Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
I'm looking for maps, pictures or any historical information about the Southern Pacific rail yard in Watsonville [Junction], California.
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 11:07 PM
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4 Comments:
From: "John Snyder" wem@onetel.com
You should be able to find railroad plat maps for the yard at the California State Archives and/or the California State Railroad Museum Library. In addition, I would recommend checking the historic Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Watsonville, on microfilm at the California State Library, California Room; these should show buildings in place at the yards.
—John Snyder, White Ensign Models, on Facebook
From: "Larry Mullaly" lmullaly@jeffnet.org
There is a good plat map dating to about 1950 at California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. The best photographs I have found are in John Signor's Southern Pacific's Coast Line. For a first hand account of switching the yard in the early 1970 see Linda Niemann's excellent book, Boomer. ...
—Larry Mullaly
From: "Empirebob" empirebob@aol.com
Thank you so much for the info.
—Bob Rico
From: Hsweetser@aol.com
The California State Railroad Museum Library has the following station plans showing the Watsonville Junction yard (station plans show locations of tracks, signals, structures, etc. Copies can be ordered from the library):
Southern Pacific. Not numbered May 1931 / Sep. 12, 1955. Station plan of Watsonville Junction. Scale 1:100. 25 x 56 Ink on linen. Filing location: Box 670 (XX) + D ID 18792
Southern Pacific. Not numbered Oct. 1947 / Dec. 1, 1955. Station plan of Watsonville Junction. Scale 1:100. Ink on linen. Filing location: Box 678 (XX) + D ID 18579
Southern Pacific. Not numbered Dec. 1969 / Mar. 1973. Station plan of Watsonville Junction. Scale 1:100. Blue line on white paper. Filing location: Big Four Map Case 5 + D ID 23783
Southern Pacific. Not numbered Not dated Watsonville Junction: station plan. Ink on paper backed with linen. Filing location: Port Street Oversize ID 18802
The library has numerous other plans for Watsonville Junction facilities. To see the list, go to the basic search screen for technical drawings at the library's website.
By the way, "Watsonville Junction" is the station name at the yard, not "Watsonville." "Watsonville" is an entirely different station that's on the Santa Cruz branch. On the basic search screen, the terms "Watsonville Junction" and "Watsonville" will both bring up plans for yard facilitlies but the use of only "Watsonville" will also bring up plans that aren't pertinent to the yard.
On the library list, there are four plans supposedly found in the Shasta Division Archives in Dunsmuir. Bruce Petty is the contact person for these archives. He can be reached through his Los Angeles River Railroads website.
A few photos of Watsonville Junction can be found in Southern Pacific's Coast Line Pictorial, companion book to Southern Pacific's Coast Line that already has been mentioned. Pages 64-65 of Dill's Southern Pacific's Scenic Coast Line has four photos taken at Watsonville Junction, three of which show portions of the engine servicing facilities.
Is this for a model railroad project?
—John Sweetser
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