The Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society (SPH&TS) held its 2026 annual convention in Visalia, south of Fresno in the San Joaquin valley. Visalia was served by both the SP and SP-subsidiary Visalia Electric. This year’s convention featured several side trips and excursions as well as the usual fare of presentations, vendor room, model displays, and a concluding banquet. This year’s event marks the end of the full traditional set of convention activities as the realities of hobby meetings in the post-pandemic world necessitate activity reductions to match the actual attendance. This year’s event had similar attendance to last year’s in Tucson, a bit over a hundred folk registered.
The convention began on Wednesday for many of us with an extra-fare excursion to the Hillcrest and Ridgley 15-in gauge railway, last visited by the SPH&TS in 2013 with the convention in Fresno. This year’s excursion felt more intimate, probably due to a bit smaller group. We were treated to an excellent tour of their facilities which not only maintain their own steam locomotives and rolling stock but also contract work for other similar operations.
Hillcrest and Ridgley tour in the original shop building.
Our tour included both the original shop and the current major shop. Projects in the new shop were impressive, but I explicitly abided by their desire to not photograph that work involving several other customers. We also rode their train around the extended property which still serves as a Christmas tree farm.
Out on the Hillcrest and Ridgley.
Our Thursday convention activities included a number of presentations at the convention hotel and then a side trip to Kingsburg, CA, and the restored SP depot there. The depot is a fine example of an SP Standard Type 18 depot, the second most prolific standard depot design on the SP. The SPH&TS has a fine model kit available for this style of depot in both HO and N scales. My model from that kit represents the Springfield, Oregon, depot—another of the Type 18 depots still standing.
Kingsburg, CA, depot, still standing along the Valley Mainline.
The community of Kingsburg has done an outstanding job restoring the depot to its historic appearance. A very active and enthusiastic local group reenacts the roles of people working and using the depot. Their reenactments are often performed for elementary school students (3rd or 4th grade) as they portray life a century ago. The preserved depot and presentations are an outstanding educational resource!
Railroad office portion of the Kingsburg depot.
Agent’s home pantry on the second floor of the Kingsburg depot.
Friday’s activities included more presentations at the hotel and another side trip to the Visalia depot. The Visalia depot served as a restaurant after its railroad service, closing due to the pandemic. The folk in Visalia are in the early stages of turing this depot into a community resource similar to Kingsburg.
Visalia depot. This was a joint facility for the Southern Pacific and the Visalia Electric.
Saturday featured a video movie of a 1950s fan trip on the Vidalia Electric plus additional history of the Visalia Electric. The rest of Saturday’s presentations then concentrated on various aspects of modeling the Southern Pacific, including my presentation on my own efforts modeling the SP Cascade Line.
My presentation on the SP Cascade Line.
The convention concluded with a banquet with an excellent banquet presentation featuring postcard images from the early 1900s showing the development of the southern San Joaquin Valley with rail activity showing prominently. Railroads were the way materials and goods were moved over land in that era before paved highways.
Next year’s SPH&TS convention will be in downtown Sacramento.
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