The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
January 1961, Volume 7, Number 1
Jerry MacMullen, Editor
Back to the article: THE HIGH IRON TO LA JOLLA
The year is 1887, and steam puffs from the power-house on Arctic Street (circle).
The Iron Horse continued to win the west, and here, in 1888, San Diego turned out en masse for “Driving the Last Spike”.
Forlorn and cold, the “Two Spot” sits in the barn-like “round house” at Pacific Beach, awaiting repairs.
She started our as a Northern Pacific “yard goat” and wound up pulling the La Jolla Train — Captain Jadwin.
Why no one was killed is anyone’s guess, for that Santa Fe train did a thorough job on the La Jolla cars, back in 1917.
Rebuilt after the wereck in which she killed her crew, the “One Spot” poses for her picture, with Engineer George Smith.
Rube Goldbergian gadgets in profusion; Engineer Jack Doddridge proudly handles the controls in the line’s McKeen car.
In front of the old Sefton Block at Fourth and C, Conductor Earl Bowersock prepares to greet last-minute passengers.
La Jollans board the “mixed” train for San Diego; a tall man could stand up in those cars, but with little room to spare.
Far from her old home on the New York Elevated, La Jollas Line’s second “Two Spot” pauses for a drink of water.
Dainty little No. 4 — an importation from the Imperial Valley — hooked up to a borrowed Cuyamaca coach.
