San Diego Electric Railway

San Diego Electric Railway

San Diego Electric Railways network ()
A San Diego Class 1 Streetcar at 5th and Broadway, circa 1915
Reporting mark	SDER
Locale	California
Dates of operation	1892–1949
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	600 V DC Overhead line
Headquarters	San Diego, California

The San Diego Electric Railway (SDERy) was a mass transit system in Southern California, United States, using 600 volt DC streetcars and (in later years) buses.

The SDERy was established by "sugar heir," developer, and entrepreneur 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. Steadily declining ridership, due in large part to the phenomenal rise in popularity 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 SCERy'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.

On July 3, 1886 the first horse-drawn open-air streetcar of the San Diego Street Car Company (SDSCC) (founded by H.(Hampton) L. Story and E. S. Babcock) makes its run up 5th Street. The fare is five cents. The following year on November 9, the first electric-powered streetcar made a test run on new tracks up Broadway to Kettner Boulevard and on to "Old Town". Electric streetcar service is inaugurated on November 19 on the San Diego and Old Town Street Railway, making it the first electric railway on the west coast and the second in the country to use the "ground return" for electric current. In 1888, the Electric Rapid Transit Company (ERTC) puts an electric streetcar into regular operation in San Diego. When ERTC fails, the San Diego Cable Railway (SDCR) is incorporated in July 1889 to replace it. The opening day of the SDCR is held on June 7, 1890 and it soon opens "Mission Cliffs Gardens", a small recreation park (one of San Diego's first public recreation areas) overlooking Mission Valley, as an end-of-the-line attraction for cable car patrons.