(upbeat piano music) - [Announcer] Here's a little something, "About San Diego" with Ken Kramer.

- This is something that is really a terrific experience, and it has history and it's fun, and if you know me and trains, you know I found this to be pretty exciting, and I think you might, too.

Let's go.

- Now announcing the Gold State Limited.

All aboard!

- [Ken] Come on along for an adventure here.

It's a trip into San Diego history and onto the rails.

(whistle blasting) All aboard the Golden State Limited, you see, is a full-sized train.

Randy Houk is at the controls today.

(whistle blasting) (bell ringing) - Brake man has control of the air for 15 west, here we go.

(bell dinging) - [Ken] Leaving the station at Campo, his engine begins pushing a couple of train cars with people who've come out here to the desert for a ride that is an absolutely unique experience in San Diego County.

- [Ticket Collector] There you go, sir.

- [Ken] Little background, the old Campo train station dates back to 1916 and is now home to what's called the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum.

Inside its display building are exhibits that describe how crossing signals work.

A classical railway express mail sorting car, even a steam engine that once served on this very railroad connecting San Diego with El Centro and that's where the history comes in.

(bell dinging) Because this track is part of what, 100 years ago, almost everybody thought was an impossible railroad construction project.

(whistle blaring) Everybody, that is, except this man, John D. Spreckels.

- Spreckels, sugar fame.

(whistle blaring) Drove the last gold spike to complete the railroad.

- [Ken] Mr.

Spreckels, the wealthiest person in San Diego, was undaunted by the engineering obstacles.

He built dozens of tunnels and turns.

The railroad even jogs into Mexico and back across the border.

And when it was done, his San Diego and Arizona railroad, directly to and from the east took 15 hours for a passenger to get from El Centro to San Diego.

But then there were floods and fires and that was just the beginning for the SD&A, museum president Diana Hyatt says.

- The railroad was constantly riddled with problems.

So much so that it was often referred to as the slow, dirty, and aggravating.

- [Ken] Passenger service stopped in the 1950s.

There haven't been freights go through here in years, but every weekend the museum takes riders a few miles from Campo down the track toward Mexico.

(whistle blaring) (bell clanging) - The portion that we run on is still very nice scenery.

This is the upper desert that a lot of people aren't familiar with, that is mountainous, but it's still somewhat desert as well.

- [Ken] It's like going back to the 1930s.

The cars rumble and rock and there's all the sounds of railroading that have been lost to time.

(metal screeching) - Two more.

(whistle blaring) And you hear the clickety-clack of the track, because most railroads today are welded rails.

So you don't have the clickety-clack, the, you know, that a lot of the kids' books talk about.

- [Ken] A short distance from the border, the train stops.

- We're going to reverse direction and we'll be heading east back to the Campo Depot.

(whistle blares) - [Ken] Now the engine, a relic of the 1960s Southern Pacific is in front.

Its whistle, is a sweet musical accompaniment to the passing desert countryside.

(whistle blares) (bell clanging) An old baggage car from 70 years ago has doors open to the wind and the sound.

And a little bonus today, we'll go past the depot and a bit beyond, our ride extended, the history everywhere, the scenery stark and pretty.

(rail car squeaking) (everyone chatting) And finally, one more push back toward the depot.

(whistle blares) It's a wonderful thing, this museum.

All volunteers who serve as crew, maintain the track, everything.

Diana, who's come here almost every weekend for 17 years, says she still feels this little train through the desert is the best kept secret in San Diego.

- And there's still people who've lived here 30, 40 years that haven't heard about us.

- [Ken] So hear this, a little section of John D. Spreckels' impossible railroad lives even yet on a train that every weekend goes back and forth a few miles around Campo - [Passenger] Thank you.

- [Ken] It's a fun ride and a lesson in history about San Diego.

Okay, so that's the train museum.

And I have to tell you, a lot of people who go to the train museum make another stop as a part of the trip they head on down the road to a place that's been the favorite of so many families going back generations.

It has real history in San Diego.

It's a sweet place.

I will tell you also that we posted a story about it when we first went there and it got like 120,000 views on social media.

People really connect with this place, and you're about to see why.

Along old highway 80, 60 miles east of San Diego is the sweetest thing.

- Can I get a handful of the licorice?

- Black one?

Sure.

- Yeah, black and red, please.

- [Ken] A sweet stop for generations of travelers between San Diego and the Imperial Valley who want to take a little candy break.

- I have people pulling in just to, they were just driving by, just to show their friends or family members that, "Hey, this is the Candy Cottage, we used to come here when we were really little."

- [Ken] Dana Eabelli owns Wisteria Candy Cottage in the small town of Boulevard.

A little house built a century ago where candy has been made and sold since 1921.

- People come in and tell me stories about my mom and about my grandmother.

And just the other day, a fellow came in and he started coming here in 1941.

- [Ken] They're both gone now, but so many San Diagans remember her mom and dad, Gordon and Lucilia Rankin working every day here.

- I love the smell, chocolate's a part of my life.

- [Ken] Creating all kinds of treats, the air around this little shop perfumed with the sweet smell of chocolate confections.

- People now look upon us as a tradition.

We're not just a a candy cottage in the mountains.

We are a tradition.

- [Ken] Now their daughter, Dana, carries on that tradition and to tell the truth, it's a lot of work.

All these candies, they're all made here from scratch.

Sometimes she drives down to San Diego for supplies.

Just the other day in the checkout line, she got the question again, why are you buying all of this sugar?

- And I said, "Well, I have a small candy chocolate factory in the mountains."

And then they say, "Where?"

And then the lady behind me will say, "That's not Wisteria, is it?"

- [Ken] It most certainly is Wisteria, where today Dana and her son Joe made three batches of chocolate in the back kitchen and now they're at work finishing up brittle, which will go right out on sale.

Her favorite, a few trays of which have just come out fresh are turtles, chocolate and nut, customers snap them up.

- And we probably make about 60 pounds of turtles a week.

So it's a lot.

- [Ken] It's a busy place, Wisteria, out here so far away from everything.

An odd combination of quaint and down-to-earth, up early in the morning, over the kettle, hard work, making, shipping all over the world, and selling candy.

- [Dana] This is our sea foam.

- [Ken] And by the way, in case you're wondering, even though she makes it, works with it, sells it every day, yes she does, still very much like candy.

- We do, we eat candy every day and we have to taste test it, make sure it tastes good.

- [Ken] I'm guessing there are worse jobs.

Everybody who comes in is happy to see you.

(customer laughs) - Bye, Randy.

- [Ken] There are challenges keeping the place cool on hot summer days, keeping up with orders from all around the country for Wisteria chocolate, there's all that, but keeping up their spirits seems to come naturally.

She does work in a candy shop, after all, carrying on a family tradition.

Dana thinks about that too, Every day she works here, about her mom and dad, the joy they found at this little place in the mountains, and about how much and for how long this little candy shop in Boulevard has been loved by those who come here.

- It's more a part of you.

It's a part of these people.

- On Old Highway 80 in Boulevard for more than 90 years, something very sweet about San Diego.