The Riverdale Branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) was a branch line serving the San Joaquin Valley's agricultural area southwest of

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 ...

. The 42 mile line ran from a connection with the Southern Pacific's West Side Line at Ingle, California and then ran southeast through Burrel, Riverdale beyond which it also connected to the Caruthers Branch of the SP. From Riverdale it continued Southeast to Hardwick then south to Armona where it connected to SP's

Coalinga Coalinga ( or ) is a city in Fresno County and the western San Joaquin Valley, in central California about 80 miles (128 km) southeast of Salinas. It was formerly known as ''Coaling Station A'', ''Coalingo'', and ''Coalinga Station''. Th ...

Branch.

Construction of the branch line

The Riverdale Branch was built between August 1910 and July 1911 under SP's non-operating subsidiary, the Hanford and Summit Lake Railway. SP operated the line and on October 9, 1917, the line was sold to the SP. SP operated the line as the Riverdale Branch. Grading commenced to the northwest from Hardwick on August 22, 1910 and rails reached Riverdale one month later. At the other end of the line, construction began at Ingle and built southwest towards Riverdale; by February 1912 5 miles of track was completed between Ingle and Traquility. The SP then began operating on these two ends of the line. The final and middle section of track, between Tranquility and Riverdale, was completed on April 14, 1912. The track between Hardwick and Riverdale was abandoned by the SP in 1952. SP later abandoned the track between Riverdale and Burrel. SP sold the 25.2 mile line between Ingle and Burrell to Kyle Railway's subsidiary,

Port Railroads Port Railroads, Inc. was a shortline railroad owned by Kyle Railways. PRI was formed on March 13, 1994, to take over two Southern Pacific Railroad lines. One of SP's lines was the ''West Side Line'' (47.8 miles) between Fresno northwest to ...

(PRI), on March 13, 1994. On April 26, 1996, the PRI was sold by Kyle Railways to 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 ...

. Originally, the Hanford & Summit Lake Railway proposed to build en electric railroad from Hanford through Grangeville and Hardwick and back through Lemoore and Armona with an extension to Laton. The track between Hardwick and Armona was constructed during a different time period, likely before 1912.

Route

* Ingle (Connection with SP's West Side Line) *

Tranquility Tranquillity (also spelled tranquility) is the quality or state of being tranquil; that is, calm, serene, and worry-free. The word tranquillity appears in numerous texts ranging from the religious writings of Buddhism, where the term ''passaddhi'' ...

* San Joaquin *

Helm Helm may refer to: Common meanings * a ship's steering mechanism; see tiller and ship's wheel * another term for helmsman * an archaic term for a helmet, used as armor Arts and entertainment * Matt Helm, a character created by Donald Hamilton * ...

Burrel Burrel (alternate forms ''Burrel'', ''Mat'') is a town in northern Albania, 91 km from Tirana. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision and the seat of the municipality Mat. It was the seat of the former District of Mat. ...

* Riverdale * Hub * Hardwick (Connection with SP's Caruthers Branch) * Grangeville * Armona (Connection with SP's Coalinga Branch)

References

* * *{{cite book , author=Walker, Mike, title=Steam Powered Video's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America - California and Nevada , edition=Post Merger, location=Faversham, Kent, United Kingdom , publisher=Steam Powered Publishing, year=1997, isbn=1-874745-08-0 Rail lines in California Southern Pacific Railroad Transportation in Fresno County, California Transportation in Kings County, California