The Ventura County Railroad is a

class III railroad Railroad classes are the system by which freight railroads are designated in the United States. Railroads are assigned to Class I, II or III according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With a ...

subsidiary of

Genesee & Wyoming Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) is an American short line railroad holding company, that owns or maintains an interest in 122 railroads in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom; and formerly in Australia. ...

, connecting the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

Oxnard Oxnard () is a city in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California, United States. On California's Central Coast (California), Central Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the List of largest California cities by populati ...

to South Oxnard and Port Hueneme. It began operations in 1998 under

RailAmerica RailAmerica, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida, was a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada. In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group. Before that, it t ...

, leasing its lines from the Ventura County Railway , owner of lines first opened in about 1905 that have remained independent of larger carriers. The railroad serves industrial areas including the

Port of Hueneme The Port of Hueneme in the city of Port Hueneme, California, United States, is the only Harbor, deep water harbor between Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. Located in Ventura County on the Santa Barbara Channel, t ...

and Naval Facilities Expeditionary Logistics Center at

Naval Base Ventura County Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) is a United States Navy base in Ventura County, California. Formed by the merger of Naval Air Station Point Mugu, NAS Point Mugu and Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme, CBC Port Hueneme, NBVC is a d ...

Origin

Before

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

port facilities were developed, Port Hueneme seemed a viable competitor; and VCRR's earliest predecessor, the Bakersfield and Ventura Railway, was incorporated in February 1903 to build a railroad from Port Hueneme to

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of the ...

via Santa Paula and Piru Canyon. Construction began in 1907 with a main line from Port Hueneme up C Street in Oxnard, plus a westerly branch to Patterson Ranch and a easterly branch to DeBo, Petit, and Round Mountain (now on the campus of California State University Channel Islands). It was reorganized as the Bakersfield and Ventura ''Railroad'' in June 1908 with the Oxnard line moved to A street. A

railway turntable A railway turntable or wheelhouse is a device for turning railway rolling stock, usually locomotives, to face a different direction. It is especially used in areas where economic considerations or a lack of sufficient space have served to weig ...

was constructed at the intersection of First and A Streets in Oxnard where gas motor cars were turned on their six to eight daily round trips until passenger service was abandoned in January 1927.

Passenger service

The company also owned two coach trailers. Car number 003 was used as a standby switching locomotive after passenger service was abandoned.

Steam era

Volunteers Brian Smith and Gary Frueholz at work on the Ventura County RR 2 at the Southern California Railway Museum

The property was again sold in June 1911 to the Ventura County Railway, which had been incorporated in May in the interests of the American Beet Sugar Company (renamed American Crystal Sugar Company in 1934), which owned a

beet sugar Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...

factory at Oxnard. The railroad brought carloads of beets to the factory from surrounding farms; and Port Hueneme packing houses provided 1200 carloads of lemons, 200 carloads of beans, and 75 carloads of box boards annually.

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

development of the Ventura County naval base enabled the line to avoid abandonment as trucks took over shipment of agricultural commodities.

Locomotives

Diesel era

Martin V. Smith purchased the line in 1958. The Ventura County Railroad, organized by RailAmerica to lease the line, began operations in September 1998. The Oxnard Harbor District acquired the Ventura County Railway Company LLC in 2003 with Ventura County Railroad continuing to operate the line."Municipal Service Review: Oxnard Harbor District"
''Ventura Local Agency Formation Commission'' (September 19, 2007)

Traffic

The railroad's main commodities are new automobiles, petroleum products and wood products. The VCRR hauls approximately 2,000 carloads annually. And they ship frozen strawberries and paper products and handle navy equipment.

Motive Power

* One EMD GP15-1 * On
EMD GP7DE
(rebuilt from an EMD GP7U) * One

EMD GP38-2 The EMD GP38-2 is an American four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division. Part of the EMD Dash 2 line, the GP38-2 was an upgraded version of the earlier EMD GP38, GP38. Power is provided by an EMD 645E 1 ...

References

External links

Ventura County Railroad
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ventura County Railroad California railroads RailAmerica Railway companies established in 1998 1998 establishments in California