Nostalgia & History > A Rare TVRR trip to Tulare

The fate of the Santa Fe Branch lines in the Visalia-Tulare area soon became obvious after the TVRR took over.  The majority owership of the TVRR by a salvage company was evident quickly.  On 05-19-93 a trip was made to Tulare and north of SH 198 in Visalia which was one of the last if not the last to both these locations.

1. SJVR 103 with lady trainperson
2. SJVR 103 passing through Early California Foods processing plant in Visalia, CA
3. SJVR 103 in Tulare, CA

Don Bowen
Saint Helena, CA

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4. SJVR 103 in Tulare
5. SJVR 103 after a run around ready to spot a car of steel and pick up an autorack
5. SJVR 103 returning to Visalia

Don Bowen
Saint Helena, CA

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7. SJVR 103 crossing SH 198 in Visalia, CA
8. SJVR 103 in Visalia to pick up 3 empty rebar gondolas from a pool construction company.
9. TVRR GM Fred Krebs ans Connie.

Don Bowen
Saint Helena, CA

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10. SJVR 103 at the ATSF-SP Xing north of SH 198 in Visalia, CA
11. SJVR 103 pushing the 3 gondolas across SH 198
12. SJVR 103 South of SH 198

Don Bowen
Saint Helena, CA

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13., 14. SJVR getting ready to head back to Exeter

Don Bowen
Saint Helena, CA

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Is the ROW still there?

A single autorack?  Interesting...

Love the shots with the station signs.

Adam

To the question of it still being there and it's been a while since I've been there but,
last time I saw it the access was still through the "vat yard" as in the second picture
and ran another couple miles South to station Loma which was an inbound chemical
shipper. The shots are extremely rare, I doubt they ran to Tulare more than a few times
before the line was cut back. At one spot on the line there was a siding right into the
front yard of a house, no explaination ever found.

Out

I will try to answer the questions as best I can.  This ATSF track in Visalia  and Tulare is part of the Visalia Sub which extended between Calwa and Corcoran.  The track was removed between Corcoran and Loma which is where Ave. 256 interesects with the ATSF.  The track from the connecting track to the SP Visalia Branch at Early California Foods  in south Visalia to almost Calwa has been removed by the salvage company.  To the victor go the spoils. As for the solo autorack; there was a truck body company in Tulare who got truck chassis by rail.  The SJVR was able to have the autoracks delivered to Calwa and the chassis were transported to Tulare from Exeter via truck and trailer.

Don Bowen
Saint Helena, CA

Was the truck body factory in Tulare Grumman-Olsen?  One of their big customers was UPS.  I remember driving to Tulare for some work at the Edison San Joaquin service center, and seeing the factory with storage drums outside.  My colleague suspected that the labels on the drums read "Ugly Brown Paint". A more pleasant business was across the street from the SCE yard--Haagen-Das Ice Cream.  One of our crew members was about to retire, and, knowing his love of ice cream, we suggested that he get a job there as a part-time taste-tester.  Bringing it back to trains, didn't the ATSF line in Tulare run by the Edison Tulare Substation?

Yes, the truck body company was Grumman-Olsen.  I really don't know very much about the ATSF route through Tulare except that it came from the southwest and Corcoran.

Don Bowen
Saint Helena, CA

Santa Fe was pretty much parallel to Cross St through Tulare, wasn't Haggen-Daz well South of there in the
industrial park off 99? That was served by the SP. I'm trying to remember where the SCE sub was, doesn't
ring a bell.

Out

Great stuff Don as always


I believe the spur into a  persons yard or property was called Higby. I posted the ATSF local passing by that location a couple of weeks ago. Towards the end of Santa Fe operations the train was a side trip for the Bakersfield-Corcoan Turn.


The last train (SJVR) I saw in Tulare was 10/08/1993  with GP28 # 1825 and 2 covered hoppers.



Jay