| Railroad Name: | Vaca Valley and Clear Lake Railroad |
| Locale: | Elmira-Vacaville-Winters-Esparto-Rumsey, California |
| Successor Line: | Northern Railway |
| Start Year: | 1877 |
| End Year: | 1988 |
| Hq City: | Vacaville, California |
The Vaca Valley and Clear Lake Railroad was a standard gauge railroad that operated at Vacaville, California in the late 19th century. The Vaca Valley Railroad was incorporated on April 12, 1869 to run a branch from the mainline of the California Pacific Railroad (later Southern Pacific Railroad's mainline between Sacramento and Oakland, CA) at Elmira to Rumsey.
The Vaca Valley Railroad ran 4.35 miles from Elmira to Vacaville. In June 1869 the line was opened for service. The Vaca Valley was sold at the Solano County Sheriff's auction on September 17, 1870 but retained the same name. The railroad was then extended beyond Vacaville, reaching Winters on August 26, 1875.
In 1877, just 10 weeks after completing the track between Winters and Madison the Vaca Valley Railroad became the Vaca Valley and Clear Lake Railroad.
In 1888 this railroad fell under control of Southern Pacific's subsidiary, the Northern Railway. By 1888, the Northern Railway extended the line northwest from Madison to Capay and Rumsey.
In 1895, sparks from a steam locomotive caused a massive fire to break out just northeast of Vacaville, with over 2000 acres of farmland being burned, and area ranging from 3 and a half miles long, and two and a half miles wide. Local farmers in the area would rush to the scene of the fire, and would eventually help extinguish it, along with evacuating farmers in the area.[1]
In 1898 the line was operated by Southern Pacific (SP) and ran from the Cal-P Oakland-Sacramento mainline at Elmira to Rumsey. SP abandoned the track between Rumsey and Capay in 1934. The track between Rumsey and Esparto was removed in 1937. Passenger service continued between Elmira and Esparto until 1957.https://web.archive.org/web/20090514084303/http://www.capayvalleyvision.org/timeline.html
The line between Winters and Vacaville, which ran parallel to the west side of Interstate 505, was abandoned in the 1970s, ending at the grocery warehouses just south of Midway Road/I-505 in Vacaville. The Vacaville Branch's last train operated in about 1985 and the line was removed to Elmira by the 1990s.
These locomotives were listed on the Vaca Valley & Clear Lake Railroad's roster.
Traces of the abandoned grade can be found.From the Vacaville/Allendale area, the line crossed Midway Road on the west side of I-505 and ran north to Winters on the east side of Hartley Road. At Udell Road the line ran northbound on the east side of Winters Road. The trestle where the line crossed Putah Creek is on the east side of Winters Road. Present-day Railroad Ave in Winters was the old grade through town and continued north along the east side of Yolo County Road 89. At Madison near Highway 16 the railroad crossed 89 and ran on the east side of Railroad Street where it then turned west along Highway 16 towards Esparto. From there, Highway 16 generally follows the path (albeit with straighter curves) of the old railroad up to Rumsey. The railroad was originally planned to continue up the twisty route to Clearlake, but investment never came through. Each of the train stations still exist, and have been converted into residences (except for the Esparto one).