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San Diego Electric Railway
San Diego Electric Railways network
A San Diego Class 1 streetcar at 5th and Broadway, c. 1915
Overview
Headquarters
San Diego, California
Reporting mark
SDER
Locale
California
Dates of operation
1892–1949
Technical
Track gauge
4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Previous gauge
3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) (until about 1898)
Electrification
Overhead line, 600 V DC
The San Diego Electric Railway (SDERy) was a mass transit system in Southern California, United States, using 600 volt DC streetcars[1] and (in later years) buses.
The SDERy was established by sugar heir and land developer John D. Spreckels in 1892. The railroad's original network consisted of five routes: the Fifth Street and Logan Heights Lines, the First and "D" Streets Lines, the Depot Line, the Ferry Line, and the "K" Street Shuttle. The company would establish additional operating divisions as traffic demands led to the formation of new lines. The company also engaged in limited freight handling primarily as an interchange with Spreckels' San Diego and Arizona Railway (SD&A) from 1923 to 1929.
At its peak, the SDERy's routes would operate throughout the greater San Diego area over some 165 miles (266 km) of track. Declining ridership, due in large part to the growing usage of the automobile, ultimately led the company to discontinue all streetcar service in favor of bus routes in 1949. Some see this as related to the National City Lines's General Motors streetcar conspiracy controversy, as the SDERy's president had been with NCL previously.
The few surviving pieces of rolling stock are on display at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo, the San Diego Electric Railway Association in National City, and the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, California.
^Demoro, Harre W. (1986). California's Electric Railways. Glendale, California: Interurban Press. p. 15. ISBN 0-916374-74-2.
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