San Joaquin and Eastern Railroad facts for kids

The San Joaquin & Eastern Railroad (SJ&E) was a special train line in California. It ran through the hills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Fresno County. This railroad was built to carry things like wood and farm products. It stopped running in 1933.

The Story of the SJ&E Railroad

The San Joaquin & Eastern Railroad near Big Creek around 1918. The railroad itself did not reach Huntington Lake, but an incline went there.

The SJ&E railroad was first built for a big reason. It helped bring workers and supplies to the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project. This project was creating power plants for the Pacific Light and Power Company. Today, this company is known as Southern California Edison.

The Stone & Webster Construction Company built the tracks. They started building on February 16, 1912. The whole 55-mile line was finished by December 15, 1912. It cost over a million dollars to build!

The train line began at a place called El Prado, near Friant, California. Here, it connected with the Southern Pacific Railroad. From El Prado, the SJ&E went east to Auberry, California. It ended at Big Creek, which was also called Cascade or Cascada.

This railroad was famous for being "the crookedest railroad in the world." It had 1,073 curves, some of them very sharp. It also had 43 wooden bridges and 255 steep hills. The steepest hill was like climbing a 5.3% slope!

The main reason for the railroad was to build the Big Creek project. Once that work was mostly done, the railroad was not needed as much. It only earned about 22% of what it cost to build and run. Because of this, some people called it "Slow, Jerky, and Expensive." The train line was taken apart in 1933.

Where Did the SJ&E Go?

Map showing the western part of the SJ&E route in 1922.

Map showing the eastern part of the SJ&E route towards Huntington Lake.

The SJ&E train line had many stops along its route. Here are some of the main places it went:

• El Prado (Mile 0.0): This was the start of the line, near Friant. It connected with the Southern Pacific Railroad here.
• McKenzie
• Wellbarn (Mile 16.1)
• Lodge
• Prather: This stop was called Lodge Station in 1914.
• Auberry (Mile 26.1): Today, the old roadbed here is called 'SJ and E Rd'.
• Indian Mission: This place is now known as Mono Wind.
• Hutchens
• Lerona (Mile 34.9): The old roadbed here is called 'Old Railroad Grade Bed Rd'.
• White Pine (Mile 43.0): This stop was near the Shaver Crossing bridge.
• West Portal (Mile 50.4): There was a short one-mile branch line from here to Powerhouse 2 on the San Joaquin River.
• Dawn: Southern California Edison built a branch line from here to Shaver Lake to build a new dam. This was called the Shaver Lake Railroad.
• Big Creek (Cascada Station) (Mile 55.6): This was the end of the main line.
• Camp 2
• Dam 2 (of Huntington Lake): The railroad itself did not go all the way to Huntington Lake, but an incline helped get supplies there for dam construction.

Riding the SJ&E: Passenger Service

The SJ&E railroad also carried people, not just supplies. It had five passenger cars. In 1915, a train would leave El Prado at 8:00 a.m. and arrive at Cascada at 2:25 p.m.

This 55-mile trip took about six hours and twenty-five minutes. The passenger train ran on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It returned on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. People could still ride the train as late as 1929. Many tourists used the train to visit the resort at Huntington Lake during the summer.

Locomotives of the SJ&E

The SJ&E railroad used special steam engines called Shay locomotives. These engines were good at climbing steep hills and going around sharp curves. They were built by the Lima Locomotive Works.