Welcome to the San Diego Electric Railway Association!

NEWS FLASH! 3751 to return to San Diego Saturday, September 21, 2008 as part of the AAPRCO (The American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners, Inc.) Convention in San Pedro. Get your cameras ready!! For more details, go to http://www.aaprco.com/convention/2008/08index.html.

HISTORIC STEAM VISIT TO SAN DIEGO! Click here to find links to several interesting sites showing ex-Santa Fe Steam Engine 3751's June 1, 2008 visit to San Diego.

The San Diego Electric Railway Association (SDERA) is dedicated to the preservation of the history of the San Diego Electric Railway - San Diego's primary streetcar system which operated from the late 1800s to 1949.

SDERA is also the operator of the National City Depot, an historic Santa Fe railroad station. We operate a railroad and local history museum within the depot, and the depot is open Thursday to Sunday from 9 am to 5 pm. A large model-railroad exhibit, operated by our 3-Rail model railroad group, is also included in the museum displays. All train buffs, local historians, and people looking for an interesting "day out" in the San Diego area are encouraged to visit the depot, join with us, and help us grow into a major destination within San Diego County.

Monthly meetings are typically held at the National City Depot on the 2nd Saturday night of the month (except November) at 7:30pm. There is no charge to attend these meetings which cover interesting subjects relating to past, present, and future electric railways. Plan to arrive by 7 p.m. to chat, and peruse the bookstore. Join us at 5:30 for an optional no-host dinner before the meeting at Keith’s Restaurant—3rd and National City Blvd.

Interested in having a Birthday Party or other public meeting in a Historic Streetcar? Our Birney car is available for daytime and evening special events. Contact us at the Depot for additional information.


	SDERy 413 on trestle in Balboa Park near Morley Field

Own a Piece of San Diego Electric Railway History, Help Fund SDERA Projects! Click Here for Details.

FOR SALE - Three Cleveland series 5 fare boxes, with stands and cash vaults! One of these was recently seen on www.ebay.com for $299.95 without the cash vault or the stand! Each of these fare boxes are priced to sell at only $100.00 each. We have cleaned and oiled them. There are no keys; however, GRAH Safe and Lock of San Diego is THE railroad locksmith for San Diego for over 100 years, and they can make keys for them. The price is right and they are going fast. SDVT had 5 originally and had planned to use them in our PCC cars, until it was brought to their attention that SDERy ONLY used Johnson Model D's, both electric and mechanical. Every serious collector should have one of these pieces of our street car history. They were originally used on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority or commonly abbreviated by railfans as LAMTA. To get your very own fare box, please contact me at: (619) 222-5442 or . This sale is a fund raiser for the San Diego Vintage Trolley General Fund. (Dave Slater, Project Manager - SDVT)

Former San Francisco PCC Cars Arrive in San Diego (by way of Lake Tahoe)

Two '50s-era Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) streetcars arrived in San Diego on the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2005, following considerable planning and fund-raising efforts. Harry Mathis, the new Director of San Diego MTS and Chair of the newly-formed San Diego Vintage Trolley Co (SDVT), was among the many happy people to witness the cars' arrival into the SD Trolley yard. These cars are among the group of former San Francisco cars that have sat in the Lake Tahoe area for many years, awaiting an uncertain future. Now at least 3 of the cars have a specific future: to be restored to operating condition, and to run in downtown San Diego on the "loop" formed by portions of today's Orange and Blue Lines - to be called the "Silver Line". SDVT will be soliciting resources from the community, and they are especially interested in SDERA involvement. Photos of the cars can be found in the Photo Gallery.

Check out the progress in our monthly Newsletter - Trolley Lines. Page 2 of each issue discusses the progress of this renovation project.

Are you interesting in volunteering some time to restore these classic PCC cars? There will be Saturday "work parties" and Tuesday / Thursday work sessions at the MTS yard in downtown San Diego. Please contact San Diego Vintage Trolley Project Manager Dave Slater (see Contact SDERA) for details and to get authorization to be on the MTS property. The next Saturday work dates are Saturday, Feb 23, and Mar 8 & 22.