San Joaquin Valley Railroad
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The San Joaquin Valley Railroad is one of several
short line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...
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 Central Valley/
San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...
around
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 ...
and
Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's pop ...
. The SJVR has
trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may ...
over
Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...
(formerly Southern Pacific) between Fresno, Goshen, Famoso, Bakersfield and Algoso. The SJVR also operated for the Tulare Valley Railroad (TVRR) from Calwa to Corcoran and Famoso. There were two former San Joaquin Valley Railroads. One was incorporated by Leland Stanford and Associates in 1868 to build an line from
Lathrop, California Lathrop is a city located south of Stockton in San Joaquin County, California, United States. The 2022 California Census reported that Lathrop's population was 30,659. The city is located in the San Joaquin Valley in Northern California at th ...
to the Stanislaus River and was consolidated in 1870 into the
Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the " First transcontinental railroad" in North America. Incor ...
. The second San Joaquin Valley Railroad operated from 1892 to 1893 between Fresno and Friant over of track and was sold at
foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mort ...
to the Southern Pacific. In 1991, the SJVR operated the entire former SP line from Fresno to Famoso, but a portion north of Famoso was later abandoned. SJVR interchanges with the
BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...
at Fresno and Bakersfield and with the Union Pacific at Fresno and Goshen Junction. SJVR was originally owned by Kyle Railways. In 1992, the SJVR was created to obtain and operate several branch lines from the Southern Pacific. From 1992 to 1997, the SJVR was owned by Kyle Railways. In 1997, SJVR's parent, Kyle Railways, was sold to States Rail. In 2002 SJVR's new parent, States Rail, was purchased by
RailAmerica RailAmerica, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida, was a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada. In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group. Before that, it ...
. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. controlled RailAmerica in December 2012. Today the SJVR remains a shortline within the Genesee & Wyoming family of railroads.


Lines operated by SJVR

:''Line names taken from CPUC data.'' * Fresno – Exeter – Strathmore (Exeter Subdivision; former SP) * Exeter – Goshen Jct. (Goshen Subdivision; former SP) * Goshen Jct. – Hanford – Huron (Hanford Subdivision; former SP) * Burrel – Helm – Tranquility – Ingle ( Riverdale Branch; former SP) * Oxalis – Mendota – Ingle – Kerman – Fresno (West Side Subdivision; former SP) * Fresno – Clovis (Clovis Subdivision; former AT&SF and SP) * Famoso – Hollis (North Joint Subdivision; former SP) * Maltha – Oil Jct. (Oil City Subdivision; former AT&SF/SP) * Oil Jct. – Landco (Landco Subdivision; former AT&SF) * Bakersfield – Gosford – Buttonwillow (Buttonwillow Subdivision; former SP) * Gosford – Millux (Sunset Subdivision; former
Sunset Railway Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spring ...
) * Algoso – Arvin ( Arvin Subdivision; former AT&SF/SP) *
Trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may ...
over UP from Fresno – Algoso (near Bakersfield) via Goshen Jct. (former SP)


History


West Side Line

This mainline route was formerly known as Southern Pacific's "West Side Line" and at one time extended from Tracy, California and then south through the West side of the San Joaquin Valley (I-5 corridor) via Patterson, Gustine, Newman, Los Banos, Oxalis and then east to Fresno via Ingle and Kerman. California Northern Railroad now operates the northern section of the line from Tracy - Los Banos. SJVR operates the southern section of the line from Oxalis to Fresno and was at one time owned by Port Railroads, Inc. (PRI; also a Kyle subsidiary) and operated by the SJVR. On April 24, 1996, the PRI was merged into the SJVR. Both the PRI and SJVR were already Kyle Railway subsidiaries. The section of track between Los Banos and Oxalis was abandoned by Southern Pacific in 1993 and the tracks were removed soon after. The Southern Pacific constructed the track from Tracy to Newman (37 miles) and from Los Banos to Armona (near Fresno) in 1891. Southern Pacific's overnight ''
Owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...
'' passenger train (#57/58) operated over this line between San Francisco and Los Angeles into 1965.


Exeter Subdivision

In 2008, the
Surface Transportation Board The Surface Transportation Board (STB) of the United States is a federal, bipartisan, independent adjudicatory board. The STB was established on January 1, 1996, to assume some of the regulatory functions that had been administered by the Interstat ...
approved the abandonment of the section of track between Strathmore and Jovista. This left the communities of Strathmore, Porterville, Terra Bella, Ducor, and Richgrove without any rail service. Tulare County has recently broken off negotiations with the SJVR to purchase this section of track to preserve it for future use and possible reactivation. However, beginning in September 2010, the tracks were being removed by the SJVR and the job was completed with the entire line having been pulled up in mid November. The future of this line is very much in doubt and with the rails having now been removed, it's extremely unlikely that trains will ever traverse that corridor again. As of March 2015, the SJVR has embargoed the line with the rails spiked at the south end of Exeter with some crossing signals south already having been partially dismantled. This section of track, which runs approximately 8 miles to Lindsay is now pending formal abandonment whereupon the rails are expected to be immediately pulled up upon STB approval. The sections from Exeter to Dinuba along with former ATSF track between Lindsay and Exeter were expected to follow given their poor condition and lack of use however as of April 2022 it has yet to happen.


Traffic

The railroad's main traffic sources are petroleum gas and agricultural products. In 2008, the SJVR hauled around 39,000 carloads.


Rolling stock

The railroad operates GP15-1s, GP40-2s, GP28s,
GP20 An EMD GP20 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division between November 1959 and April 1962. Power was provided by an EMD 567D2 16-cylinder turbocharged engine which generated . EMD was initially hesi ...
s, GP38s,
GP38-2 The EMD GP38-2 is an American four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division. Part of the EMD Dash 2 line, the GP38-2 was an upgraded version of the earlier GP38. Power is provided by an EMD 645E 16-cyl ...
s, BL20-2s, and SE24Bs.


See also

*
List of United States railroads About 700 railroads operate common carrier freight service in the United States. There are about of railroad track in the United States, nearly all standard gauge. Reporting marks are listed in parentheses. RailincSearch MARKs accessed Febru ...
* List of California railroads *
RailAmerica RailAmerica, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida, was a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada. In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group. Before that, it ...


References

*Edward A. Lewis, American Shortline Railway Guide 5th ed. (Kalmbach Publishing, 1996) *Mike Walker, SPV's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America - California/Nevada Post Merger Edition, (Steam Powered Publishing & SPV, 1997) Ownership and detail of rail lines.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:San Joaquin Valley Railroad California railroads Regional railroads in the United States RailAmerica Companies based in Tulare County, California Spin-offs of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company Transportation in Fresno County, California Transportation in Kern County, California Transportation in Kings County, California Transportation in Tulare County, California