Las Flores Railroad 1895-1910

The railroad line runs 5.4 miles from the ruins of Las Flores (south of Bahia de los Angeles) to the bottom of El Terminal canyon where a cable bucket tram line brought the ore down from the San Juan mines high atop the sierra.

Here is the railroad bed at Las Flores heading south...




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Here is the railroad bed near the terminal (south end)...




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As the railroad approaches the terminal platform, the line is elevated via this ...




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Here is the terminal platform where Dr. Abraham Vasquez ('Doc' of Camp Gecko) shows me where giant wheels were once mounted at the bottom of the cable tram line. Here the ore was dumped into train cars for the trip north to Las Flores where the ore was processed...




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Doc and I pose by one of the tram tower timbers as we hike up the canyon...




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One of the ore buckets that litter the canyon bottom (the good stuff has already been removed and some is on display at the museum in Bahia de los Angeles...




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In 2003 my daughter and I went back for another look...



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GPS and Milage Notes (map datum NAD27 Mex.)

0.0 Camp Gecko Driveway (4.1 mi. so. of pavement/ town): 28?53.96', 113?31.85'

5.7 The old Las Flores jail is 0.3 mi. to right.

8.1 Top of long grade, a poor road continues ahead (28?46.98', 113?32.00'). Main road to Punta San Francisquito bends left.

11.1 Park where railroad crosses, now going from south to north, uphill. Platform at 28?44.73', 113?32.54' a short walk north from the road.

The auto road continues a short distance ahead to the trail going up Terminal Canyon to the San Juan mines. Before the cable tramline, pack animals brought the ore down the mountain.

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The museum of Bahia de los Angeles... on the outside, to the right, is a display of the railroad and ore tram bucket system... In front of the town plaza is the locomotive that was left at Las Flores and an ore car that came from the smaller gauge train line up at San Juan...






[Edited on 12-23-2005 by David K]

[Edited on 12-23-2005 by David K]

Map for reference.... stars placed by Las Flores and San Juan mines, terminal platform noted with arrow. Milages from Las Flores (east of jail house on graded road) to the junction with the road that continues uphill to the terminal (2.4)... and then 3.0 on to the terminal on the minor road (overgrown brush will scratch vehicle).

It should be noted that the original topo map is incorrect with the placement of the graded road south of Las Flores (I doctored the map to correct its location), and in naming Arroyo el Terminal: It is labled at the next arroyo south of where it really is! Too faint to see in this reproduction...

[Edited on 12-23-2005 by David K]

[Edited on 2-21-2008 by David K]

Railroad Map

... from John Kirchner's great work: Baja California Railways c1988

[Edited on 2-21-2008 by David K]

Erle Stanley Gardner at Las Flores by the train, in 1966... (photo from Choral Pepper)

[Edited on 2-21-2008 by David K]

In the 1970s, a photo from Marvin Patchen's 'Baja Adventures by Land, Air, Sea'.

I have pictures taken here in '76... sometime after, the train was moved to the town plaza in Bahia de las Angeles along with a cart from the other small railway on top of the moutain at San Juan (it is of a different gauge... why it doesn't fit on the same track as the locomotive).

[Edited on 2-21-2008 by David K]

Nice post, DK

That's great... Baja is just full of intersting and beautiful sites!

I may dig up my notes and other stuff... for more details, but you will find it knowing what's out there in that desert!

I do recommend Kirchner's book as it has more on Las Flores and San Juan plus all the railroad sites in Baja!

The Lower California Guidebook by Gerhard & Gulick is also a must have for finding and details on historic Baja!

[Edited on 2-21-2008 by David K]

Gerhard & Gulick c 1956, 58, 62, 64, 67, 70. The '58 and '62 were revised with more and updated maps. The '64 was a reprint, '67 had update notes, and '70 was a reprint of the '67 edition.

In 1975, La Siesta Press's Walt Wheelock revised the book to include the new highway and the name was changed to Baja California Guidebook.

[Edited on 2-21-2008 by David K]

David, neat stuff, thanks...

Awesome subject material

Railway book