The Valley Division of the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...
ran from
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
to
Barstow in California. It is now part of the
BNSF Railway's
Stockton Subdivision and
Bakersfield Subdivision.
[Santa Fe Salute Part 2](_blank)
Daylight Productions (video), Retrieved 23 February 2021
Much of the line, south to
Bakersfield, was constructed in the 1890s as part of the
San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad
The San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad was a California rail line between Stockton and Bakersfield constructed in the late 1890s and very shortly thereafter purchased by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad and became their Val ...
.
The Valley Division and Los Angeles Division were merged into the "California Division" in 1988.
However, by 1995 it had been recreated an contained four subdivisions:
* Bakersfield (Bakersfield to Calwa);
* Stockton (Calwa to Richmond);
* Riverbank (Riverbank to Oakdale);
* Sunset Railway (Gosford to Taft); and most of a fifth,
* Mojave (Hutt to Bakersfield, with trackage rights on Southern Pacific's Tahachapi line).
Spurs
Fresno Interurban District: In the
Fresno
Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...
area, a spur known as the Fresno Interurban District ran from Fresno to the east. The stations on that spur were Hammond, Cincotta, Bartonette, Cameo, Burness, Fairview, Big Bunch, Zediker, Riverbend, Elk, and Belmont Ave.
The
Tulare Valley Railroad
The Tulare Valley Railroad () was operational from December 22, 1992 after acquiring several former Santa Fe Railway branch lines in California's San Joaquin Valley on October 20, 1992. The company was formed by Morris Kulmer & Kern Schumucher ...
acquired the tracks from Hammond to Cameo around 1992.
Laton and Western Railroad: South of Frenso, a line from
Laton west to
Lanare was constructed from 1910-12. An abandonment application for the line, approximately 17.56 miles, was filed in 1980. Other stations on the spur, running west from Laton, were Shirley, Gepford, and Shilling.
Arvin Subdivision: A 17-mile spur from Magunden to
Arvin
Arvin is a city in Kern County, California. Arvin is located southeast of Bakersfield, at an elevation of . As of the 2010 census, the population was 19,304, up from 12,956 at the 2000 census.
In 2007, the United States Environmental Protec ...
, acquired by the
Tulare Valley Railroad
The Tulare Valley Railroad () was operational from December 22, 1992 after acquiring several former Santa Fe Railway branch lines in California's San Joaquin Valley on October 20, 1992. The company was formed by Morris Kulmer & Kern Schumucher ...
in 1992, and later the
San Joaquin Valley Railroad
The San Joaquin Valley Railroad is one of several short line railroad companies and is part of the Pacific Region Division of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It operates over about of owned or leased track primarily on several lines in California's C ...
References
{{reflist, 2
California railroads
Companies operating former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway lines