Tag: Mococo Line

Articles about the Southern Pacific Railroad’s so-called Mococo Line, originally the San Pablo & Tulare Extension Railroad Company, which connected Martinez and Tracy, California.

Built as a subsidiary of the Central Pacific Railroad, it gained its familiar “Mococo” nickname from one of the industries it served, the MOuntain COpper COmpany. It was largely unused except for freight car storage during the 1990s and 2000s.

 

Mileposts: Bethany (MP 75.7)

The village of Bethany could, once upon a time, be found along the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Martinez-to-Tracy extension, just a few miles outside the latter city’s limits.

These days, few signs remain of Bethany: an old farm road that ends near the tracks is perhaps the most significant remnant. (A reservoir in the nearby Livermore Hills is named for the town, but is several miles distant.)

The Central Pacific Railroad built a depot at Bethany around 1878 along the extension, which was constructed as the San Pablo & Tulare Railroad; in the early Twentieth Century, this section of tracks appeared on USGS maps – including the one below from 1914 – as the Southern Pacific’s “San Francisco and New Orleans Line.”

Today, it is known to railheads as the “Mococo Line.” It was the construction of this extension that led directly to the birth of Tracy at the end of the 1870s.

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The San Joaquin Daylight

Showing here (above) is a portion of the schedule for the San Joaquin Daylight for the segment during which it traversed the so-called “Mococo Line” (from MOuntain COpper COmpany) from Martinez to Tracy and back again, excerpted from the Southern Pacific’s official Timetable #10, issued on May 12, 1968.

San Joaquin Daylight (Photo)

A Southern Pacific promo shot of the steam-powered San Joaquin Daylight near Bakersfield in the 1940s

Following the SP’s practice of designating “east” and “west” on its timetables based on the location of its Market Street corporate headquarters in San Francisco, the “eastward” San Joaquin Daylight (Train 52, originating in Oakland) is actually heading south to Los Angeles, while the “westward” return trip (Train 51, originating in L.A.) is heading north to Oakland.

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Associated Oil Tank Farm – Tracy, California

For decades, oil from Kern County was transported by pipeline and via rail in tank cars (appropriately dubbed “oil cans”) to this Associated Oil storage facility in Tracy, which served as a way station as the oil traveled to Port Costa.

At this facility, oil was pumped into the six large tanks, then piped through heaters in the building (see at right in the photo below) where it was heated then sent on its way to the refinery at Port Costa. Heating reduced the viscosity of the oil, allowing it to flow more smoothly through the pipes.

This facility was built in 1917 as one of a chain of tank farms from Kern County up to San Pablo Bay. It remained in service until 1968, and was dismantled in 1974. Until then, the path of present-day Tracy Blvd. – then known as McKinley Blvd. – ended at the dozen tracks that led from the Southern Pacific’s sprawling yard in downtown Tracy. On the other side of the tracks was the aptly-named Oil Road, which continued out to the west side of town. The two thoroughfares were joined in the late 1970s and renamed as Tracy Boulevard.

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