A HO Scale shelf layout based upon the Southern Pacific's Orange Grove Route

 

The Visalia Electric was an interesting prototype built to serve agricultural interests in California's San Joaquin Valley.  The first mention of a electrified railway in the valley occurred in the Visalia Daily Times on September 10, 1891.  The preliminary survey work for the proposed railroad was begun in 1902 and the Visalia Electric Railroad was incorporated on April 14, 1904.  In June of 1904, the Southern Pacific acquired control of the Visalia Electric.  Electrified operations commenced on March 10, 1908 between Exeter and Lemon Cove and formal operations begun on March 12, 2008.  Passenger traffic peaked in 1912 and slowly declined thereafter. In October of 1918, 4 of its 7 interurban cars were sold to the Pacific Electric.  The remaining three cars lasted until 1924 when the California Railroad Commission gave the railroad permission to stop all passenger only service.  During 1923 passenger deficits had reached $50,000.

 

In November of 1944 electrified operation ceased altogether when Visalia Electric electric locomotive number 601 made its final run; the time had come to retire the entire electrical service.  A Southern Pacific 44-ton diesel electric, #1900, served as a replacement.  The diesel proved to be a cost-effective alternative to electric operations and two new 44-ton diesel were purchased by the Visalia Electric.  They arrived in September of 1945 and the #1900 was returned to the Southern Pacific.

 

The two 44-tonners were retired in 1972 and replaced with a variety of locomotives leased from the Southern Pacific.  Initially 539-engineed Alco S-Class switchers were used followed by EMD SW-Class switchers.  They were cycled on and off the Visalia Electric for their quarterly inspections.  

 

Leased EMD SW-900E with a trio of  PFE 57' mechanical reefers crossing the Kaweah River bridge

 

                                                                                                                                                                               John Ford Photograph

Citrus and deciduous fruit packers were always the Visalia Electric's primary on line shippers.  A sand pit spur and aggregate plant were located next to the Kaweah River Bridge near Citro  along with a Union Oil Dealer at Citro and a Standard Oil Dealer at Lemon Cove.  During the the late 1940's and early 1950's, the  railroad originated about 45 carloads a day.  By 1976 less than 20 miles of the Visalia Electric were left in service.  Trackage rights over the Southern Pacific between Visalia and Exeter were terminated with the end of passenger service in 1924.  The last remaining segments of Strathmore Branch were abandoned by 1973 and the segment between Sequoia and Elderwood was abandoned during the summer of 1976.

In 1993, following a steady decline in traffic, the Southern Pacific was given permission to abandon all but the 1.13 miles between between Exeter and Rocky Hill.

Modeling the Visalia Electric in a bedroom

The Visalia Electric HO model is a perfect prototype for a small HO scale switching layout located in a spare bedroom.  During its final years of operation, the railroad operated on an afternoon schedule with just one crew.  The crew normally went on duty at around 2:30 p.m. and returned to Exeter around 8:00 p.m. with cars bound for interchange with parent Southern Pacific.  

Oranges, grapefruit and lemons accounted for the majority of outbound carloads along with some rock,     sand and gravel.  As can be seen in the following chart, shipments peaked in April, May and June.

During peak periods of production, citrus shipments accounted for around 500 carloads which works out to be about 40% of the annual total.  Using the chart shown above, and the estimated carloads for 1955, it can be assumed that outbound carloads consisted of 4-6 perishables a day along with some rock, sand or gravel.  It's difficult to identify the number of inbound carloads; a reasonable assumption based upon the available photographs would be 1-3 carloads a day.  Over time the number of carloads steadily dropped until the end of operations in 1993.

The Plan

The layout will be built along two walls of my current office/work room.  Adapting the room for the layout involves moving the work desk, cutting down several book cases, removing a file cabinet and a TV stand.  HO models that were on display in the work room have been moved to a "new" wall mounted cabinet in the hallway just outside the work room.  I did this while Pam was away!

The plan calls for construction in 2 phases starting with the Redbanks modules.  It should be noted at this point that the layout is only inspired by the Visalia Electric and not meant to be a accurate representation of the prototype.  The team track, fertilizer dealer and depot didn't exist on the prototype.  They were added for operating interest.

Phase 2A-1 - The first phase is 14' long and 18" wide segment located along the north wall of the room.  made up from two modules.  The plan includes run around, 3 packing houses, a fertilizer distributor and team track.  There is a drop down on the far left that can be used to open one of the folding closet doors.  As shown below, it could easily serve as a "stand alone" shelf layout.  There are no grades, turnouts are #6's and the minimum radius is 28".

Phase 2A-2 - The second phase (Lemon Cove) will be built on a 8' long by 12" wide module along the east wall of the room.  It includes the Kaweah river bridge, the rock spur, the depot and the Lemon Cove Growers Association packing house.

Operations will center around Redbanks where inbound traffic will be staged on the passing track.  The locomotive and caboose will layover on the Rebanks Team Track. 

Modeling Locomotives & Rolling Stock

Locomotives 1944-1972

Due to the diminutive size of the Visalia Electric, I decided to build a roster for two different eras.   The first being the period 1944 through 1972 and the second being 1973 through the end of operations in in 1989.  Here we see General Electric 44-Tonner in Rocky Hill during January of 1945. (Phillip C. Kauke)  I would love to know what was in the Missouri Pacific boxcar. 

Based upon positive results, the Visalia Electric received two new General Electric 44-ton locomotives in September of 1945; #501 and #502.  The #1900 was returned to parent Southern Pacific and the new locomotives were placed in service at Exeter on Septermber 14th and 15th.  The #502 shown below with a new PFE reefer on the Visalia Electric in 1954. (E.L. Mettlemen Collection)  The Visalia Electric didn't really need two locomotives for most of the year so the #501 was leased and later sold to parent Southern Pacific in December of 1949. 

Rapido has released a very nice model of Southern Pacific #1900, #1901 and #1902.  Here is a picture of my SP #1900.  The model is equipped with DCC, ESU sound and a factory installed current keeper.  It has amazing low speed performance for a model this small.  At some point I would like to buy another and re-letter it for Visalia Electric 

 

Locomotives 1972-1989

A Southern Pacific General Electric 70-tonner was tried out as a replacement for the #502 in January of 1972.  By late February it was replaced with Also S-3 #1025 leased from parent Southern Pacific.

Modeling a S-3 is a bit of a challenge.  Atlas did a version years ago that was a nice model, for the time, but not up to current standards.  Proto 2000 also did a S-3 which is a nicer model but much more difficult to find and while it was done in the tiger stripe scheme I have not seen one in scarlet & gray.  Here is a picture of the lightly weathered Atlas version I purchased on ebay.  It needs a new horn, number boards, sunshades, spark arrestor and scale couplers.

The Alco S-6's were replaced by SW-1200E's #1196 and #1197.  The 1196 lasted until late 1986 when it was sent back to Fresno.  In May of 1987 the #1197 went back to Fresno.  These were the last two locomotives permanently assigned to the Visalia Electric.  The SW-1200E's were rebuilt SW-900's of which there were ten.  From a modeling perspective they are closer to a SW-900 than a SW-1200 because the SW-1200E's only had a single exhaust stack versus twin stacks for EMD produced SW-1200's.  There were also some minor changes made to the car body.  The best starting point is probably a Walthers Proto SW-9.  Changing the number and adding the number boards and light package would result in a pretty good representation of the prototype.

 

The #1197 was replaced by GP-9's that were rotated on and off the Visalia electric until November of 1989 when the Visalia Electric was left without a permanently assigned locomotive.  I purchased the Walthers Proto GP-9 #3451 shown below for this service.  It is equipped with a factory DCC and ESU sound.

Cabooses

 

The Visalia Electric only had one "proper" caboose during the period I am modeling.  #53 was a Southern Pacific Class C-30-1 purchased from the parent road in 1931.  It was returned to the Southern Pacific in 1948.  According Phillip Kauke's book, there was a #54 built from a boxcar purchased from the Southern Pacific in 1958.  I have not found a picture of the #54,  The following photograph of #53 (Guy Dunscomb) was taken in 1946 at Exeter.   After 1948 the Visalia Electric leased cabooses from parent Southern Pacific.

Several C-30 class models have been produced including a wide range of brass models.  I may consider one of the nicer brass versions in the future but the Walthers Platinum Series RTR model shown below can be easily converted to Visalia Electric #53.  I found one of these out of production models on ebay.  It will look good paired up the a 44 tonner.

 

 

  I also purchased the C-30 in post 1961 paint on ebay.  It will be a nice companion for S-3 #1025.

 

All steal cabooses also made there way on to the Visalia Electric.  Rapido has a C-40-3 coming out around the end of the year.  I have two of  these on order, one in the mid 1960's scheme and one in the 1970's scheme. 

Rolling Stock

Refrigerator cars from Pacific Fruit Express (PFE) were the most common freight cars seen on the Visalia Electric.  Prior to the end of ice service in 1972, PFE contracted with Rocky Hill Ice Company for icing.   Rock Hill Ice had a ice manufacturing plant and 5-car platform near Exeter.  I decided to start my fleet with transitional cars that would have been typical between 1965 and 1972 when PFE discontinued all icing services.  I have restricted my purchases to models produced by Intermountain and Red Caboose along with pre-ordering a couple of the upcoming Rapido R-40-27's.

I started out with 2 of these Intermountain R-70-15 reefers manufactured for Southern Pacific in 1965 by Pacific Car & Foundry.  While these cars came new with roof walks, they were probably removed some time before 1974.  These cars fit that 1965-1972 window perfectly but should probably be equipped with a ACI label.

 

The two R-70-15's were followed by a R-40-10 #43844.  Builtin 1936 by ACF, several hundred of these ice bunker service reefers lasted until 1970.  This is another car picked up on ebay.  With 1960 era paint and some nice weathering it will be right at home on my 1965-72 era Visalia Electric.  Again, this car should probably be equipped with a ACI labels which were in use from about 1967 to 1977.

 

Since Red Caboose and/or Intermountain 57' reefers are hard to come by, I decided to buy a few Athearn and Con-Cor "stand ins".  The Athearn car appears to be a R-70-20 and the Con-Cor a R-70-14 through R0-70-16.  I bought a combination of 8 used Athearn & Con-Cor reefers for a total of $38 on ebay.  One has a broken stirrup step but the rest of them are in good condition.  They all need a little wight, weathering and some metal wheel sets.

Southern Pacific SP 674475 is another car picked up on ebay.  It is a Athearn Genesis model of a Pacific Car & Foundry 50' plug door with a February 1966 build date. 

 

Visalia Electric Images

 

Visalia Electric 44 Ton diesel electric #501 at Oakland, CA

A rock train bound for Exeter in 1986.  Note the welded rail.  Southern Pacific installed several miles of welded rail on the Visalia Electric. (Online Archive of California)

Southern Pacific #1025 at Exeter in May 1973 (Steve Depolo Collection, photographer unknown)

As I bring this initial posting to a close, it should be noted that this shelf layout is not a replacement for my existing Sn3 layout https://sn3rgs.blogspot.com/.  It is only intended to be a minor diversion during the winter months when the weather restricts the amount I am can spend working on the Sn3 layout which is located in a converted 3-caar garage.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about the Visalia Electric:

"The Visalia Electric Railroad", Phillip C. Kauke, Signature Press, 2003. (No longer in print but readily available on the secondary market.)  

Your questions, comments & suggestions are always welcome

sdepolo@outlook.com