: Oct 29, 2022 This was my second visit, but first time riding their train. You can pay a small fee to just visit the grounds and museum, or take a train ride. I went in coach ($20) as first class ($30) was sold out. Price includes admission to the museum grounds and main building.

If you don’t want to pay anything at all, you can still access the nice restroom building, and read many display boards about the railroad. There’s even a little place for the kids to burn off a little steam. There’s benches to rest on made from a railroad car wheels-&-axle set that’s pretty cool.

Inside historic Campo station, there’s a video on the complete history of the railroad. If the name Spreckles is familiar to you, this is a must watch video, and you don’t even have to pay anything to watch it since it’s on the “free” side on the museum grounds inside the station right next to the parking lot.

The train runs from the Campo Depot a few miles south to a a place marked “Canyon” then back north past the Campo station to the museum. You can get off at the museum and tour there, which I highly recommend, or stay on the train for the quarter-mile trip back to the Campo station.

Unfortunately, due to track condition, the train no longer runs to or past the border of Mexico, nor does it run north over the old bridge to the east over California State Route 94. It does cross a main road just outside their grounds in Campo, complete with cross bucks, warning lights and bell, and crossing arms, so there’s a rail fan video opportunity there.

There are a few instructional videos inside the main museum building on how the various type of railroad signals work, with REAL signals lighting up. There’s also variety of railroad cars and even a steam loco.

(Before or after a visit, have breakfast and/or lunch at the Campo Cafe a very short drive away. Delicious burgers, fries, shakes,...

First and foremost, Google Maps directions are now accurate. They will take you right to the depot.

If you are into trains and train history this is the place for you. There are a lot of engines and rolling stock in various states of repair/decay. Most of them are right out where you can get right up next to them. There are hands on displays inside where you can see the workings of a mail car, and walk through a caboose and office car.

The train trip is fun, but slow. Use the restroom before you go. There are sections of track that are under repair (as of May 2013) and the max speed through these sections is 5 mph. There is no place to turn around on the open stretch of track so the train is pushed by the loco all the way to the border and then pulled back to the depot. We spend the extra money and did the "cab ride" with the engineer. He let my son blow the horn at crossings and was very happy to share his experiences with us (between track updates from his conductor).

Right now the museums track is "land locked". Track leading north runs into a condemned trestle bridge. To the south, the track leads to the border and a collapsed tunnel on the Mexico side. There are ongoing plans by the Mexican govt to excavate the collapsed tunnel into a "cut". This would allow the museum to negotiate track passage to Tecate at some point in the future. For now they just run from Campo to the the Division tunnel.

If you love trains, this place will...

This is a must visit place it is probably the best museum ever it even has my favorite train SD&A 104 i am also curios if they are going to restore 104 because i just recently went and 104 didn't look to bad i know you guys are restoring that old diesel and coos bay lumber co #11 i am also curios if you guys have any plans to fix the cracked boiler on 2353 because it is my dream to see either 104 or 2353 back in action and i have a bone to pick with the people that complain about this place seriously people your complaining about this legendary place yeah sure it might be a little bit under staffed but you got to think about this way it is entirely run by volunteers and seriously your complaining about it being hot, pick a different damn day if you don't want it to be hot and the people that are complaining about the train ride not being 45 minutes long maybe it just doesn't feel 45 minutes long because it's so damn fun and every body knows that time fly's faster when...