Looking for Santa Barbara, CA railroad information

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know where I could find any pictures, information, etc. about the Southern Pacific Railroad in Santa Barbara, CA?

It's my understanding that there was a roundhouse, and a yard of some sort.

I would love to find some information on it, and haven't found much on the net so far. I've just found dates of when the railroad came to Santa Barbara, when it continued north, etc., but no pictures or details about what was located in Santa Barbara.

Thanks!

[ericsp]

"Southern Pacific's Coast Line" by Signature Press has some, if not all, of that information in it.

The index lists Santa Barbara on the following pages: 1, 7, 11-13, 18, 21-23, 25-27, 39, 42, 44, 47. 48, 51, 54, 57-59, 70, 93, 97, 100, 108, 109, 112, 128-131, 134-137, 146, 154-156, 159, 164, 165, 168, 170, 171, 227, 236, 258, 268, 271, 275, 276, 298.
Roundhouse: 130, 159, 218, 220, 221.
I have not yet read the book.

There are photographs of the roundhouse and depot on pages 130-131. A map of the railroad in town on pages 134-135.

[jimrice4449]

I worked for the SP as an opr and had a job for a while that put me in Santa Barb one night a week. At that time (1964-5) it was a crew change point (LA-Santa Barb, Santa Barb- San Luis Obispo) and it had a small yard. The Santa Barbara- Oxnard local originated ther (shifted to Oxnard about the end of the time frame we're talking about) There wasn't a roundhouse but there had been and the structure was still there ( a lmbr yd if memory serves) and the turntable pit had been filled in and paved over. Hope this might be helpful, at least for picking a period to model.

[Anonymous]

Thank you both!!!

Eric, I'm going to order the book today. Amazon has it.

Jim, very interesting stuff man.

I'm thinking about starting a steam-diesel transition era model railroad (very small) with one focal point - the downtown SB trackage.

I could really get into the research of this area, having gone to college at UCSB and spent many weekends roaming around the area down there.