The Santa Maria Valley Railroad is an existing short line railroad that interchanges with the Southern Pacific Railroad in Guadalupe, California. Guadalupe is half way between Los Angles and San Francisco, along the coast route. The railroad was incorporated in 1911 to move oil from a local refinery to the Southern Pacific Railroad. Just before the depression the oil ran out and the railroad went into receivership. It was bought by Allen Hancock, a successful Los Angeles businessman. He reconditioned the line, created vegetable farms and started moving fresh vegetables to market via his railroad. In 1953 (the year modeled), the Santa Maria Valley Railroad had 26 miles of track and moved 28,000 cars. Besides produce it moved sugar beets (in the classic composite wood drop bottom gons), oil, and gravel. In bound traffic included farm equipment, oil pipe, oil equipment, chemicals, fertilizers, dust control chemicals, and packing supplies for produce. Sears had a large appliance distribution warehouse in Santa Maria that also generated traffic.

The model Santa Maria Valley moves about 50 percent refrigerator cars and the balance general freight. Refrigerator cars are moved by way bills and/or iced, loaded and moved by direction from a produce broker. Oil industries, gravel, farm supplies, and team track make up the balance of common freight movements. The Santa Maria Valley interchanges with the Southern Pacific at Guadalupe. The Guadalupe Yard Engineer, breaks down freight, interchanges with the Santa Maria Valley and switches industries. Guadalupe industries include lumber, a canning company, produce packer, the team track and the Holly Sugar Plant. The Southern Pacific Engineer runs trains from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo with a stop in Guadalupe to interchange traffic. The Southern Pacific Engineer also runs a local switch to a produce packing district. The staging yard breaks down and assembles trains for main line interchange runs to Guadalupe and the local switch job.

Return to Layouts Page