Saturday, July 2, 2016

Photo postcard of Exeter's Southern Pacific Railroad depot, circa 1909.    Postcard by George Besaw.   To the left of the depot is a Visalia Electric Railroad passenger car.
Close-up:
Visalia Electric used these types of passenger cars from 1908 to 1924.   Note the apparatus mounted on top of the car (called a pantograph),  it collected power through contact with an overhead electrical wire.
The Visalia Electric Railroad company existed until 1992,  but they stopped using electric freight locomotives in 1944.  i.e. After 1944 they used diesel locomotives, and the company was just "Electric" in name.

Old postcard of a Visalia Electric Railroad freight locomotive,  circa 1913.

Old photograph of workers on the Visalia Electric Railroad track.    The electric locomotives could travel from Visalia to Exeter, and then on to depots in Lemon Cove and Woodlake.   
Despite the company's name, it was an Exeter based subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad.


The Visalia Electric Railroad bridge, crossing the Kaweah River near Lemon Cove.  Note the power lines over the middle of the track.  
 I posted another photo of this bridge on  5/12/2012.


Old photo postcard from Lemon Cove, circa 1908.
Written on the back of the card: "Lemon Cove Depot, Jeff Paregien, Click Paregien - 6yrs."    Most likely these names refer to Jefferson M. Paregien of Lemon Cove and his son Charles Clifton Paregien.    
This depot was built to service the Visalia Electric Railroad.     It was located just west of the intersection of Road 244 and Avenue 328.   The depot and the railroad tracks are no longer there.
A couple close-ups: