Riverdale Branch Railroad Ruins

Some time ago I noticed an interesting bridge ruin in the Kings River while traversing rural Kings County on Excelsior Avenue. I finally was able to look into what the bridge was on the 25th. Turns out the bridge that I was looking at was part of the Riverdale Branch Railroad. Said line used to run from Hardwick in Kings County northwest to Burrel in Fresno County.

The Riverdale Branch Railroad was built by the Summit Lake Railroad. It was later absorbed by the Southern Pacific circa 1910. There was another line running north out of Hardwick that was eventually consolidated via use the Riverdale Branch. The line was short lived with abandonment paperwork being filed in 1951. The tracks of the Riverdale Branch were removed from 1952 to 1960 with the old crossing over the Kings River being the only obvious structure that I've found to date.

As for Hardwick, essentially it is a ghost town these days out in rural northern Kings County. There is a really good piece online hosted by latoncalifornia.com which details the history of Hardwick:

Hardwick California History

Comments

Anonymous said…

The full name for this railroad was the Hanford & Summit Lake railroad owned by a man by the name of L.A. Nares Whom by which the small town of Lanare got it,s name and he lost the rail road in a poker game or so the legend goes this is speculation on the least degree. J.A. Green

6:07 AM

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