Tidewater Southern Railway

Turlock Depot

Opened in 1916, today the depot in Turlock is the only surviving true Tidewater station.  Built with both a passenger waiting area and a freight dock, it never saw regular passenger service as the railroad decided to pursue freight traffic instead.  The only varnish to ever grace its rails were a few excursions in the 1950's.  Built to a design reminiscient of California's Mission Style, it was reportedly the only depot of its look and plan on the railroad.  Today, it houses several company offices and its freight dock is fenced in for storage by one of them.  It lies just south of the heart of downtown Turlock, near the former Southern Pacific tracks and just before the severed TS-SP interchange.  Downtown has recently undergone a redevelopment that has ended just shy of the depot.  While trains no longer regularly pass it, the rails (embeded in the middle of C Street) remain as do several classic TS wooden crossbucks.

NEW

2003 Photo Essay
by Eugene John Vicknair