San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada Railroad collection

Title: San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada Railroad collection

Dates: 1882-1888

Collection Number: MS 151

Creator/Collector: San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada Railroad

Extent: 1 box

Repository: California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives

Abstract: Financial records from the San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada Railroad.

Language of Material: English

This collection is open for research at our off-site storage facility with one week's notice. Contact Library & Archives staff to arrange for access.

Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the District Collections Manager. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada Railroad collection. California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives

Gift of Southern Pacific Railroad, New York Collection.

The San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada Railroad was incorporated in March 1882. It was part of a scheme to provide farmers and ranchers in the northern San Joaquin Valley and in the central Sierra Nevada foothills with a means of transporting their produce to river steamers and on to the Bay Area, develop timber resources of the region, and encourage tourists to visit the Calaveras Big Trees. The three-foot gauge line ran initially from Bracks Landing in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta east through Lodi to Wallace. By the spring of 1885 it had been extended to Valley Spring. Three years later the Northern Railway, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific, acquired the line, and from that time it was operated by the Southern Pacific. In 1897 the portion of the SJ&SN from Bracks Landing to the town of Woodbridge near Lodi was abandoned. The remainder of the track was converted to standard gauge in 1904. The development of limestone and shale deposits occasioned an extension of the line east from Valley Spring to the Calaveras Cement Company plant at Kentucky House in 1925 and 1926.

The San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada Railroad records consist of cash books which provide information on earnings and expenses incurred in the construction and operation of the line on a daily basis, as well as a treasurer's bank book listing deposits made and checks written. The collection also contains annual financial reports for the company for four years up to the time of its acquisition by the Northern Railway.