ABOVE: Just moments after ducking under the U.S. 50 overpass, the P&SVRR train leaves Folsom’s suburbs behind and immediately enters the wide open rolling hills of the city’s completely undeveloped southeast corner as it climbs the steep grade eastward toward White Rock. RIGHT: In July 2011, P&SVRR began operating a ten-mile motor car run on selected Saturday mornings from Folsom to Latrobe, where passengers enjoy a pancake breakfast at Latrobe Elementary School. On February 28, 2016, President Jim Harville and flagman Jack Henry (behind Jim’s flag) stop traffic on Latrobe Road for Skagit motor car No. 30.
motor car excursions to Latrobe in 2016. But, only motor cars are permitted; operating trains or even upgrading any track to Class 1 standards in that section remains expressly forbidden. However, the county also designated
the Administrator of the El Dorado County Historical Museum (operator of El Dorado Western Railroad) as the manager of railroad operations on the line in El Dorado County, including oversight of the operation, maintenance, and preservation of the railroad, a task which had previously been handled by the county’s Parks and Recreation Division supervisor. This change is expected to help streamline day-to-
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RAILFAN.COM
day rail operations on this segment of the corridor and foster additional collaboration between P&SVRR and EDWR to continue developing and expanding rail operations on the line. P&SVRR’s current operating license
expires in February 2018, a few months before its tenth anniversary. Hopefully, a new agreement can be reached with El Dorado County and SPTC-JPA by then that will allow both rails and trails to coexist on the entirety of the corridor.
Riding and Photographing the Line The railroad’s regular motive power
is Howard Terminal No. 8, a Whitcomb (then part of Baldwin Locomotive Works) 44-ton locomotive built in 1943 as a narrow gauge switcher for the U.S. Army. It was later converted to standard gauge and served the docks in Oakland, Calif., on the Howard Terminal Railroad. In February 1987, it was donated by the City of Oakland to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, which
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