Post by gskonstracker on Aug 21, 2013 19:09:06 GMT
I have been working on a theory that GSK worked for the railroads. Specifically, I have found one company that had depots in all of the cities where the EAR rapes happened. This is Southern Pacific Railroad. They had depots and freight yards in all of the EAR rape cities as well as in Goleta and Ventura. Here is some of the research I have found about the history of this railroad.
"The San Ramon Valley Branch of the Southern Pacific entered service in 1891 to serve the abundant agriculture interests of the San Ramon Valley. The line extended from the SP's West Side line at Avon south through Concord, Walnut Creek, Danville, San Ramon, and Alamo. In 1909 it was extended to the original Central Pacific transcontinental railroad alignment through the Livermore Valley at Radum. This part of Contra Costa County never realized industrial development to support use of the railroad beyond a secondary branch line, and much of the area was developed into a residential area with single family homes. By the mid-1970s, the southern section of the branch was used for surplus car storage, and the line was abandoned in 1978.
Today (2004), most of the line has been converted to a bike trail, the very popular Iron Horse Trail. Most of the right-of-way can be easily followed south of Concord. The Danville and Walnut Creek depots have been preserved, although both have been moved short distances from their original locations. The line's undercrossing of Interstate 580 in Dublin is now part of a major transit center for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system and local bus lines. In Walnut Creek, just south of Ygnacio Valley Road, a through truss bridge of 1923 vintage serves to support the bike trail (see photo at right). At Dublin, spur tracks into the former Santa Rita federal depot still remain (also at right). The northernmost portion of the branch is still intact and visible at Avon, although completely within the confines of a Valero oil refinery.
Thanks to Jack Witthaus and Richard Brennan for contributing information about this route.
Historic ICC Abandonment Filings
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
Docket Number: AB 12 Sub 39 Date: 7/13/1976 Section: 1a
Application filed for authority to abandon a line of railroad extending from MP 42.6 near Concord in a southerly direction to the end of the branch at MP 63.5 near Dougherty a distance of 20.9 miles in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, California. (This includes stations of Hookston, Las Juntas, Walnut Creek, Alama and Danville.)
Length: 20.9 miles Citation:
Other Sites and Information
History of the San Ramon Branch Line
Add your comments
Comments
I witnessed the tearing up of the tracks in Danville when I was in junior high school. It was a sad day. The town has never been the same, its now pure suburbian hell.
Jim Alberti
Billings, MT
1/24/2009
____________________
I was fortunate enough to see one train run on the line, in '76 or '77, as my dad's apartment complex in Walnut Creek backed up to the line. I think it was just an SW-1500 and a few boxcars.
I do have to take issue, however, with Mr. Alberti's savaging of the town of Danville - a very lovely town, if you ask me (and its many thousands of residents). Perhaps a bit materialistic and conformist for disillusioned youth, but to say "the town has never been the same" since some railroad tracks that were hardly ever used were removed is a bit of a stretch, if you ask me.
Steve McLin
Walnut Creek, CA
4/27/2010
____________________
I used to live in the apartments (Amador Lakes) that backed up to the line in Dublin. There was a Kodak plant or warehouse just south of Alcosta Blvd. that saw activity as late as 1985-86, possibly later. I worked in underground construction and we had to be very cognizant of the ROW and call for permission if we were to cross it or encroach in any manner. I have some pix somewhere of whats left of the wye near Radon where SP had to cross WP to access their Sunol-Livermore line. I'll dig 'em up and post them soon...
MC
Mark C
Oroville, CA
7/30/2010
Ojai Branch
This branch line was originally constructed in the 1890s as the Ventura and Ojai Valley Railroad, and was purchased by SP within a few years. (Ojai is pronounced OH-hi.) Most customers were citrus growers and other agricultural businesses.
This line branched off the SP Coast Line at Ventura Junction, which is just west of the existing Amtrak platform at Ventura. The line extended north along the Ventura River, through Chrisman, Wedstrom, Ortonville and Nitroshell to Mira Monte. At Mira Monte the line turned east to the end of the line at Ojai. The northern portion of the branch was abandoned by 1975; the southern part might have lasted a few years longer.
The right-of-way, now owned by the city of Ventura, is easily traced today, as much of it has been converted to a bicycle trail, called the "Ojai Valley Trail" and the "Ventura River Trail".
Frank Maxim provides a Notice of Interim Trail Use filed with the STB for a portion of the line.
Historic ICC Abandonment Filings
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
Docket Number: 25839 Date: 9/2/1969 Section: 1(18)
Application for authority to abandon that portion of its Ojai Branch, Los Angeles Division, between Mile Post 402.68, at or near Canet, and the end of the line at Mile Post 412.42, at Ojai, a distance of 9.74 miles, together with spur tracks, sidings and appurtenances, all within the County of Ventura, State of California.
Length: 9.74 miles Citation:
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
Docket Number: AB-12 Sub No 151 Date: 10/30/1995 Section: 0
Southern Pacific Transportation Company filed a notice of exemption to abandon 5.38 miles of its Ventura Branch from milepost 397.3, at or near Ventura Junction rail station, to milepost 402.68, at or near the Canet rail station, in Ventura County, CA.
Length: 5.38 miles Citation:
Add your comments
Comments
This past weekend I had the oppertunity to review the abandoned remains of the Ojai branch, there are perhaps 100 feet of of rails remaining near the Stanley Ave. crossing as well, though the crossing is marked,no rails are present, this short section terminates in the parking lot of a large plant of some type, I suspect switch work may still be present embedded in the pavement.To the north one can follow the former ROW up to the freeway embankment. Of additonal interest to me at least, I believe I have located several former packing houses in various states of preservation. I will be back area soon and investigate further
Dave Forsyth
Los Angeles
6/24/2009
____________________
The Ojai Branch lasted in service until at least 1990, up to above Canet at MP 407.1. The rest of the branch was isolated account of the torrential rains that hit Southern California in early 1969, which washed out a bridge. Due to the decline in reefer traffic from Ojai, SP decided not to rebuild the bridge and petitioned for abandonment. The north end of the branch was also an operational nightmare, due to its 3+% grades coming down the canyon. In the '80s, there was a small shipper in a brick building right at the junction which would take a boxcar or two now and then until the switch was removed. The large citrus packing house a block further up the line was also a large shipper in early years, and was served by street trackage. The old Shell refinery further up the line was a big receiver of crude oil and shipper of refined products until it closed in the '70s.
DeserTBoB
Lancaster, CA
4/13/2010
____________________
I was Assistant Trainmaster at Oxnard in 1973 when an accident occurred on the Ventura Branch, killing two of our crewmen, an engineer and conductor (I do not remember their names). Cause of this was kids releasing handbrakes on 62 ft. propane tank cars at Canet (refinery) which began rolling south toward Ventura and junction with Coast Mainline. The Gaviota Local was working upgrade on North side of Ventura when cars ran into locomotive (likely at speed of 50+ mph) destroying 2500 class EMD SW 1500 switcher. Crewmen were killed by exposure to propane which poured from ruptured tank cars. Had the local NOT been present the cars would have rocketed through Ventura, over grade crossings, and likely derailed at high speed, a horrible eventuality. The refinery was a regular customer of the railroad, shipping and receiving about a dozen cars a week, the biggest remaining customer on this branch. I would have loved riding this line into Ojai itself but I arrived on the scene too late, following 1960s floods and washouts of this poorly and inexpensively engineered line.
Bob Oliver
Webster City, IA
2/5/2012
____________________
I am searching for names and contact info for any Conductors who ran trains from Ventura to ojai during the 40's to the 60s'.
JP Pluim
Ventura, CA
3/3/2012
____________________
The engineer that was killed was Tony Emanuel from San Luis Obispo. He was "Burned" (frozen) by the gas. I was the BLE Local Chairman and we had just got the job from the San Joaquin Engineers on a miles owed basis. I worked the job for the first 3 days to see what it entailed then Tony bumped me and bid in the job. One of the days I worked the job we were up the branch switching out tank cars and got a car hung up on a switch and we were stuck behind it. With our caboose down on the main at the Jct so we had to "pole" the car in the clear and get back down the hill. Those kids that killed Tony and that conductor got a slap on their hands and that was it. Wouldn't even let the SP attorneys into the hearing.
Also, the last PFE shippers on the line were talked into a packing house that SP built for them at Santa Susana. That way nobody was left on the branch so they didn't have to rebuild it. You could see the right of way up towards the east switch (70s) that had been staked out and fenced off for years, heading north. Nothing ever came of it.
Nudge
Medford, OR
6/5/2012
____________________
Just a quick correction to Dave Forsyths picture descriptions (and humble because I think his contribution is one of the more complete and informative branch photo essays on this awesome site!), the trackage did not run down Olive street but immediately alongside it. You can in fact clearly see the last part of the curving rails coming off the SP mainline before it straightened to run alongside Olive in the latest HD Satelite photos (Aug 6, 2012) on Google maps (look at the highest magnification and the 1st person view and you can easily see it in front of the Great Pacific Iron Works building, which I also believe is one of the former packing houses looking at the architecture!). BTW, I researched this myself more to confirm my own memories of the line than as a correction. I do vaguely remember thinking I saw some very short street trackage on the line but it was up near the refinery much further down the line in the outskirts/boondocks of town.
Humbly submitted . . .
Dave Grund
Ventura, CA
8/7/2012
____________________
Back in Oct. 1968, what was then Orange Empire Trolley Museum sponsored a fan trip to Ojai. We had an ABA set of FP units, an assortment of SP cars, and OETM's Canadian Pacific Mountain Observation Car 599. The first part of the trip was on the Burbank Branch, with a photo stop where the PE shared track, and then up the Coast Line to Ojai. Getting the train switched for the return trip in the rather cramped yard at Ojai was a bit of railroading the likes of which you probably won't see these days. As I recall, the trip was on Oct. 12, so the theme was "Discover Ojai". I took movies of this excursion, which turned out to be a "never-to-be-repeated" bit of "rare mileage".
Bob Davis
San Gabriel, CA
1/10/2013
__________________
Historic ICC Abandonment Filings
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
Docket Number: AB 12 Sub 51 Date: 10/19/1976 Section: 1a
Application filed for authority to abandon a line of railroad extending from MP 104.37 near Citrus in a northerly direction to the end of the branch at MP 106.36 near Fair Oaks, a distance of 1.99 miles in Sacramento County, Calif.
Length: 1.99 miles Citation:
Add your comments
Comments
The Fair Oaks depot was on the south side of the American River, adjacent to the highway bridge across the river to the town of Fair Oaks. In 1958 my family moved to Fair Oaks and there was still a little fruit production activity in town, maybe some shipped out via the railroad? Sometime in the 60's the area from the River to Highway 50 (south) began to be developed for residential and office park use. I don't know what year the railroad no longer ran on that line, but my memory doesn't recall any active service at that time.
There was a large PCA rock crushing operation (using old gold dredge tailing piles) nearby on that side of the river but I believe all the aggregate was trucked out for freeway construction - the plant was running 24 hours a day for some years in the late 50's /early 60's.
Mike Beehler
Olympia/Lacey area, WA
3/10/2012
____________________
The aggregates operation was last run by Lone Star Industries in the mid-1970s. They did ship out rock and gravel material by rail, and had a small 4-wheeled diesel and a GE 45-ton centercab to switch cars in their facility.
lynn powell
Stockton, CA
4/8/2012
____________________
It's mostly a bike trail now. A little bit of rail still exists (or did until very recently) near the far south end. Grade crossing at Folsom Blvd stayed until light rail was built 2005ish.
Mike B
Folsom, CA
11/29/2012
____________________
40 years later, witnesses recall dramatic railyard explosions
By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com
Published: Saturday, Apr. 27, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
Last Modified: Sunday, Apr. 28, 2013 - 11:42 am
Scott Nutter was there as a 13-year-old boy, sleeping soundly on a Saturday like many a teenager when his parents' Antelope home was rocked by tremendous explosions.
Dick Schmidt, a Sacramento Bee photographer, was initially not there, but once he heard of the explosions he drove toward them.
That was 40 years ago Sunday. On April 28, 1973, in the Southern Pacific Railroad yard in Antelope, thousands of bombs headed for the Vietnam War on 18 rail cars blew up.
Buildings were destroyed and people were injured in the series of shattering explosions that began about 8 a.m.
The blasts continued through the following day.
"One explosion threw me out of bed onto the floor," said Phoebe Astill, curator of the Roseville Carnegie Museum, which has one of the split-open bombs in its collection. "I thought an airplane headed to McClellan Air Force Base had crashed."
Astill calls it a traumatic event in Roseville's history. Here are firsthand remembrances of the momentous day from Nutter, who is retired from the mortgage industry, and Schmidt, who is retired from The Bee.
SCOTT NUTTER
"I was a typical 13-year-old boy on that Saturday morning – asleep.
My mom was up cleaning the house early as she always did on Saturdays. My dad was up as well. As he heard the bombs going off, he told my mom, 'If I was back in WWII, I'd swear those were bombs.'
Then, every item in our cupboards – plates, cans, glasses – went flying across the room. The force was such that the windows facing south imploded.
I was now awake. 'Get out of the house!' my Dad screamed.
I scrambled outside and went around to the front of the house to see a huge mushroom cloud.
We got into the car as fast as possible. My mom, the bookkeeper at the Roseville Press Tribune, had keys to the office, so that is where we went.
Unlike today when information is so prevalent, we sat by the AP wire machine trying to get info. We also had access to some scanners.
The owner of the Press Tribune was in Los Angeles. She arranged for us to stay at her house that night.
The next day, Sunday, we went to see if we had a house standing anymore. After some talking, we were let through a roadblock.
Our house survived. Other homes had either been flattened or burned. A large spring from a railroad car that exploded a little over a quarter mile away had landed on the hood of one of our cars at the house.
I told my dad, 'Cool, I want this.' He said, 'Go ahead, pick it up.' I could not even budge it. It was that heavy.
Though still intact, the concussion of the blast shattered all of the rafters in the house. The house ended up being condemned and it was bulldozed in the months afterward.
The railroad, Southern Pacific, was extremely fair. This was in a time before ATMs. And banks were closed on weekends. We were able to get a stipend from SP that very weekend for living expenses. They compensated us for damages in a few weeks.
The money they gave us was more than we could have gotten in sale for the house and 10 acres. Many families spent years in litigation.
I rarely go out there to the old property anymore. The land around it has been developed with tract housing.
April 28, 1973, was the luckiest day of my life. None of my family was hurt, and it allowed me to move into town and make new friends."
DICK SCHMIDT
"I was working an early shift on Saturday morning and en route to Cal Expo to cover an event in the horse arena when I heard something on the police scanner about reports of explosions in the Roseville area. Then I turned the car radio to KFBK, where news breaks said the station was receiving phoned-in reports of explosions or maybe an earthquake.
I decided to drive toward Roseville on speculation. On the way, I heard more radio reports about a train carrying bombs that was on fire at the Southern Pacific's switchyard.
Nearing the area on I-80, I could see dark smoke in the sky and took the Antelope Road exit.
I pulled over and, afraid I would miss something, grabbed just one camera without a motor drive, and a 200 mm lens. I ran about a quarter mile to a rise in an open field, which these days is covered with homes.
From there, I had a view of the Antelope switchyard a few hundred yards away, a good vantage point for photos.
I stood for a while watching the smoke rise and bombs explode before a huge fireball rose into the sky. Individual bombs exploding were not that distinctive at this distance, just quick flashes in lots of dark smoke.
But this fireball was different. It was amazingly large and delivered a tremendous shock wave at me.
On seeing the first of these, I overreacted, and shot too early. By the time I advanced the film for a second try, the mushroom fireball had turned to lingering smoke.
A bit later, when the next car exploded, I knew a mushroom cloud would build upward and higher like the one I miscalculated earlier.
This time I exercised old-fashioned photographic discipline. I didn't have a motor drive to simply make many pictures quickly so I waited a couple seconds for it to build to its peak. My patience paid off and I got my shot – at least I thought I did.
After I got that shot, I hurriedly tried a second shot, advancing the film manually. However, I failed to capture much.
I was hopeful, however, that I had made a good picture. I would not know for sure until I got back to the photo lab and developed the film.
I stayed for awhile at the site. As explosions occurred, I'd occasionally hear things whizzing and whistling above. After being there for close to an hour, law enforcement ordered me and all the onlookers – some with children – to over a mile away from the tracks.
The photo ran on front pages of Sunday morning newspapers across the country: I have clips with the shot from the San Francisco Examiner, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe and the Portland Oregonian.
With the intense focus of the Watergate scandal gripping the nation, even the Washington Post used the photo on its front page."
Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079. Follow him on Twitter @lindelofnews.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
Read more here: www.sacbee.com/2013/04/27/5375695/40-years-later-witnesses-recall.html#storylink=cpy
Maps:
focalplane.com/EssPee%20Maps/EsspeeThumbnails.html
"The San Ramon Valley Branch of the Southern Pacific entered service in 1891 to serve the abundant agriculture interests of the San Ramon Valley. The line extended from the SP's West Side line at Avon south through Concord, Walnut Creek, Danville, San Ramon, and Alamo. In 1909 it was extended to the original Central Pacific transcontinental railroad alignment through the Livermore Valley at Radum. This part of Contra Costa County never realized industrial development to support use of the railroad beyond a secondary branch line, and much of the area was developed into a residential area with single family homes. By the mid-1970s, the southern section of the branch was used for surplus car storage, and the line was abandoned in 1978.
Today (2004), most of the line has been converted to a bike trail, the very popular Iron Horse Trail. Most of the right-of-way can be easily followed south of Concord. The Danville and Walnut Creek depots have been preserved, although both have been moved short distances from their original locations. The line's undercrossing of Interstate 580 in Dublin is now part of a major transit center for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system and local bus lines. In Walnut Creek, just south of Ygnacio Valley Road, a through truss bridge of 1923 vintage serves to support the bike trail (see photo at right). At Dublin, spur tracks into the former Santa Rita federal depot still remain (also at right). The northernmost portion of the branch is still intact and visible at Avon, although completely within the confines of a Valero oil refinery.
Thanks to Jack Witthaus and Richard Brennan for contributing information about this route.
Historic ICC Abandonment Filings
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
Docket Number: AB 12 Sub 39 Date: 7/13/1976 Section: 1a
Application filed for authority to abandon a line of railroad extending from MP 42.6 near Concord in a southerly direction to the end of the branch at MP 63.5 near Dougherty a distance of 20.9 miles in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, California. (This includes stations of Hookston, Las Juntas, Walnut Creek, Alama and Danville.)
Length: 20.9 miles Citation:
Other Sites and Information
History of the San Ramon Branch Line
Add your comments
Comments
I witnessed the tearing up of the tracks in Danville when I was in junior high school. It was a sad day. The town has never been the same, its now pure suburbian hell.
Jim Alberti
Billings, MT
1/24/2009
____________________
I was fortunate enough to see one train run on the line, in '76 or '77, as my dad's apartment complex in Walnut Creek backed up to the line. I think it was just an SW-1500 and a few boxcars.
I do have to take issue, however, with Mr. Alberti's savaging of the town of Danville - a very lovely town, if you ask me (and its many thousands of residents). Perhaps a bit materialistic and conformist for disillusioned youth, but to say "the town has never been the same" since some railroad tracks that were hardly ever used were removed is a bit of a stretch, if you ask me.
Steve McLin
Walnut Creek, CA
4/27/2010
____________________
I used to live in the apartments (Amador Lakes) that backed up to the line in Dublin. There was a Kodak plant or warehouse just south of Alcosta Blvd. that saw activity as late as 1985-86, possibly later. I worked in underground construction and we had to be very cognizant of the ROW and call for permission if we were to cross it or encroach in any manner. I have some pix somewhere of whats left of the wye near Radon where SP had to cross WP to access their Sunol-Livermore line. I'll dig 'em up and post them soon...
MC
Mark C
Oroville, CA
7/30/2010
Ojai Branch
This branch line was originally constructed in the 1890s as the Ventura and Ojai Valley Railroad, and was purchased by SP within a few years. (Ojai is pronounced OH-hi.) Most customers were citrus growers and other agricultural businesses.
This line branched off the SP Coast Line at Ventura Junction, which is just west of the existing Amtrak platform at Ventura. The line extended north along the Ventura River, through Chrisman, Wedstrom, Ortonville and Nitroshell to Mira Monte. At Mira Monte the line turned east to the end of the line at Ojai. The northern portion of the branch was abandoned by 1975; the southern part might have lasted a few years longer.
The right-of-way, now owned by the city of Ventura, is easily traced today, as much of it has been converted to a bicycle trail, called the "Ojai Valley Trail" and the "Ventura River Trail".
Frank Maxim provides a Notice of Interim Trail Use filed with the STB for a portion of the line.
Historic ICC Abandonment Filings
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
Docket Number: 25839 Date: 9/2/1969 Section: 1(18)
Application for authority to abandon that portion of its Ojai Branch, Los Angeles Division, between Mile Post 402.68, at or near Canet, and the end of the line at Mile Post 412.42, at Ojai, a distance of 9.74 miles, together with spur tracks, sidings and appurtenances, all within the County of Ventura, State of California.
Length: 9.74 miles Citation:
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
Docket Number: AB-12 Sub No 151 Date: 10/30/1995 Section: 0
Southern Pacific Transportation Company filed a notice of exemption to abandon 5.38 miles of its Ventura Branch from milepost 397.3, at or near Ventura Junction rail station, to milepost 402.68, at or near the Canet rail station, in Ventura County, CA.
Length: 5.38 miles Citation:
Add your comments
Comments
This past weekend I had the oppertunity to review the abandoned remains of the Ojai branch, there are perhaps 100 feet of of rails remaining near the Stanley Ave. crossing as well, though the crossing is marked,no rails are present, this short section terminates in the parking lot of a large plant of some type, I suspect switch work may still be present embedded in the pavement.To the north one can follow the former ROW up to the freeway embankment. Of additonal interest to me at least, I believe I have located several former packing houses in various states of preservation. I will be back area soon and investigate further
Dave Forsyth
Los Angeles
6/24/2009
____________________
The Ojai Branch lasted in service until at least 1990, up to above Canet at MP 407.1. The rest of the branch was isolated account of the torrential rains that hit Southern California in early 1969, which washed out a bridge. Due to the decline in reefer traffic from Ojai, SP decided not to rebuild the bridge and petitioned for abandonment. The north end of the branch was also an operational nightmare, due to its 3+% grades coming down the canyon. In the '80s, there was a small shipper in a brick building right at the junction which would take a boxcar or two now and then until the switch was removed. The large citrus packing house a block further up the line was also a large shipper in early years, and was served by street trackage. The old Shell refinery further up the line was a big receiver of crude oil and shipper of refined products until it closed in the '70s.
DeserTBoB
Lancaster, CA
4/13/2010
____________________
I was Assistant Trainmaster at Oxnard in 1973 when an accident occurred on the Ventura Branch, killing two of our crewmen, an engineer and conductor (I do not remember their names). Cause of this was kids releasing handbrakes on 62 ft. propane tank cars at Canet (refinery) which began rolling south toward Ventura and junction with Coast Mainline. The Gaviota Local was working upgrade on North side of Ventura when cars ran into locomotive (likely at speed of 50+ mph) destroying 2500 class EMD SW 1500 switcher. Crewmen were killed by exposure to propane which poured from ruptured tank cars. Had the local NOT been present the cars would have rocketed through Ventura, over grade crossings, and likely derailed at high speed, a horrible eventuality. The refinery was a regular customer of the railroad, shipping and receiving about a dozen cars a week, the biggest remaining customer on this branch. I would have loved riding this line into Ojai itself but I arrived on the scene too late, following 1960s floods and washouts of this poorly and inexpensively engineered line.
Bob Oliver
Webster City, IA
2/5/2012
____________________
I am searching for names and contact info for any Conductors who ran trains from Ventura to ojai during the 40's to the 60s'.
JP Pluim
Ventura, CA
3/3/2012
____________________
The engineer that was killed was Tony Emanuel from San Luis Obispo. He was "Burned" (frozen) by the gas. I was the BLE Local Chairman and we had just got the job from the San Joaquin Engineers on a miles owed basis. I worked the job for the first 3 days to see what it entailed then Tony bumped me and bid in the job. One of the days I worked the job we were up the branch switching out tank cars and got a car hung up on a switch and we were stuck behind it. With our caboose down on the main at the Jct so we had to "pole" the car in the clear and get back down the hill. Those kids that killed Tony and that conductor got a slap on their hands and that was it. Wouldn't even let the SP attorneys into the hearing.
Also, the last PFE shippers on the line were talked into a packing house that SP built for them at Santa Susana. That way nobody was left on the branch so they didn't have to rebuild it. You could see the right of way up towards the east switch (70s) that had been staked out and fenced off for years, heading north. Nothing ever came of it.
Nudge
Medford, OR
6/5/2012
____________________
Just a quick correction to Dave Forsyths picture descriptions (and humble because I think his contribution is one of the more complete and informative branch photo essays on this awesome site!), the trackage did not run down Olive street but immediately alongside it. You can in fact clearly see the last part of the curving rails coming off the SP mainline before it straightened to run alongside Olive in the latest HD Satelite photos (Aug 6, 2012) on Google maps (look at the highest magnification and the 1st person view and you can easily see it in front of the Great Pacific Iron Works building, which I also believe is one of the former packing houses looking at the architecture!). BTW, I researched this myself more to confirm my own memories of the line than as a correction. I do vaguely remember thinking I saw some very short street trackage on the line but it was up near the refinery much further down the line in the outskirts/boondocks of town.
Humbly submitted . . .
Dave Grund
Ventura, CA
8/7/2012
____________________
Back in Oct. 1968, what was then Orange Empire Trolley Museum sponsored a fan trip to Ojai. We had an ABA set of FP units, an assortment of SP cars, and OETM's Canadian Pacific Mountain Observation Car 599. The first part of the trip was on the Burbank Branch, with a photo stop where the PE shared track, and then up the Coast Line to Ojai. Getting the train switched for the return trip in the rather cramped yard at Ojai was a bit of railroading the likes of which you probably won't see these days. As I recall, the trip was on Oct. 12, so the theme was "Discover Ojai". I took movies of this excursion, which turned out to be a "never-to-be-repeated" bit of "rare mileage".
Bob Davis
San Gabriel, CA
1/10/2013
__________________
Historic ICC Abandonment Filings
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
Docket Number: AB 12 Sub 51 Date: 10/19/1976 Section: 1a
Application filed for authority to abandon a line of railroad extending from MP 104.37 near Citrus in a northerly direction to the end of the branch at MP 106.36 near Fair Oaks, a distance of 1.99 miles in Sacramento County, Calif.
Length: 1.99 miles Citation:
Add your comments
Comments
The Fair Oaks depot was on the south side of the American River, adjacent to the highway bridge across the river to the town of Fair Oaks. In 1958 my family moved to Fair Oaks and there was still a little fruit production activity in town, maybe some shipped out via the railroad? Sometime in the 60's the area from the River to Highway 50 (south) began to be developed for residential and office park use. I don't know what year the railroad no longer ran on that line, but my memory doesn't recall any active service at that time.
There was a large PCA rock crushing operation (using old gold dredge tailing piles) nearby on that side of the river but I believe all the aggregate was trucked out for freeway construction - the plant was running 24 hours a day for some years in the late 50's /early 60's.
Mike Beehler
Olympia/Lacey area, WA
3/10/2012
____________________
The aggregates operation was last run by Lone Star Industries in the mid-1970s. They did ship out rock and gravel material by rail, and had a small 4-wheeled diesel and a GE 45-ton centercab to switch cars in their facility.
lynn powell
Stockton, CA
4/8/2012
____________________
It's mostly a bike trail now. A little bit of rail still exists (or did until very recently) near the far south end. Grade crossing at Folsom Blvd stayed until light rail was built 2005ish.
Mike B
Folsom, CA
11/29/2012
____________________
40 years later, witnesses recall dramatic railyard explosions
By Bill Lindelof
blindelof@sacbee.com
Published: Saturday, Apr. 27, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
Last Modified: Sunday, Apr. 28, 2013 - 11:42 am
Scott Nutter was there as a 13-year-old boy, sleeping soundly on a Saturday like many a teenager when his parents' Antelope home was rocked by tremendous explosions.
Dick Schmidt, a Sacramento Bee photographer, was initially not there, but once he heard of the explosions he drove toward them.
That was 40 years ago Sunday. On April 28, 1973, in the Southern Pacific Railroad yard in Antelope, thousands of bombs headed for the Vietnam War on 18 rail cars blew up.
Buildings were destroyed and people were injured in the series of shattering explosions that began about 8 a.m.
The blasts continued through the following day.
"One explosion threw me out of bed onto the floor," said Phoebe Astill, curator of the Roseville Carnegie Museum, which has one of the split-open bombs in its collection. "I thought an airplane headed to McClellan Air Force Base had crashed."
Astill calls it a traumatic event in Roseville's history. Here are firsthand remembrances of the momentous day from Nutter, who is retired from the mortgage industry, and Schmidt, who is retired from The Bee.
SCOTT NUTTER
"I was a typical 13-year-old boy on that Saturday morning – asleep.
My mom was up cleaning the house early as she always did on Saturdays. My dad was up as well. As he heard the bombs going off, he told my mom, 'If I was back in WWII, I'd swear those were bombs.'
Then, every item in our cupboards – plates, cans, glasses – went flying across the room. The force was such that the windows facing south imploded.
I was now awake. 'Get out of the house!' my Dad screamed.
I scrambled outside and went around to the front of the house to see a huge mushroom cloud.
We got into the car as fast as possible. My mom, the bookkeeper at the Roseville Press Tribune, had keys to the office, so that is where we went.
Unlike today when information is so prevalent, we sat by the AP wire machine trying to get info. We also had access to some scanners.
The owner of the Press Tribune was in Los Angeles. She arranged for us to stay at her house that night.
The next day, Sunday, we went to see if we had a house standing anymore. After some talking, we were let through a roadblock.
Our house survived. Other homes had either been flattened or burned. A large spring from a railroad car that exploded a little over a quarter mile away had landed on the hood of one of our cars at the house.
I told my dad, 'Cool, I want this.' He said, 'Go ahead, pick it up.' I could not even budge it. It was that heavy.
Though still intact, the concussion of the blast shattered all of the rafters in the house. The house ended up being condemned and it was bulldozed in the months afterward.
The railroad, Southern Pacific, was extremely fair. This was in a time before ATMs. And banks were closed on weekends. We were able to get a stipend from SP that very weekend for living expenses. They compensated us for damages in a few weeks.
The money they gave us was more than we could have gotten in sale for the house and 10 acres. Many families spent years in litigation.
I rarely go out there to the old property anymore. The land around it has been developed with tract housing.
April 28, 1973, was the luckiest day of my life. None of my family was hurt, and it allowed me to move into town and make new friends."
DICK SCHMIDT
"I was working an early shift on Saturday morning and en route to Cal Expo to cover an event in the horse arena when I heard something on the police scanner about reports of explosions in the Roseville area. Then I turned the car radio to KFBK, where news breaks said the station was receiving phoned-in reports of explosions or maybe an earthquake.
I decided to drive toward Roseville on speculation. On the way, I heard more radio reports about a train carrying bombs that was on fire at the Southern Pacific's switchyard.
Nearing the area on I-80, I could see dark smoke in the sky and took the Antelope Road exit.
I pulled over and, afraid I would miss something, grabbed just one camera without a motor drive, and a 200 mm lens. I ran about a quarter mile to a rise in an open field, which these days is covered with homes.
From there, I had a view of the Antelope switchyard a few hundred yards away, a good vantage point for photos.
I stood for a while watching the smoke rise and bombs explode before a huge fireball rose into the sky. Individual bombs exploding were not that distinctive at this distance, just quick flashes in lots of dark smoke.
But this fireball was different. It was amazingly large and delivered a tremendous shock wave at me.
On seeing the first of these, I overreacted, and shot too early. By the time I advanced the film for a second try, the mushroom fireball had turned to lingering smoke.
A bit later, when the next car exploded, I knew a mushroom cloud would build upward and higher like the one I miscalculated earlier.
This time I exercised old-fashioned photographic discipline. I didn't have a motor drive to simply make many pictures quickly so I waited a couple seconds for it to build to its peak. My patience paid off and I got my shot – at least I thought I did.
After I got that shot, I hurriedly tried a second shot, advancing the film manually. However, I failed to capture much.
I was hopeful, however, that I had made a good picture. I would not know for sure until I got back to the photo lab and developed the film.
I stayed for awhile at the site. As explosions occurred, I'd occasionally hear things whizzing and whistling above. After being there for close to an hour, law enforcement ordered me and all the onlookers – some with children – to over a mile away from the tracks.
The photo ran on front pages of Sunday morning newspapers across the country: I have clips with the shot from the San Francisco Examiner, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe and the Portland Oregonian.
With the intense focus of the Watergate scandal gripping the nation, even the Washington Post used the photo on its front page."
Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079. Follow him on Twitter @lindelofnews.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
Read more here: www.sacbee.com/2013/04/27/5375695/40-years-later-witnesses-recall.html#storylink=cpy
Maps:
focalplane.com/EssPee%20Maps/EsspeeThumbnails.html
):
