This old photo shows the LA&SDB Mack rail bus No. 51 as it ended up when it was pushed through the back of the La Jolla engine house by 4-4-0 No. 15, (ex San Diego & Cuyamaca No. 15, ex California Southern No. 1, ex-Santa Fe No. 012, built by Rhode Island in 1881) The old boiler flues and trash is typical of the kind of debris that collect behind railroad shops and engine sheds. Note the Crumpled hood from the Mack covering the smoke box of No. 15. The well traveled little 4-4-0 was scrapped in 1918, a year after this snapshot was taken by a person unknown. The engine house was scrapped shortly after this mishap. It did not take too many accidents like this to wipe out a marginal short line like the LA&SDB.

This photo shows the LA&SDB 2-4-4 "back up engine" No. 4 that was used to pinch hit for the wreck damaged No. 15 on school trains to downtown San Diego in 1917. This odd little kettle was built by Schenectady in 1880 for the Los Angeles Terminal railroad. It was later sold to the Holton Interurban Railroad as their No. 1 before being acquired by LA&SDB to drag a single coach from La Jolla to San Diego and back. The entire LA&SDB steam loco roster was scrapped in 1918. The railroad followed with the last of the rails ripped up in Jan. 1919.

Nobody was hurt in the accident at the LA&SDB engine house in La Jolla. The financial health of the railroad, however, took a big hit that resulted in the scrapping of the engine house soon after the wreck of engine 15 and the rail bus. What's left of it is shown in this rare photo with what appears to be No. 4 just behind the pile of sticks. There was a lot of open space in La Jolla in those days as shown here. The population of San Diego in 1917 was less than 70,000. Four years after the LA&SDB disappeared much of the R.O.W. was acquired by The San Diego Electric Ry.

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Additional LA&SDB photos for the museum colletion.

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