Port Railroads, Inc. was a shortline railroad owned by Kyle Railways. PRI was formed on March 13, 1994, to take over two

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

lines. One of SP's lines was the ''West Side Line'' (47.8 miles) between

Fresno Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

northwest to Oxalis, California and a branch running from

Ingle Ingle may refer to: People * Ingle (surname), includes a list of people with the name * Ingle Martin (born 1982), American former football quarterback Places in the United States * Ingle, California, a community * Ingle, Florida, an unincorporate ...

to Burrell (25.2 miles). The other line was the SP Buttonwillow Branch (32.7 miles) from

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 ...

(Kern Junction) to

Buttonwillow, California Buttonwillow is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in the San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County, California. Buttonwillow is west of Bakersfield, at an elevation of ). The population was 1,337 at the 2020 census, down from 1,5 ...

. PRI was related to the

San Joaquin Valley Railroad The San Joaquin Valley Railroad is a short line railroad, among several in the Western Region Division of parent company, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It operates over about of owned or leased track primarily on several lines in California's Centr ...

. Both PRI and the SJVR were

subsidiaries A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidiary company. Unl ...

of Kyle Railways. Because PRI and the SJVR were related, the SJVR provided the

motive power ''Motive Power'' is a bi-monthly railway related magazine that focuses on diesel locomotives in Australia. The first issue was published on 23 August 1998. Its headquarters is in Sydney. The content includes photographs of locomotives & trains, ...

for PRI. On April 26, 1996, Kyle Railways merged PRI into the SJVR. PRI handled about 8,000 cars per year (1996 estimate).

History

The Southern Pacific constructed the ''West Side Line'' that ran from Tracy down the west side of the San Joaquin Valley to Fresno between 1888-1891. The Buttonwillow Branch was constructed by the Southern Pacific after 1910. The Buttonwillow Branch has about of track abandoned in the late 1950s east from Buttonwillow to Oli

with stations listed as Loker

Asphalt

and McKittrick, CA, McKittrick. Asphalto was the location of a historic Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1. McKittrick is famous for the

McKittrick Tar Pits The McKittrick Tar Pits (also McKittrick Oil Seeps and McKittrick Brea Pits) are a series of natural asphalt lakes situated in the western part of Kern County in southern California. The pits are the most extensive asphalt lakes in the sta ...

naturally occurring

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

tar pits

According to an article by Don Browen, "the Port Railroad took over the former Southern Pacific Buttonwillow Branch from Kern Junction to Buttonwillow and of S.P.'s former Westside Branch from Fresno to Oxalis. Additionally S.P.'s former 24.6 Riverdale Branch from Ingle on the Westside Branch to Burrell was included in the transaction. This is a long term lease and not a purchase by Kyle Railways. What is the significance of the name Port Railroad? Kyle owned the name Port Railroad which it used for its railroad in San Francisco. When this railroad ceased operations, Kyle had an extra name which it decided would be used for its latest California acquisition. 3 more locomotives, 2037, 2041, and 2042, were obtained for the increased workload

References

* *

External links

Information about Buttonwillow Branch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Port Railroads Inc. Defunct California railroads Spin-offs of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company

History

See also

References

External links