San Diego, Cuyamaca & Eastern Railroad - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

The San Diego, Cuyamaca & Eastern Railroad had its beginnings in 1888 during the land boom that was brought about by the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad system into San Diego in 1885. Its driving force was Robert Waldo Waterman, cattle rancher, mine owner and Governor of California. The governor wanted a railroad to his Stonewall mine near Julian. The stock prospectus called for a line to Utah-via Julian. Enough funds were subscribed to build 25 miles of track to a point just north of Lakeside called Foster's Station, and that is as far as the railroad was ever built. There was connecting stage coaches to Julian until 1908. The land boom collapsed and so did the gold mine. However, the railroad was successful in opening much of the east country with 5 daily round trip passenger trains in 1912 to Foster, a 90 minute ride for 85 cents and served the citrus industry, supplied rock for building the jetties in the harbor and in quarrying sand along the river at Lakeside for road and building construction. In 1912, the line was purchased by John D. Spreckels and became part of the San Diego & Southeastern Railway, and later the San Diego & Arizona Railway. Spreckels had big plans but the "Rainmaker" flood of January 1916 destroyed almost half of the line, with the tracks north of Lakeside abandoned. Most of the equipment in use on the sand spurat Lakeside was buried in the flood, including a flat car, which only became uncovered in 2002. These are the remains of that flatcar, a testament to the power of the flood that devastated most of San Diego County. The railway is used today by the San Diego Trolley to El Cajon.