| San Joaquin Valley Railroad | |
| Parent Company: | Genesee & Wyoming |
| Headquarters: | Exeter, California |
| Marks: | SJVR |
| Locale: | Fresno, California and Bakersfield, California area |
| Start Year: | January 2, 1992 |
| End Year: | present |
| Length: | 371miles[1] |
The San Joaquin Valley Railroad is one of several short line railroad companies and is part of the Western Region Division of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It operates over about 371miles of owned or leased track primarily on several lines in California's Central Valley/San Joaquin Valley around Fresno and Bakersfield. The SJVR has trackage rights over Union Pacific (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.
On January 1, 1992, the SJVR was created to obtain and operate several branch lines from the Southern Pacific. The SJVR at this time operated as three separate legal entities: the SJVR proper, the Tulare Valley Railroad (TVRR), and the Port Railroad. 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. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. controlled RailAmerica in December 2012. Today the SJVR remains a shortline within the Genesee & Wyoming family of railroads.
There were two former San Joaquin Valley Railroads. One was incorporated by Leland Stanford and Associates in 1868 to build an 11.3miles line from Lathrop, California to the Stanislaus River and was consolidated in 1870 into the Central Pacific Railroad. The second San Joaquin Valley Railroad operated from 1892 to 1893 between Fresno and Friant over 24.1miles of track and was sold at foreclosure to the Southern Pacific.
In 1992, 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 at Fresno and Bakersfield and with the Union Pacific at Fresno and Goshen Junction.As of 2023, SJVR has a maximum capacity of 263,000 in Clovis Branch, and 286,000 elsewhere. Also, there are a few interchanges: BNSF (Fresno, California and Bakersfield, California); Union Pacific (Fresno, California; Goshen, California and Bakersfield, California).[2]
Line names taken from CPUC data.[3]
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 passenger train (#57/58) operated over this line between San Francisco and Los Angeles into 1965.
In 2008, the Surface Transportation Board 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 broke off negotiations with the SJVR to purchase this section of track to preserve it for future use and possible reactivation, because 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. By March 2015, the SJVR 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 was pending formal abandonment whereupon the rails were expected to be immediately pulled up upon STB approval. However the Cross Valley Corridor passenger train service is planning to upgrade the tracks to Lindsay and rebuild them to Porterville.[4]
This mainline route was built by the Minarets and Western Railway in 1921 and went front from Friant to Wishon and connected with the Southern Pacific which operated the southern portion of the line with joint trackage rights. The Minarets and Western was owned by the Sugar Pine Lumber Company and was built the same year the lumber company was incorporated so that it could haul timber from the forest. During the Great Depression in 1933, the lumber company went bankrupt. The track north of Friant was abandoned and the Pinedale Branch was bought by Southern Pacific, where it was later known as the Pinedale Spur of the Clovis Branch. Southern Pacific later sold the spur and Clovis Branch to the SJVR which abandoned the line above North Sabre Drive in the mid 1990s and today the Pinedale Spur is preserved as the Fresno-Clovis Rail Trail.[5]
The Visalia District ran from Corcoran, California to Calwa, California. The line was originally built by the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad and later acquired by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. ATSF sold this line to the Tulare Valley Railroad on December 22, 1992. The TVRR did not use the segments from Corcoran to Tulare or Visalia to Cutler. Visalia was served until 1993 and Tulare was served until 1994. Subsequently, all of the track between Calwa and Corcoran was abandoned and removed by 1994 except for short sections at LacJac (near Reedley) and a 4-mile segment between Visalia and Tulare (Ambler- connection with Goshen Subdivision, to Loma- now called the Loma Industrial Lead, which is operated as part of the Goshen Subdivision).
The Porterville-Orosi District was constructed by the Minkler Southern Railway, itself controlled by the Santa Fe through ownership of the entire capital stock. The line was built in 1913 and 1914. The TVRR acquired this line from the ATSF on December 22, 1992. The line ran from Minkler to Ducor, CA; south of Ducor, the ATSF ran via trackage rights on the Southern Pacific's Exeter Branch to Famoso, and then to Bakersfield on the Bakersfield Subdivision, where the line split off and entered the ATSF yard. Most of this line has been abandoned and pulled up; remaining sections include the Porterville Subdivision between Exeter and Lindsay, and the Landco Subdivision in Bakersfield.
The railroad's main traffic sources are petroleum gas and agricultural products. In 2008, the SJVR hauled around 39,000 carloads.[6]
The railroad operates GP15-1s, GP40-2s, GP28s, GP20s, GP38s, GP38-2s, BL20-2s, and SE24Bs.[7]