Riverdale Branch facts for kids

The Riverdale Branch was a special railroad line in California. It belonged to the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). This line helped farmers in the San Joaquin Valley move their crops. It was about 42 miles long. The line connected different towns southwest of Fresno. It started at Ingle, California, and went southeast through towns like Burrel and Riverdale. It also connected to other railroad lines.

Building the Railroad Line

The Riverdale Branch was built between August 1910 and July 1911. It was first built by a company called the Hanford and Summit Lake Railway. This company was a part of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The Southern Pacific Railroad then ran the trains on the line. On October 9, 1917, the Southern Pacific Railroad officially bought the line.

Workers started building the track from Hardwick in August 1910. They reached Riverdale just one month later. At the other end, construction began at Ingle. By February 1912, about 5 miles of track were finished between Ingle and Tranquility. The Southern Pacific Railroad started using these two finished parts of the line. The middle section, between Tranquility and Riverdale, was completed on April 14, 1912. This connected the whole line.

Over time, parts of the line were no longer used. The track between Hardwick and Riverdale was closed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1952. Later, the section between Riverdale and Burrel was also closed. In 1994, the Southern Pacific Railroad sold a 25.2-mile part of the line (between Ingle and Burrell) to a company called Port Railroads (PRI). Then, in 1996, the PRI company was sold to the San Joaquin Valley Railroad.

The Hanford & Summit Lake Railway had big plans at first. They wanted to build an electric railroad connecting many towns. This included Hanford, Grangeville, Hardwick, Lemoore, Armona, and Laton. The track between Hardwick and Armona was built at a different time, likely before 1912.

Towns Along the Route

The Riverdale Branch connected several towns. Here are the main stops along the line:

• Ingle (This was where it connected to the Southern Pacific's West Side Line)
• Tranquility
• San Joaquin
• Helm
• Burrel
• Riverdale
• Hub
• Hardwick (Here it connected to the Southern Pacific's Caruthers Branch)
• Grangeville
• Armona (This was where it connected to the Southern Pacific's Coalinga Branch)