On December 21, 1946, a 44-tonner arrived from GE numbered 135. It had been ordered along with five similar "mice" for the Sacramento Northern and brought about the retirement of TS 1. The venerable 4-6-0 was put out to pasture in November 1946, and its tender applied to WP 124, lettering intact, which continued to haunt TS rails. New 135 began working mainline trains and often rotated with the two "juice-jacks" in the Tidewater's signature game of "pull the steam train" down Modesto's Ninth Street. In April 1948, two GE 70-tonners arrived numbered 141 and 142. These locomotives heralded the end of electric service on the line. GE motor 106 had been sold to the Sacramento Northern as SN 670 on March 31, 1948, although it appears to have moved to the SN some months earlier. Wood-body motor 100, the first electric freight engine on the road, would hold out to be the last, finally retiring on April 26, 1948. After 35 years, the last wire on the Tidewater came down.

Tidewater Southern Railway

Doing the Job...1947-1966

History of the

Always Never the Same
1967-1976
ever changing motive power oversees the road's slide into anonimity

Next chapter...

In 1951-52, all three TS diesels were renumbered replacing the 1 in their numbers with a 7. GE 70-tonner 743 joined the road in mid-1953.  By 1954 or 55, TS 132, perhaps the last revenue steam locomotive left on the WP system, had its fires dropped for the final time. For the first time since the earliest days, the Tidewater was using only one kind of motive power.

According to company records, it was about this time that the Hilmar line was abandoned beyond Chemurgic.  It is uncertain when service to Hilmar ended, but the railroad land in the town was all sold by 1956.  Other land and structure sales began occuring as the traffic base shifted from fresh produce to canned and manufactured goods.  Packing sheds, once numerous and vital, would begin to disappear as would the freight agencies that managed them.  While the line was losing these symbols of old prosperity, it was also being rebuilt with heavier materials to handle the growth of its new traffic.

The Tidewater would remain very stable through the bucolic late 1950's and the turbulent 1960's. The road was prosperous, hauling a bounty of agricultural products from the numerous packing companies and food plants along its route and from the MET interchange in Modesto. Management declared dividends in the early 1960's (WP was a majority owner, there were still independent shareholders) as the company continued to post profits.

Profits and growth meant more traffic was rolling down the rails. Built as an interurban, the Tidewater had long suffered from a physical plant that, while well-built and sturdy by trolley standards, was not up to the task of modern, high capacity freight cars. Throughout the 1950's and 60's, the road upgraded its structure, laying heavier rail and replacing several original bridges with sturdier structures, including the long Stanislaus River Bridge south of Escalon in 1955.  According to some sources, these upgrades allowed the retirement of steam engine 132, which had been retained partly to work light trackage, and would later allow the TS to use larger, more modern diesels and freight cars.

Traffic growth was handled with borrowed WP switchers and geeps and leased SN 44 and 70 tonners. And TS motive power often stepped off-line to aid its parent and sibling. The caboose roster grew, with the road adding three of WP's signature outside-braced, wood-body cupola hacks. The most notable changes on the line were in its freight rolling stock, as the Tidewater updated its fleet of boxcars and gondolas. Most significant was a series of boxcars bearing the "Cornucopia" logo, perhaps one of the most colorful railroad heralds in history.

Ancient 4-6-0 WP 122 switches at Aurora on November 11, 1947.  Off in the distance waits TS 100.  The motive power change at Aurora will not last much longer.

photo by Guy Dunscomb.

Martin Hansen collection.

The delivery of 25 boxcars marked the beginning of the Tidewater's freight fleet expansion.  Only these first cars wore the colorful Cornucopia logo.

photographer unknown.

The "Cornucopia" cars were conspicuous examples of the Tidewater's independence from parent WP. While the SN was slowly being dismembered through the 1960's and on into the 70's, the Tidewater held on to its physical integrity and its identity. Big changes in motive power finally came in 1967, when two Alco S2s, late of the Missouri Pacific, were brought in to replace the obsolete GEs.