Inside View of TPHX 801 - I found this siding listed as "Carrizo Gorge Siding" on an old topo map of the area and it is not referenced in my copy of the Altamont California Region Timetable 20 edition.
The siding lies between mile posts 97 and 98 and it is east of Tunnel #5 and West of Tunnel #6. (Mile markers increase eastward, with Jacumba Station being at MP 92.9 and Dos Cabezas at 109.7.)
On the siding are three commuter coach cars numbered TPHX 801, TPHX 817 and TPHX 835 of the "Societe de Transport de la Communaute Urbaine de Montreal." (#835 is closest and #801 is farthest away in the picture.)
The interior of the cars are in good to fair shape with some of the windows being knocked out and evidence of copper scavengers.
None of the three cars were equipped with on board toilets like the Metra cars at Dubbers, and unlike those, the TPHX cars could be brought up to usefulness rather easily.
This is no doubt due to their residing at a point several miles from the nearest road, and therefore only the most determined of vandals ever see these cars up close.
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Rumors found on the Internet:
From Train Orders: These cars were purchased from the Montreal commuter agency by one Thomas Payne to use with the unsuccessful ex-Reading 2100 steam excursion in Tacoma.
Originally there were six of of these coaches purchased and it is unknown if any of them were ever used by Payne for the purpose intended.
The three coaches in the gorge, TPHX 801, 817, 835 were later purchased by the old San Diego and Arizona Eastern in San Diego and were moved from the Tacoma area, through Fresno and went South to Tijuana B.C. by way of San Ysidro to Division/Lindero.
Information alleges that the purpose of these cars and the Metra Cars at Dubbers (information states that there were originally 11 of these) was to run a Tecate to Tijuana commute service that was requested around 2006, by the State of Baja California.
The San Diego and Arizona Eastern later became the Carizzo Gorge Railway and the commuter aspirations of Baja California seem to have evaporated into the dry desert wind.
Consequently, this would explain why the CZRY would park these cars out in the "back 40," where they were out of sight, out of mind.
Another interesting rumor is that in order to move the coaches from Tacoma to the San Diego and Arizona Eastern, the principles had to borrow wheels from different RR museums including the one at Niles Canyon.
At least two of Mr. Payne's six cars ended up at Orange Empire Railway Museum (OERM) in Perris California where they are often used to carry visitors on the museum's line to Perris and back.
It makes one wonder if the borrowed wheels were ever returned, or do they lie marooned to this day, at Carizzo Gorge Siding.
