Nostalgia & History > Shortline Sunday

Some of the advantages of being a outside salesrep for a company was traveling all over the back roads and main roads in California {yes I did have a company car ). After being picked as the successor to a territory covering the San Fernando Valley to Paso Robles and the San Joaquin Valley as far as Lodi I saw and took many  mainly  Kodachrome and some Ektachrome  slides in my territory, all trains and RR buildings that still stood at the time.

#1 When I got to Oxnard to see my accounts it was not far from the Ventura County Railway. Unfortunatly this day I had a roll of B&W film in the camera January of 1982
#2 I followed the Santa Maria Valley RR and finally got it pulling a load of Beets right past the refinery and ready to shove them for unloading. I took this on Thanksgiving weekend 1980.  I was never fond of that lead loco but it was unique !
#3 After my sales call in Jackson, Calif. I drove back down the hill to Lodi through Martel and Ione. This guy was just getting ready to spot the Lumber Mill in Martel.  October 22, 1991

That's  my selection for Shortline Sunday, hope you have found interesting and THANKS for looking


Jay

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Thanks for posting these. Short lines with interesting power are welcome. My favorite is number three with the Amador Central Baldwin.
Bob

Great photos Jay! I like the Amador Central shot as well, always one of my favorite shortlines.

Chris Medland
Victoria, BC
My Flickr photos

Great stuff Jay. That SMV unit was built for export and close clearances so has a really low cab. A former SMV engineer friend told me the wheels on the trucks could be adjusted to narrow gauge too . Is that possible ?   I used to layover in Santa Maria while working the Guadalupe hauler out of Gemco and also the sugar beet trains when the crews were assigned to them in the 1990 campaign and would ride with the SMV  crew when I had a chance.   I had Jivey jack for the conductor and Danny Nagle for the conductor on the beets.  I forgot the name of  the SMV engineer but he was an old head SP steam guy who got canned and worked the SMV while waiting for his sentence to run out. A real nice and colorful character. 
Thanks again Jay for ALL  the stuff you post !!
Tom

Probably the best time that AMC #9 looked good. BY the mid 90's a scorch mark on the hood from the hot turbo burned the paint and eventually turned to rust. Several years later AMC #9 would be robbed of valuable parts for AMC #10 and #9 would be de-trucked. Not too long after that she was scrapped for good.

First up AMC #9 around mid-90's...
2nd AMC #9 January 2000...

SV

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