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This week we will take a ride on the railroads that the Galt area came
so much to depend. Are you ready explorers, rovers and pioneers to come to this
new land on the iron horse? All aboard!
Have you heard the one about…
…the last electric freight railroad in California, the depot that stored its
freight and the quarters for its work crew?
Well, the railroad was the Central California Traction Line (C.C.T.). It
connected Herald with Lodi, Sacramento and Stockton from 1910 to 1933. The
Traction line was also the first California railroad to use high tension
current.
The two bankers who financed the C.C.T.- Herbert Fleishaker from San
Francisco and Alden Anderson from Sacramento – sat down one day in 1905 to
decide upon a name for one of the C.C.T.’s scheduled stops. So Herald came to be
from the first two syllables of their first names. The Amador Branch of the
Central Pacific Railroad or, as we know it, the Southern Pacific, brought gold
and passengers for transfer to the C.C.T. line in Herald.
With the early 1940s, Sandy Quiggle bought the passenger Traction line depot
for $5 and used it as a horse stall and storage shed. In 1955, Bill and Ruth
Mori took ownership of the freight depot and donated it to the Herald Day
committee. Today, it sits on Ivie Road on the land the Herald Day committee
leased from the Herald Fire Department. Rumor has it that the depot will
be restored to its original condition for community use.
…the greatest train wreck in 1916? The Amador Branch of the Central Pacific
Railroad was on its way to transfer its freight and passengers to the C.C.T. in
Herald when it happened!
The west bound train from Ione never made it to its destination on this
Sunday morning. The railcars just passed over the bridge crossing where Twin
Cities Road and Alta Mesa cross when the rails spread. The train toppled.
Seats were ripped from their bolts and flung along with their passengers to the
lower sides of the cars where wayfarers, miners and pilgrims alike were burned
by overturned stoves.
Train hands courageously and successfully battled the flames from the burning
fuel propelled from those stoves. A wooden splinter pierced the hip of one. A
Wells-Fargo messenger sat against the gold and money box holding his gun and
ignoring his injured back and cut mouth. Brother Durham, on his way to
conduct his usual Sunday morning services at the Clay Community Church, could
not be counted among the survivors – survivors who were severely bruised or
critically injured.
Sacramento sent rescuers and equipment to the disaster site by way of Galt.
A “hook” to upright the train and a hospital car busied themselves amid the
tangled wreck while onlookers stood frozen in horror.
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