Nostalgia & History > Santa Maria Valley Railroad California 1964

It's early summer 1964 and fellow railroader "Doc Jones" and myself find ourselves at Santa Maria, California enjoying the action provided by the Santa Maria Valley Railroad (SMVRR).  The SMVRR interchanged with the Southern Pacific at Guadalupe, California providing the SPRR with a great amount of revenue associated with perishable products, including fresh strawberries that rode in Railway Express (REA) reefers and were picked up at Guadalupe by the Coast Mail Train.  Small GE locomotives were the locomotives of choice on the SMVRR during this timeframe.  The SMVRR continues to exist even today, but most of the perishable business is now handled by trucks and the Betteravia beets, which were also interchanged from the SPRR to the SMVRR at Guadalupe, are just a memory.  Enjoy the action at Santa Maria!

Pete
Clio, California

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A couple more...

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Cool shots.I think this downtown trackage has been removed?Thanks for the post.Bill Webb

Very interesting pictures.  The top one is kind of an odd couple view.  Love the bottom showing all the industries without which there's no need for the railroad.

I took a photo of the extended vision caboose #210 in 2006 at Guadalupe station.  It came from the Rutland in Vermont!

I failed to point out the water spout in the bottom picture immediately adjacet to the REA Express Reefers.

Super set - Interesting scenes.
Bob

Interesting stuff- I wasn't aware of the interchange with the Coast Mail.  Very cool.
If I recall, the #60 was an export version of the 70-tonner.   Seems to me I heard the 60 was intended for Viet Nam and never made it.  Does anyone know if this is right?  
SR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/21 15:01 by BoilingMan.

Very enjoyable series!

Larry

BoilingMan Wrote:
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> Interesting stuff- I wasn't aware of the
> interchange with the Coast Mail.  Very cool.
> If I recall, the #60 was an export version of the
> 70-tonner.   Seems to me I heard the 60 was
> intended for Viet Nam and never made it.  Does
> anyone know if this is right?  
> SR
I don't think the 60 missed out on being exported, but was simply the type of unit available when SMV wanted another one that size. The Hampton & Branchville RR in South Carolina bought two of them to go with their 70-tonner (although they later got an SW1000). Two similar narrow-gauge units ran for years on the US Gypsum railroad at Plaster City, CA.