Re: Fair Oaks Branch
Author: hepkema
Date: 07-30-2014 - 21:17
My hometown--Used to bike down to the Lone Star plant during the summer (over the Old Bridge) to watch the train (Placerville Turn) show up just before noon. Usually 2 Geeps and generally 8-10 cars a day went up the branch from the Placerville Branch "mainline". It was daily back then in the early/mid 70's when I was in high school. I never had a camera--wish I had at least recorded the place for posterity. I lived about 2 miles north of the river and we could hear the crusher from our house. By 1980, but place closed and the land sold off to create the current mega-yuppieville known as Gold River--where my parents later bought a townhouse darn near where the crusher once sat. (No, my parents weren't yuppies, they retired there). The old Fair Oaks Bridge was open to vehicle traffic (with strict weight limits) until about 1965.
The old bridge was used in the 1980 film "The Stunt Man" for the final scene with the car going off and into the river. The movie wasn't a big hit and more people probably saw a quick clip of the scene in the closing credits of the 80's TV show "The Fall Guy".