This weekend’s powerful storms knocked a popular South Bay train club off the tracks. The Chula Vista Live Steamers, located in Chula Vista’s Rohr Park, said it sustained more damage in one storm than it had in more than 45-years of existence.
“It’s crazy,” said club president Alec Harley. “It’s crazy amount of power that this thing had when it was coming down.”
A 100-foot-tall eucalyptus fell sometime Friday. It’s massive root ball lifted decades old tracks. The falling tree destroyed switches and tracks down the line. However, the massive tree was still covering hundreds of feet of track Monday.
“It’s hard to tell even right now if there’s any damage or what kind of damage happened to it,” said Harley.
The Chula Vista Live Steamers are a non-profit club with two miles of track. They’ve been giving rides to families since 1974.
Those rides are on hold.
“I mean, it’s completely covered up,” exclaimed Harley. “It’s going to take a while for us to even get in there to figure out what’s wrong.”
He guessed the damage is in the thousands and could take a month to repair.
“We’ll survive. We’ve been through a lot as a club,” said Harley. “You know, it’s not the end of the world for us.”
