FILLMORE, Calif. —California short line operator Sierra Northern Railway will be the new operator of Ventura County’s Piru to Montalvo, Calif., rail line, the Ventura County Transportation Commission has decided.
By a 13-1 vote, the commission approved the contract for operation of the 30-mile, county-owned former Southern Pacific branch, to be known as the Sierra Northern Railway Ventura County Division. Takeover date is set for December 26.
“We’re planning complete railroading services on the line,” says Sierra Northern president and CEO Kennan H. Beard III. “We will be bringing all the necessary freight and passenger rolling stock needed from our existing inventory of equipment. We have a complete set of passenger cars already on hand to be moved south and expect to be providing tourist and freight service, as well as catering to the entertainment industry when they need railroads and railroaders for their productions.”
Sierra Northern personnel have been on the property since last June supplying interim caretaker maintenance work and to ensure Union Pacific, which has trackage rights on the line from Ventura to Santa Paula, can reach its customers.
Beard said the priority will be to start repairing and upgrading the right-of-way, mostly tie replacement and some ballast tamping in order to improve the maximum speed limit from the existing 10 mph to 25 mph. Work trains will begin in January.
“We still need to negotiate an interchange agreement with Union Pacific,” Beard says. “We’re interested in developing freight customers directly or through a transload facility all along the line as far as Piru on the eastern end.”
Motive power will be a pair of former Union Pacific RP20BD Railpower genset locomotives currently assigned to another Sierra Northern property in West Sacramento.
After more than 30 years of operating excursions and playing a role in motion-picture, TV, and commercial productions, the Fillmore & Western ended operations on June 30, 2021, with operators Dave and Tresa Wilkinson saying they were retiring [see “California’s Fillmore & Western to cease operations,” Trains News Wire, June 7, 2021]. The Fillmore & Western only used a 13-mile portion of the branch.
I used to live a few blocks from the Montalvo spur when SP owned the line.
My Brother and I would watch the local with a SW1500 trundle toward Saticoy back in 1977.
Nice to know who the new operator will be on this line. Still curious though on where the Ex Fillmore & Western Equipment will end up though eventually. I’ve heard rumors that there Alco diesel plans to go to SCRM but I guess it’s a wait and see.