PS,DY&P - An almost forgotten (& almost defunct) 24" 'Industrial' RR

Hi All (especially you F&W fans) -

Only about three or four miles west of F&W owner Dave Wilkinson's home just off CA Highway 150 between Santa Paula and Ojai, CA lies the K. B. Hall Ranch.  Founded by Henry Hess in 1906, and purchased by patriarch K. B. 'Pete' Hall (1916-2013) in 1955, this 42-acre ranch includes about 15 acres each of almond trees and apricot trees, the latter providing 100% of the non-recreational carloadings of the seasonally operational (two out of three summers on average) Pitting Shed, Drying Yard & Pacific  — a 24" narrow-gauge railroad that has played a crucial role in the more-or-less annual apricot harvest for approximately a century.

Harvesting 'cots is an extremely labor-intensive operation.  After being washed, each apricot is cut in half by hand, the pit removed, and then the two halves carefully arranged on a redwood drying tray.  The trays are then transferred from the pitting shed to the drying yard on the flatcars of the PS,DY&P — with an optional side trip to the sulfur shed, where the 'cots are exposed for two or three days to sulfur dioxide resulting from the burning of a pound or so of sulfur.  (Sulfered 'cots are bright orange, natural 'cots a dark brownish orange after being dried.)  Apricots were at one time a principal crop in Ventura County; SFAIK, the Hall Ranch is the very last to still occasionally harvest 'cots in the traditional way.

The operation – indeed the very size – of the PS,DY&P depends closely on the bulk of each year's crop.  Every so often there is an early warm spell in late February causing the trees to blossom early, followed by a cold spell that kills the budding fruit, and since there are no apricots whatsoever to be harvested the railroad remains dormant for the year.  And sometimes – as in 1972 – there is a mild spring with plenty of rain (unlike this year) that results in an overwhelming abundance of apricots to be harvested and dried, and the permanent 100 yards or so of steel-railed track must be extended by an extra 150 or 200 yards of wooden rails in order to reach the farthest ends of the drying yard.  (Rails of the 'Pacific Extension' of the PS,DY&P are pulled up every autumn following the harvest to allow plowing of the drying yard for weed abatement.)

Here's an evening view to the north from near the temporary end-of-track of the extra-long Pacific Extension taken during the summer of 1972.  Note the wooden rails in the left foreground:



Looking west from about the same location;  Note the wooden rails crossing the middle of the photo, the flatcar at far left, and that the arms of several of the railroad's 0-2-0 transformer locomotives have been twisted and they are now working as forklifts:


Here's an overview of the same area, taken by Tom Hall (Loco #7) from the top of the windmill a few days later; the bright orange 'cots have been "sulfured".  Note the flatcar with boxes into which the 'cots will be dumped once they are thoroughly dry:


A bird's-eye view of the sulfur shed, its transfer table, and the high bridge over 'Gopher Gulch' just to the north.  Note the change from steel rails to wood at the far left, the two flatcars on either side of the track, and the single load of sulfured apricots on the north end of the trestle.  The bin spanning the gulch downstream from the bridge is filled with apricot pits, which contain a significant amount of cyanide, that are saved for sale to commercial processors:


Another view from the windmill, looking northwest.  The rails of the PS,DY&P extend only a short distance out from the north end of the pitting shed to an area where 'cots are received from the field boxes and washed before being pitted.  The light green trees in the background are almonds, in the middle of which K. B.'s vineyard was hidden.  As can be seen, the harvest in '72 was so heavy that several trays were hand-carried to a makeshift drying field northeast of the pitting shed:


(To be continued . . . )

- Sincerely, Willie  (Wm. Claude Johnson-Barr III, Esq.)  
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Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2023 09:00PM by Johnson Barr.