Connections and Neighbors
Central California Traction Company
Incorporated on August 7, 1905, the Central California Traction Company
was originally conceived as a second streetcar line for the citizens of Stockton, serving as an alternative to the Stockton Electric Railroad. September 1, 1907 saw the beginning of electric passenger train service between Stockton and Lodi, in direct competition with Southern Pacific Railroad. By August 1910, the line had reached Sacramento and passenger trains began through service, followed almost immediately by freight service. CCT's freight operations carried merchandise, livestock and produce (primarily grapes, strawberries and sugar beets). At its peak, the Traction Company was operating 36 passenger trains a day, over and above its freight operations.
Because of CCT's interurban style of operations, the line used overhead wires in the cities of Stockton, Lodi and Sacramento, but power between the cities was fed by a covered third rail that was energized at 1200 volts DC. The road
was one of the first to use the high tension DC power in the United States. Power in the cities was still at 600 volts by catenary. The CCT was a close ally of the Tidewater Southern and its predecessors from the beginning. TS
electric motor 100 was rebuilt by the Traction Company shops from CCT flat motor 1. The Stockton shops also maintained all TS interurban cars and electric freight motors, at least until the end of mainline electrification in 1932.
The TS often borrowed CCT interurban trailers and freight motors, the latter documented as late as World War II when CCT 7 worked the remaining electric segment in Modesto.
CCT underwent a major management change in 1928 when the owning family tried to sell the company to the Southern Pacific. What followed was a struggle for control between the Western Pacific, Santa Fe, and SP Railroads. Finally, in 1936, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) decided that the three railroads would share control of the CCT. While the struggle for ownership had raged, CCT fell to the economic climate of the times and on February 4, 1933, the last interurban passenger train made its final run. CCT's freight operations continued under electricity, but demands on power created service problems.
The CCT evolved into a busy shortline catering primarily to the food industry. While it lost most of its shippers in Stockton by the 1980's, major industrial development in both Lodi and around
Polk, just south of Sacramento, kept the carload coming. The little GE switchers of the 1950's gave way to Alco S-series switchers and eventually to GP7s and GP18s by the 1980's. Traffic began to decline during the
80's. While the Santa Fe and Western Pacific were interested in aiding the shortline, the Southern Pacific often took pains to undercut its stepchild. Plans for major new shippers on the north end were scuttled and the road watched
its revenues decline even farther. By the early 1990's, the Union Pacific had acquired 2/3 ownership through its mergers of the WP and SP. While discussions began to allow the CCT to take over switching of the Port of Stockton
(then jointly operated by the UP and Santa Fe), the UP made moves to eliminate the CCT mainline from Polk to Stockton. Deferred maintanence, a result of the power plays between the owning roads in the 70's and 80's, had left the line
prone to derailments. In 1998, the UP took over all switching in Polk and the line north of Lodi Jct. was embargoed. Soon, a proposal emerged to hook the dormant former SP Kentucky House Branch into the CCT main to reach industries
on the east side of Lodi, allowing removal of the CCT south of Lodi Jct. The writing was on the wall. Fate intervened, however. The City of Lodi adamently oppossed the Kentucky House plan and eventually agreed to find
funding to rebuild the CCT main into Stockton. Port operations grew dramatically and the railroad, which had reduced its locomotive fleet to just 2 engines, suddenly found itself leasing then buying 4 SW1500 switchers and another
GP7. The attitude of the owners reversed and now the CCT was given a directive to make money and expand its services. Today, traffic over the two segments of track - 15 miles of track from Stockton to Lodi, and the Port of
Stockton Trackage - is growing as new shippers are added and carloadings increase. Today, CCT runs three shifts. One works out of the old CCT shops on Cherokee Road in Stockton, using GP7u 44, a chop-nose former Alameda Belt
Line/nee ATSF unit and recently rebuilt and repainted CCT 1790, one of the two, rare GP18s that joined the road from the Rock Island in 1980. This crew runs five days a week between Stockton and Lodi. The second and third shifts
work the Port of Stockton, new home of the Traction Company's main offices and now the source of a lion's share of its traffic. The port crews run 6 days a week and use 4 ex-Southern Pacific SW1500. Symbolic of the road's rebirth,
these engines are currently receiving revived CCT red and white colors as the company prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary.
In 1946, the switch from electricity to diesel power began with the arrival of a pair of GE 44-tonners. On December 24, 1947, the the pantographs were dropped for the last time and the Traction Company was diesel powered. Several CCT freight motors still survive, including restored 7, an occaisional visitor to Modesto on the TS, and two ex-Red River Lumber electrics in South America.
