Tidewater Southern Railway

Interchange Map circa 1965

For such a short railroad, the Tidewater interchanged with a fairly large number of other lines, particularly in Stockton.

STOCKTON

The railroad's most important interchange point.  Here, the TS connected with parent Western Pacific (and, technically, the SN, after the car ferry "Ramon" was removed from service and the railroad received trackage rights from Sacramento to Pittsburg) and, via the WP, with the Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, Central California Traction and Stockton Terminal & Eastern.

MODESTO

While the TS exchanged cars here with the SP (and shared some industrial tracks), the main connection in Modesto was with the Modesto and Empire Traction Company.  This prosperous shortline funneled much traffic to the Tidewater and its interchange was the main reason for the survival of the Ninth Street trackage in the late 1990's.  The MET probably also moved some TS interchange to and from the Santa Fe.

TURLOCK

The lowest volume of the road's interchange points, only the Southern Pacific connected here.  At various times, the interchange tracks in central Turlock were reported as being out of service, but this has not been verified.

MANTECA and ESCALON

Although Tidewater tracks reached close to those of the SP (Manteca) and Santa Fe (Escalon) at these points (in Manteca, the roads shared leads into the Spreckel's Sugar Plant), there is no evidence that the TS ever maintained interchange connections at either town.

map by Eugene John Vicknair, copyright 2001