Johnson Barr Wrote:
=======================================================
> 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 & Ojai lies the K.B. Hall
> Ranch. Founded by Henry Hess in 1906, and
> purch-
> ased by patriarch K.B. 'Pete' Hall (1916-2013) in
> 1955, this 42-acre ranch includes about 15 acres
> each of almond trees & apricot trees, the latter
> providing 100% of the non-recreational carloadings
>
> of the seasonally operational
> (most-summers-only) 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
> railroad's 0-2-0 locomotives are also 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 brighter green trees in
> the background are almonds, in the middle of which
> K.B.'s vineyard is hidden. As can be seen, the
> harvest in '72 was so heavy that several trays
> were hand-carried to the northeast of the pitting
> shed:
>
>
> (To be continued ... )
I can't resist this,,,,That RR is really the pits.
