For the first time since at least the mid-1920s, the Santa Maria Valley Railroad Co. is not based in downtown Santa Maria.

Over the past few weeks, the short-line railroad company - founded in 1911 and owned by the G. Allan Hancock family for more than 80 years - has relocated to an industrial park just west of the city and south of Guadalupe.

Rob Himoto, president of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad, said the move from the railyard at McClelland and Jones streets to the Betteravia Industrial Park is more suited for railroad operations, particularly the unloading of goods from railcars to trucks.

“Here we can grow our transloading operations,” he said.

The new location, on the site of the old Union Sugar mill in Betteravia, additionally has warehouse space, food grade storage silos and a petroleum grade storage tank. Rail is a more efficient way of moving goods as one railcar can equal three to five truck loads, Himoto said, and excess inventory can be stored on the site. The relocation began in early September with the SMVRR headquarters move from the old freight depot building downtown and continued through the month with the dismantling of rails to McClelland Street and the removal of equipment and materials to be relocated.

Established in 1911 by an English syndicate to transport oil from Roadamite in Cat Canyon to Union Pacific lines in Guadalupe, SMVRR was owned by Capt. G. Allan Hancock from 1925 to 1965, the year he died. Hancock bought the railroad at auction in Santa Barbara for $75,000 in February 1925 and by May 1927, SMVRR was among the nation's top produce shippers, according to historians. One of the major sources of traffic for the railroad besides oil and vegetables was the transport of sugar beets to the mill where the company is now based. The mill closed in 1993.

Hancock's widow, Marian, with Sue Sword as general manager, took control of the company after his death.

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Sword retired in 2000 as president of the SMVRR.

In 2006, Coast Belle Rail Corp. bought the 14.8-mile railroad from descendants of the Hancock family, ending 81 years of family ownership. The railyard, which includes an engine house and roundhouse, was not a part of the SMVRR purchase.

Mike Parry, president of G.A. Hancock Properties and La Brea Land Company, served as SMVRR president from 2000 to 2006 as part of his 24 years with the company. The former railyard makes up a portion of the family-owned 20 plus acres downtown and a master plan for the properties is being developed to determine land uses, Parry said.

The properties are inside the Downtown Specific Plan area, a blueprint for a pedestrian- and destination-oriented area covering about 50 square blocks and roughly 268 acres centered on Main Street and Broadway.

The railroad's move out of downtown is a encouraging one, he said.

“It's all positive,” Parry said. “The railroad has a better place. It's not lost. There's a chance to develop the land for better use.”

He said the existing buildings will remain on the site until they are in the way of development.

Richard Chenoweth, director of the Santa Maria Valley Historical Society Museum, said he'd like to see the buildings built by Hancock not long after buying the railroad preserved.

“History is gone when buildings are torn down,” Chenoweth said.

Santa Maria Valley Railway Historical Museum President Dan Alves said he'd also like to see the buildings on the site preserved, particularly the depot building. The railroad buildings are “landmarks in the growth of the city” as the depot was once marked the city's southern edge for many years, he said.

“It's an ideal place to showcase history,” Alves said. “Maybe that's the way we could best say ‘goodbye' to railroad operations in downtown Santa Maria.”

Alves said it's “kind of a sad day” that day-to-day functions of the railroad are gone from downtown and locomotives won't be crossing South Broadway anymore.

October 21, 2008