Nostalgia & History > ATSF PAs in Minkler,California

May 22, 1966 and an Orange Empire Trolley Museum rare miles fan trip is moving through Minkler in the San Joaquin Valley of California.  The Santa Fe had already starting moving to abandon the line.

Photos Elmer K Hall, my collection

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wow, i have never heard of minkler before.

great images.............

66

Holy Cow!

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

Would this have been on the branch that went to Reedley?

TJY

True historic photographic rarities!
Bob

Love that second photo!

Posted from iPhone

I was on that excursion.  Great photos and memories.

Wow, those big PAs look out of place on that branch line!

Great photos,

Rich

Minkler was on the 16.9-mile-long branch that went northeasterly to Piedra from Reedley. The track from about a mile northeast of Minker to Piedra (roughly 7 miles) had been abandoned in 1965 and was taken up only months before the excursion was run.

The excursion train backed up the branch to the end of track, which was basically in the middle of nowhere, then went forward to return to Reedley.

Minkler was the starting point of the Minkler Southern Railway Co., incorporated by the Santa Fe in 1913 to build the line south from there via Orange Cove, Exeter, Porterville and eventually to Bakersfield (using SP trackage rights between Ducor and Oil Jct.).

Orange Empire's flyer for this trip (just the first page) can be seen in a post made 15 years ago by MyfordBrowning titled "A 60's Fan Trip."

Posted from iPhone



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/20 15:31 by johnsweetser.

Why was the crewman in the second photo throwing a switch? I can't remember any maneuvers made at Minkler.

The track curving to the right in the second photo may be the start of the line to Orange Cove. Trip organizers wanted to run the excusion via Orange Cove but it wasn't feasible due to the track being blocked by stored cars.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/20 15:56 by johnsweetser.

All the thanks for these excursion go to Ed and Mary Lee Von Nordeck -- mundo here.

They ran some really great trips in the early years.

Watts local

wattslocal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All the thanks for these excursion go to Ed and
> Mary Lee Von Nordeck -- mundo here.
>
> They ran some really great trips in the early
> years.
>
> Watts local

Hopefully Ed will be able to dust off his memory and provide some details of that trip.

The thread with the flyer is here: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,926316

More photos can be seen in these old threads:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3745508
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4740106

Thanks for the additional photos - I hadn't seen any from all the way up in Minkler before.

MY mind is very foggy.

But have been wanting photo's of all the museum excursions that had been requested in the Gazetter for over a year.

These never turned up.