Nostalgia & History > Sunmaid Tower in the Good Old(er) Days

Here we see SP Alco S-4 # 1473 westbound across the ATSF Valley Divison mainline at Sun Maid Tower on a fine March, 1964 afternoon. This might have been a returning Strathmore or Ivanhoe Local or just another "city job" switcher sent forth from Fresno Yard to work the myriad industries then producing carload freight in the southern reaches of Fresno, California. The tower is long gone, but the crossing is busy to this day, hosting BNSF and Amtrak action competing with 1473's successors on the San Joaquin Valley Railroad. The 1473 was renumbered 1801 in 1965 and was unceremoniously retired in 1972. I am not sure exactly when the tower was removed, but I believe it was gone by 1970. Mr. Sweetser, any clues? Photo by Eric Frodsham.

John

---

Lone Star Wrote:
> I am not sure exactly when the
> tower was removed, but I believe it was gone by
> 1970. Mr. Sweetser, any clues?

Gustafson & Serpico's _Santa Fe Depots - the Valley Division_ say it was automated June 15, 1962. Don't know how long the building remained after that.

Hi Evan,

If the Tower was automated in '62, I would think the train order boards would have been removed. The blades on the ATSF side look to be missing lenses, but the SP side still looks functional and active. I don't think Eric began shooting photos until '64, so I'm not sure what to think, date-wise.

John

Did someone mention my name?

Gustafson & Serpico's date is probably correct.

Here is what I've gleaned from SP and Santa Fe timetables or special instructions:

Southern Pacific San Joaquin Division Timetable 196, Oct. 28, 1962 lists Sunmaid Tower as a train order office on the Porterville branch but that is probably incorrect for this time due to the timetable not being properly updated (branch lines in the timetable probably got less attention than the main line portions).

Southern Pacific San Joaquin Division Special Instructions No. 12, Sept. 16, 1962 on pg. 7 states: "Fresno and Sunmaid Towers: AT&SF Railway crossings. Interlocking is part of the AT&SF Ry CTC system and operation of crossing is under the control of AT&SF Ry train dispatcher."

Santa Fe Valley Division Time Table No. 7, April 29, 1962 lists Sunmaid Tower as a station on the Second District and as an office of communiction.

Santa Fe Valley Division Time Table No. 8, Oct. 28, 1962 only describes the location as "S.P. Crossing" with no office of communication listed.

Lone Star wrote:

>The blades on the ATSF side look to be missing
lenses, but the SP side still looks functional and
active.


I can't see any details of the Santa Fe signal since I have only thumbnails available to me here. I think it would be odd for a semaphore train order signal to have a semaphore arm in place but its associated lenses removed.

But apparently it's not so odd to have a both a missing arm and missing lenses on a signal. In looking at photos of Calwa Tower in "Valley Division Vignettes," SP's northbound (westward) semaphore train order signal appears to have missing lenses along with a missing arm (for the SP, Calwa was a TO office for only southbound trains).

Regarding the removal of Sunmaid Tower, when I rode the Golden Gate and the San Francisco Chief through Fresno in 1965, I don't recall seeing it.

JohnSweetser Wrote:

> I can't see any details of the Santa Fe signal
> since I have only thumbnails available to me here.
> I think it would be odd for a semaphore train
> order signal to have a semaphore arm in place but
> its associated lenses removed.

The lenses that are missing on the Santa Fe TO signal are what would have been the "yellow" lenses. Santa Fe didn't use the yellow indication, so on most of their semaphore-style TO signals, the yellow lens was either missing or the hole was filled with a metal blank.

Thanks for posting this. Have you any other pix around Calwa and Fresno? I've been trying to find some more in that area, with little luck. Thanks again.

Evan_Werkema wrote:

>The lenses that are missing on the Santa Fe TO
signal are what would have been the "yellow" lenses. Santa Fe didn't use the yellow indication..


Eric Frodsham's photo is also printed on pg. 164 of Gustafson & Serpico's "Coast Lines Depots, Valley Division." After studying the photo in this book, I don't think that the lenses in on the Santa Fe signal - which would have been green lenses - are missing at all. In the three books of SP depot photos that were published by the SP Historical & Technnical Society, I notice that the green lenses of semaphore TO signals often appear a similar shade as the sky background in the black and white photos, which could mislead one into thinking that lenses were missing.

Whiskers73 wrote:

>Have you any other pix around Calwa and Fresno? I've been trying to find some more in that area, with little luck.


"Valley Division Vignettes" has photos taken at Fresno and Calwa, including views of Fresno Tower, Sunmaid Tower and Calwa Tower. There are interior shots of both Sunmaid and Calwa towers.

Photos of the Santa Fe's various passenger, freight and tower buildings in Fresno and Calwa can be found on five pages in "Coast Lines Depots, Valley Division."

Bob Morris Photography's website had five photos taken of Santa Fe freight action and one photo of passenger action at Calwa in the early '60s. Go to the Other Railroads part of his site, then Santa Fe freight B&W photos and Santa Fe passenger B&W photos.