Nostalgia & History > ?'s about the Stockton, Terminal & Eastern

Being in Stockton for Winterail got me to thinking about the ST&E during the late 1970's and early 1980's. I'm actually not talking about the Alco locomotive fleet, but instead the ST&E boxcar fleet. I remember seeing WP trains WPX and GGM heading east through Feather River Canyon and each train, especially in the summer, seemed to have 20-30 ST&E insulated(?) box cars.

Does anybody remember these cars? Where they indeed insulated box cars (used mostly for hauling canned goods)? I think they were painted dark red and stenciled "STE".

During this period of time did the ST&E actually service canneries in the Stockton area?

TIA

Allen

Still see lots of them on the QFRNPP, MRVNP, MNPRV, MNPST, and LRD96 trains.

Ron
http://www.railfanrails.com/

I can only remember two canneries served by ST&E, Tillie Lewis Foods on Waterloo Rd (still in business under different owners, and still served by ST&E) and another one about three miles east of Hwy 99 (now out of business). Many of the warehouses on the ST&E east of Hwy 99 were owned by Stockton Terminal Co. (owned by the Beard family, as is the ST&E) and were leased to canneries; they trucked their product from the cannery to the warehouse for storage and distribution. Those red boxcars have hauled one heck of a lot of canned goods in their day!

Up until fairly recently there were, I think, four canneries served by the STE. Del Monte is the last of the big ones.

The Del Monte cannery shut down two or three years ago, a victim of Stockton's high water rates. It was on what was the SP's Oakdale Branch. The short stretch of track that passed the cannery was sold to ST&E when the SP abandoned the branch. I don't remember seeing any cars for loading at Del Monte when the tracks were under ST&E ownership.

lynnpowell Wrote:
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> The Del Monte cannery shut down two or three years
> ago, a victim of Stockton's high water rates. It
> was on what was the SP's Oakdale Branch. The
> short stretch of track that passed the cannery was
> sold to ST&E when the SP abandoned the branch. I
> don't remember seeing any cars for loading at Del
> Monte when the tracks were under ST&E ownership.

You're quite right. I was thinking of Unilever/Ragu. Not quite the traditional cannery of old, but they do ship cans of tomato products.