10-27-2014, 06:16 PM
Very impressed with your layout. The heading"Visalia District" caught my eye as live about 20 miles from Visalia and the other towns with packing houses are within 25 to 30 miles and are towns that I have been to. Most all the packing houses that are still running are all truck served. As I am sure you know, both the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific ran their tracks almost parallel from each other from Fresno south through the east side of the San Joaquin Valley and served so many packing houses. Today, as a lot of the Santa Fe track was ripped up, the San Joaquin Valley Railroad use some track from both railroads to serve the companies that need rail service. One interesting point now is there is still street running in downtown Visalia. Fun to watch as the train blows the horn to cross a street every block for about 3/4 of a mile. Here in Hanford, we have an old packing house about an 1/8 of a mile from my house that was used for grape shipments but is now used as a dance hall. Not a thing of beauty and not something as nice as the building you modeled. We also have one of the two ice house downtown left and it has been repurposed. Again wonderful job building the layout. Thanks for posting.
Al Jones
Al Jones