Historical Santa Paula Branch operations

[Myfordbrowning]

On another board therewere somequestions about the SP operations on the Santa Paula Branch when there was still heavy reefer shipments from the packing houses.

I assume that between Montalvo and Piru was worked by locals from Oxnard. It was pointed out that most spurs to the packing houses had connections facingto the east and how did that affect switching on the line.

I seem to recall that at different times of the year there was some changes in how the line was worked. I know from time to time there could be operational changes that were made. Did they run haulers over the Santa Paula branch or were the loads taken back to Oxnard or another point?

I don't have much first hand knowledge of how the Santa Paula Branch was worked and perhap some of the old head rails can help supply some information from their experince.



Cliff

[TIOGA PASS]

I worked for the SP as a trainman in the 60's at Los Angeles. Several times, I was sent to Oxnard to cover a vacancy on one of the road switchers there. If I recall correctly, there were 7 road switchers:

Santa Susana - on duty mid morning

Piru - on duty about 200pm

Santa Paula - on duty about 400pm

Ojai Local - on duty about noon

Santa Barbara turn - mid morning

Day and night yard jobs

The ice dock was located West of the depot. As each of the 4 "West" jobs came into town, they would spot their loads of perishable (mainly citrus) to the ice dock, and put the rest of their train away in the yard. The yard jobs spotted and pulled the local traffic and when the ice dock was finished re-icing the loads, they would be pulled down to the yard and blocked out for pickup by the SMV perishable train which originated at SLO about 6pm each day.

Oxnard was a very neat little operation.I believe in the 60's it was normal to have 35 to 50 cars of perishable picked up every night headed East.

TIOGA PASS

[Myfordbrowning]

Thanks for the great information. Oxnard was a busy place in the 60s

Cliff



[user=72]TIOGA PASS[/user] wrote:

Quote:I worked for the SP as a trainman in the 60's at Los Angeles. Several times, I was sent to Oxnard to cover a vacancy on one of the road switchers there. If I recall correctly, there were 7 road switchers:

Santa Susana - on duty mid morning

Piru - on duty about 200pm

Santa Paula - on duty about 400pm

Ojai Local - on duty about noon

Santa Barbara turn - mid morning

Day and night yard jobs

The ice dock was located West of the depot. As each of the 4 "West" jobs came into town, they would spot their loads of perishable (mainly citrus) to the ice dock, and put the rest of their train away in the yard. The yard jobs spotted and pulled the local traffic and when the ice dock was finished re-icing the loads, they would be pulled down to the yard and blocked out for pickup by the SMV perishable train which originated at SLO about 6pm each day.

Oxnard was a very neat little operation.I believe in the 60's it was normal to have 35 to 50 cars of perishable picked up every night headed East.

TIOGA PASS

[SLOCONDR]

Great memory Norm. That is pretty much the way it was when I worked the yard job that spotted and pulled the ice dock back around 65-66. The Santa Barbara turn was probably the best job out of Oxnard in those days. It was on duty at 1000 and normally tied up about 2330.

V

SLOCONDR



[user=72]TIOGA PASS[/user] wrote:

Quote:I worked for the SP as a trainman in the 60's at Los Angeles. Several times, I was sent to Oxnard to cover a vacancy on one of the road switchers there. If I recall correctly, there were 7 road switchers:

Santa Susana - on duty mid morning

Piru - on duty about 200pm

Santa Paula - on duty about 400pm

Ojai Local - on duty about noon

Santa Barbara turn - mid morning

Day and night yard jobs

The ice dock was located West of the depot. As each of the 4 "West" jobs came into town, they would spot their loads of perishable (mainly citrus) to the ice dock, and put the rest of their train away in the yard. The yard jobs spotted and pulled the local traffic and when the ice dock was finished re-icing the loads, they would be pulled down to the yard and blocked out for pickup by the SMV perishable train which originated at SLO about 6pm each day.

Oxnard was a very neat little operation.I believe in the 60's it was normal to have 35 to 50 cars of perishable picked up every night headed East.

TIOGA PASS

[CalSoRwy]

wow. thanks for sharing. Many of my younger foaming days were spent in Oxnard. It alwasy seemed like a neat yard, but never seemed to be much going on in the mid-1990's. What I sight those reefer blocks would have been.
btw, where exactly did the Ojai Branch junction off the main line. It seems the rails have all been torn up.

[SLOCONDR]

The JCT. for Ojai was in Ventura.

V

SLOCONDR





[user=1389]CalSoRwy[/user] wrote:

Quote:wow. thanks for sharing. Many of my younger foaming days were spent in Oxnard. It alwasy seemed like a neat yard, but never seemed to be much going on in the mid-1990's. What I sight those reefer blocks would have been.
btw, where exactly did the Ojai Branch junction off the main line. It seems the rails have all been torn up.

[mapboy]

My late uncle, T.J. (Tom) Gill, worked the locals out of Oxnard for many years as a brakeman. As a kid, I rode with him on the Santa Susana, Piru and Ojai Road Switchers. I had to stay inside the caboose, out of sight, if we passed any trains on the mainline in case there were any "big fish" on board. I remember one day counting the cars on 2 trains off the Santa Paula branch in the summer in the early '60's- both had around 40 cars. Right after WWII, there were solid beet trains from the San Joaquin Valley to the sugar factory at Oxnard via the Santa Paula Branch. He said the through freight on the Santa Paula Branch often ran 100 cars, probably beets when there weren't enough for a unit train, reefers and general freight for the Coast Line. After the sugar factory closed and traffic decreased, it became more efficient to assemble Coast traffic at Taylor Yard and run it via Santa Susana. He complained about back then the SP pulling a switch to save a few tax dollars, making a siding into a spur. He felt they spent more money than they saved on crews spending extra time switching because at these spurs they could no longer easily run around their train. Complaining isn't new, it's an old tradition!

mapboy

[Holloran Grade]

TIOGA PASS Wrote:...[portion omitted].... The ice dock was located West of the depot. As each of the 4 "West" jobs came into town, they would spot their loads of perishable (mainly citrus) to the ice dock, and put the rest of their train away in the yard. The yard jobs spotted and pulled the local traffic and when the ice dock was finished re-icing the loads, they would be pulled down to the yard and blocked out for pickup by the SMV perishable train which originated at SLO about 6pm each day.

Oxnard was a very neat little operation.I believe in the 60's it was normal to have 35 to 50 cars of perishable picked up every night headed East.

TIOGA PASS

They were still using ice in the 60's? (I did not know that.)

About when if anybody remembers, did they convert the cars to diesel powered refrigerated units?

Also, it is interesting how some of the old PFE cars (the diesel powered ones) are still in use with updated refrigeration units.

By the size of the equipment well in the car body, the refrigeration unit must have been massive. Additionally, I bet it was an ammonia refrigerant system rather than Freon. Further, they must have really used a lot of fuel to keep things cool.

[Myfordbrowning]

If I remember correctly, the use of ice for cooling perishable shipments ended in 1973



Cliff

[Holloran Grade]

Myfordbrowning Wrote:If I remember correctly, the use of ice for cooling perishable shipments ended in 1973
Cliff

Wow, I would have thought it would have been much sooner. Thx!