Riverdale Branch Railroad Ruins

Some time ago I noticed an interesting bridge ruin in the Kings River while traversing rural Kings County on Excelsior Avenue, I finally was able to look into what the bridge was on the 25th. Turns out the bridge that I was looking at was part of the Riverdale Branch Railroad which used to run from Hardwick in Kings County northwest to Burrel in Fresno County.

The Riverdale Branch Railroad was built by the Summit Lake Railroad in 1910 by was eventually absorbed by the Southern Pacific. There was another line running north out of Hardwick that was eventually consolidated via use the Riverdale Branch. The line was short lived with abandonment paperwork being filed in 1951. The tracks of the Riverdale Branch were removed from 1952 to 1960 with the old crossing over the Kings River being the only obvious structure that I've found to date.

As for Hardwick, essentially it is a ghost town these days out in rural northern Kings County. There is a really good piece online hosted by latoncalifornia.com which details the history of Hardwick:

Hardwick California History

Comments

Anonymous said…

The full name for this railroad was the Hanford & Summit Lake railroad owned by a man by the name of L.A. Nares Whom by which the small town of Lanare got it,s name and he lost the rail road in a poker game or so the legend goes this is speculation on the least degree. J.A. Green

6:07 AM

Hawaii Route 8930

Hawaii Route 8930 is a 2.5-mile State Highway on the Island of O'hau. Hawaii Route 8930 is aligned over Kualakai Parkway over the course of its entire alignment south from Interstate H-1 to Kapolei Parkway. Hawaii Route 8930 is one of the newest Hawaii Routes only having been completed during 2010. This page is part of the Gribblenation O'ahu Highways page. All Gribblenation and Roadwaywiz media related to the highway system of O'ahu can be found at the link below: https://www.gribblenation.org/p/gribblenation-oahu-highways-page.html Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 8930 The history of Hawaii Route 8930 is brief given it is a modern facility. Hawaii Route 8930 and what was known as "North-South Road" were built to facilitate the developing areas of Kapolei on western O'ahu. According to hawaiihighways.com the first stage of Hawaii Route 8930 was completed from Kapolei Parkway north to Farrington Highway as a four-lane highway during November...

Madera County Road 607 and the Stockton-Los Angeles Road

Madera County Road 607 is an approximately seven-mile rural unsurfaced highway which spans from Road 600 near Raymond west to Road 29. Road 607 west from Raymond Road Cemetery (established in 1905) is part of the Stockton-Los Angeles Road corridor surveyed in 1853. The corridor lies in the gap between Fresno Crossing at the Fresno River west to Newton's Crossing at the Chowchilla River. The Buchanan Copper Mine would be along what is now Road 607 in the namesake Buchanan Hollow during July 1863. The Buchanan Mine is thought to have once had a population of between 1,000-1,500 residents by the early 1870s. Copper prices would decline in the decade after the Civil War and much of the activity at Buchanan shifted towards cattle ranching. The last businesses in the community would shutter during World War II and it is now a true ghost town. Part 1; the history of Madera County Road 607 and the Stockton-Los Angeles Road What is now Road 607 was a component of the larger Sto...

Old US Route 60/70 through Hell (Chuckwall Valley Road and Ragsdale Road)

Back in 2016 I explored some of the derelict roadways of the Sonoran Desert of Riverside County which were part of US Route 60/70; Chuckwalla Valley Road and Ragsdale Road. US 60 and US 70 were not part of the original run of US Routes in California. According to USends.com US 60 was extended into California by 1932. US 60 doesn't appear on the California State Highway Map until the 1934 edition. USends.com on US 60 endpoints 1934 State Highway Map Conversely US 70 was extended into California by 1934, it first appears on the 1936 State Highway Map. USends.com on US 70 endpoints 1936 State Highway Map When US 60 and US 70 were extended into California they both utilized what was Legislative Route Number 64 from the Arizona State Line west to Coachella Valley. LRN 64 was part of the 1919 Third State Highway Bond Act routes. The original definition of LRN 64 routed between Mecca in Blythe and wasn't extended to the Arizona State Line until 1931 acc...