Placerville part 2
Following the line through Placerville crossing Coloma Street headed northeast. This part of the line is a straight shot through town, paralleling hangtown creek. Then, a short distance before Bedford Ave the line makes a turn to the east, still paralleling the creek and Union St.
Mid to Upper Placerville
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| Looking East toward the center of town. Placerville Creek at left |
Where the line turns east, paralleling Union Street, the Placerville Fruit Growers Association in the 1920's was a prominent part of the landscape. Packing house, precooling room built of concrete block, box shed and icing deck were all there to serve and ship fruit grown in and around Placerville and Camino. During fruit season this was a very busy place. Normally, Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe or CP< standard gauge shay #1 and #2 worked the upper Placerville area for the Southern Pacific, but during high fruit season the SP brought on power, usually in the form of 2-8-0 Consolidations, to assist with building outgoing fruit blocks.
First, Bedford to Clay, then the line as it was between Union and Main Streets.
Note at the top of the Union and Main Streets map is the Lambert Marketing Fruit Packing Shed and just beyond that Shell Oil Company. Several photos of this area follow
1. Looking westward upper Placerville Paul Beckstrom Collection
Note that photo 1 was taken before the giant pre cooler room was built
2. Eastward overlooking turntable and in the box sheds in the background. Notice the cooling tower on the top of the precooling room Paul Beckstrom Collection
Note that in this later photograph the cooling tower can be seen atop the concrete blocked pre cooling room
3. 4-8-0 on the Turntable at Placerville Paul Beckstrom Collection
4. PFGA precooling building
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4vGWe2YUX3yVG9ZeG1nVy12Ymc
Note the icing platform in front of the precooling building
