Announcements

June 6, 2010

On Sunday July 11th the Santa Maria Valley Railroad will be having a 99th Anniversary Celebration at the Betteravia Industrial Park. There will be tours of the rail facilities and displays starting at 10:00. A BBQ lunch featuring a Santa Maria style BBQ tri tip, SMVRR beans, and garlic bread for $10.00 starts at 11:30. In the afternoon there will be fundraiser Motorcar rides from Betteravia to the interchange track at Guadalupe to benefit the Friends of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad, the non profit organization dedicated to preserving the history of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad. The Motorcar Operators West will be running a speeder excursion that day and they will be arriving from their morning run at about 11:30. The Company Store will be open where you can buy official SMVRR apparel and other souviner items.

March 7, 2010

Friends announces National Train Day (May 8th) activities surrounding Caboose #210 at the Guadalupe Amtrak Station. More…

February 18, 2010

A number of calendar updates (see the Program page):

December 7, 2009

This Saturday's Work Day will be on Cabooose #210 at the Guadalupe train station: December 12, 2009. We'll start out at the SMVRR headquarters at Betteravia at 9:00am.

September 10, 2009

A number of calendar updates were announced at the Friends meeting this evening:

September 4, 2009

Central Coast Rail Road Festival, October 8-12, 2009
Details are here.

August 30, 2009

MOW Speeder Run, November 14-15
Motorcar Operators West (MOW) Speeder Run on the SMVRR. Plan now to help out! See the last speeder run.

July 22, 2009

Goleta Railroad Days is August 1-2
The Friends will have a booth. Let Rob or Kevin know if you can help man the booth.

August Work Day Set for the 15th
The August Friends Work Day will be Saturday, August 15, 2009 starting at 9am at the railroad headquarters at the Betteravia Industrial Park. Our regular 2nd Saturday would have conflicted with the Narrow Gauge Meet at Bitter Creek set for August 7-9.

June 29, 2009

Details for our July 12 Birthday Party
All Friends of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad are invited. We will have a hot dog BBQ lunch, tours, displays, and some train rides. Lunch is free although if you would like to help us defer costs a donation of drinks, dessert, chips etc. would be greatly appreciated. The event will run from 10:00 to 2:00. There will be some short train rides in the morning for $10.00 per person, $8.00 for children 12 and under. Please RSVP to the railroad. More…

June 21, 2009

Extra Work Day Scheduled: Saturday, June 27, 2009
This special Friends Work Day will start at 9am with a safety and job briefing. Required attire are steel toe work boots, gloves, safety glasses, and a safety vest. Additionally you must be familiar with the On Track Safety Manual and completed the Orientation Training for Volunteers. We will be sprucing up the right of way for our event next month. There will be other volunteer duties that day that have fewer requirements. More…

May 8, 2009

May's Work Day will be the 23rd.
June 6: Friends' Dinner Excursion, contact the railroad
July 12: SMVRR 98th Anniversary, open house and rides at the SMVRR

January 15, 2009

February's Work Day will be the 7th. In order to prepare for the Valentine's Day excursions and not conflict with them, the February Work Day has been moved to Feburary 7th.

December 31, 2008

2nd Saturday Work Days in 2009. On second Saturdays of every month beginning January 10, 2009, Friends of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad will gather at the Betteravia headquarters at 9:00am for a work party.

December 4, 2008

The Santa Claus Excursions (Flyer) are almost sold out for this Saturday (12/6/08). In fact we opened another excursion for 4:45pm, if anyone is still interested there are still seats available for the fourth run.

Our Company Store will be open for all of your Christmas shopping from 12:00 to 6:00 on Saturday during the Santa Excursions. Just in a new DVD, The Colorful Southern Pacific. This new DVD features SP trains from Yuma, Arizona to West Colton covering the intermodals of more recent times to the sugar beet runs. There is a special section on the Union Sugar Plant in Betteravia and some rare footage of SMV #10 and #20 when they were still operating in 1992. Also some very rare footage of SMV engine 60, the GE U6B locomotive. The DVD is $29.50 plus tax.

Back in stock our popular SMVRR jackets from small to XL. These jackets make a great Christmas gift for your favorite SMVRR railroader. Jackets are for sale in our company store for $95.00 plus tax.

Rare booklets and other artifacts are for sale at our company store including a rare Hancock Red Book. All members of the Friends of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad recieves a 10% discount on all purchases.

Thank you all for your continued support of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad!

November 19, 2008

Santa Claus Train: December 6, 2008.
Santa Claus will be making a special trip on board the Santa Claus Excursion on the Pullman Observation Car La Condesa! Departures: 1:00 p.m., 2:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. Adults $20. Children 12 and under $15. Excursion includes a photo of your children with Santa Claus on board the La Condesa and hot chocolate and cookies after the excursion! See the Flyer (PDF) for details.

November 3, 2008

Next Spring's MOW Speeder Run on the SMVRR has been tentatively scheduled for April 4, 2009. The current plan is to open the Bitter Creek Western Railroad to the Speeder group the next day. Pics from Nov '08...

October 31, 2008

During the course of the MOW Speeder Run this weekend on the SMVRR, a silent auction will be held in which you may bid via email. More…

October 23, 2008

On Saturday October 25, we will have a work party to clean flangeways. If interested we will start at 9:00 and wear appropriate work clothing. This is physical work. For those of you who would like to help but would rather not participate in the physical work, we will need help preparing and serving lunch, setting up displays, and putting together welcome packages and badges. More…

October 16, 2008

Everyone who is interested in volunteering for the speeder event, we will need flaggers, food prep, servers and BBQ, check in, tour guides, and gate monitors. Volunteers interested in flagging, tour guides, and gate monitors must have the orientation training completed. Additionally flaggers will be trained by MOW and will be working under MOW. The speeder event is two days, Saturday and Sunday Nov. 1 and 2.

September 12, 2008

Mark your calendar for these upcoming events; details to follow.

September 11, 2008

The Friends have embarked on a project to acquire the SMVRR blacksmith shop equipment and supplies. You can help!

August 18, 2008

There will be a NARCOA/MOW Speeder Run on the SMVRR November 1-2, 2008.

July 30, 2008

The Friends has accepted ownership of the SMVRR Yahoo Group. This newsgroup has existed for several years now, and its original owner has passed it on to us.

October 22, 2007

The La Condesa, a 1926 Pullman Observation Car donated to the San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum, came to the Santa Maria Valley Railroad on Monday October 22, 2007. More…

September 25, 2007

Now available at the SMVRR store: Jackets with the SMVRR large heritage logo on the back and smaller one on the front like our newly arrived t-shirts. Port Authority jacket with Teklon nylon shell, lightweight fleece lining; elastic waistband, this superb jacket is classic and sporty, lightweight yet rugged. In black, sizes small - XL. $95.00. Special Friends price for Jacket preorders is $83.00!

All members of the Friends of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad get a 10% discount off of all regular priced items at the SMVRR store.

August 10, 2007

The Silver Lariat will be making two deadhead moves from Oakland to Los Angeles on the back of Amtrak no. 11 on August 19 and August 29. Burt Hermey is selling seats on the Silver Lariat for $125.00. This includes all meals. This will not be the regular staffed run, Burt will be doing all of the cooking and steward duties. He will discount it for people getting on or off in San Luis Obispo.

Stan Garner, the owner of the Pony Express, an ex-CN baggage car now based on the Santa Fe Southern Railroad, worked on a movie that will be premiering on Sept. 7 called 3:10 to Yuma. It is a western and Stan consulted on all of the railroad scenes. Stan was also in charge of building the track out in the middle of an Arizona desert.

Also the railroad display area will be open for Grapes and Grains, which will be held the first Saturday in October.

June 9, 2007

The Amtrak Reefer Special came into Guadalupe today and SMV 1801 is there to pick up the Silver Lariat which came on the Amtrak Special. Interesting consist, would have made a great picture.