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Re: Vacaville's "Onion Plant" & Sacramento Northern ...
Author: Dr Zarkoff
Date: 06-26-2012 - 16:55
>Hi Everybody-- I thought I would contribute a little trivia and history regarding the operation of a spot in the road, many of you Oakland to Sacramento highway travelers may remember for the extremely strong smell of "Onions" that hovered around the place. The Sacramento Northern ran through the middle of the operation and there was even an "SN Tunnel" that ran under the I-80 freeway, which I would like to ascertain if it is still there !
Enjoy !
Yes, it's still there (bike path), but it's an "underpass", not a "tunnel".
>Basic Vegetable Products Company processed onions and garlic on a 29-acre site in Vacaville. The company contributed to California's agricultural industry for more than fifty years before closing in 1986. Let's look back on a bit of nostalgia and history of the famous "Onion Plant" .
Moved to King City.
--snip--
>Basic Vegetable Products Company's Vacaville plant was served by a direct rail connection of the Sacramento Northern's "Vacaville Branch". The length of this branch from the SP interchange at CANNON to Vacaville was 7.87 miles . The line split off from 'Vacaville Junction' (located some 2.34 miles from CANNON) and headed in a Northwesterly direction to Vacaville, skirting the perimeter of the "California Medical Facility" for the criminally insane.
Did it "skirt the facility", or was "the facility built around it"? This section of the former Valllejo & Northern was built a /long/ time ago.
>In entering the center area of the Onion Plant proper, the track had to pass thru a "tunnel" that ran underneath old U.S. Highway 40 (now Interstate-80) . The track exited the West side of the Onion Plant property and terminated in beautiful downtown Vacaville.
Sorry, I thought you were referring to the underpass at West Texas St. in Fairfield. The Vacaville underpass is still there too, for a street without on and off ramps.
--snip--
>QUESTION: Does anyone on here know for sure if the old SN "tunnel" is still intact under the I-80 freeway ???
See above. Both underpasses are still there (so is the underpass in Richmond for the Santa Fe's line between Richmond and Emeryville).
Regarding all those South End wyes: they didn't all exist at the same time. First there were Vacaville Jct and Creed, which were put in when a track was built to connect the isolated Vacaville-Willota section of the Vallejo & Northern to the OA&E's line at Creed (the line from West Sacramento to Woodland is another piece of the V&N, still extant as a short line). When the airbase was expanded during WWII, one of the runways cut this connecting line, and the Government built a replacement further to the north between Dozier and a new wye named Cordero, which was on the geographical south side of the SP, up against the hill where the fill for the line to Vallejo Jct ended. For a while the SN kept service into the north side of Travis -not sure how long- and there are several streets on the base which have a median strip where the track(s) were. A new wye at Dozier replaced the one at Creed. The last of these wyes to be torn up is the one at Dozier, which went away when the line from Dozier to Libfarm was abandoned (1990s). Areal photographs show the evidences of all of these wyes, and as of the 1990s, the UP still owned the R/W between Creed and Travis's perimeter fence (the UP land dep't was completely unaware of this).
Enjoy !
Yes, it's still there (bike path), but it's an "underpass", not a "tunnel".
>Basic Vegetable Products Company processed onions and garlic on a 29-acre site in Vacaville. The company contributed to California's agricultural industry for more than fifty years before closing in 1986. Let's look back on a bit of nostalgia and history of the famous "Onion Plant" .
Moved to King City.
--snip--
>Basic Vegetable Products Company's Vacaville plant was served by a direct rail connection of the Sacramento Northern's "Vacaville Branch". The length of this branch from the SP interchange at CANNON to Vacaville was 7.87 miles . The line split off from 'Vacaville Junction' (located some 2.34 miles from CANNON) and headed in a Northwesterly direction to Vacaville, skirting the perimeter of the "California Medical Facility" for the criminally insane.
Did it "skirt the facility", or was "the facility built around it"? This section of the former Valllejo & Northern was built a /long/ time ago.
>In entering the center area of the Onion Plant proper, the track had to pass thru a "tunnel" that ran underneath old U.S. Highway 40 (now Interstate-80) . The track exited the West side of the Onion Plant property and terminated in beautiful downtown Vacaville.
Sorry, I thought you were referring to the underpass at West Texas St. in Fairfield. The Vacaville underpass is still there too, for a street without on and off ramps.
--snip--
>QUESTION: Does anyone on here know for sure if the old SN "tunnel" is still intact under the I-80 freeway ???
See above. Both underpasses are still there (so is the underpass in Richmond for the Santa Fe's line between Richmond and Emeryville).
Regarding all those South End wyes: they didn't all exist at the same time. First there were Vacaville Jct and Creed, which were put in when a track was built to connect the isolated Vacaville-Willota section of the Vallejo & Northern to the OA&E's line at Creed (the line from West Sacramento to Woodland is another piece of the V&N, still extant as a short line). When the airbase was expanded during WWII, one of the runways cut this connecting line, and the Government built a replacement further to the north between Dozier and a new wye named Cordero, which was on the geographical south side of the SP, up against the hill where the fill for the line to Vallejo Jct ended. For a while the SN kept service into the north side of Travis -not sure how long- and there are several streets on the base which have a median strip where the track(s) were. A new wye at Dozier replaced the one at Creed. The last of these wyes to be torn up is the one at Dozier, which went away when the line from Dozier to Libfarm was abandoned (1990s). Areal photographs show the evidences of all of these wyes, and as of the 1990s, the UP still owned the R/W between Creed and Travis's perimeter fence (the UP land dep't was completely unaware of this).
