By Railfan & Railroad Staff

SANTA PAULA, Calif. — The Sierra Northern Railway’s Ventura Division announced that it was setting up shop in Santa Paula, Calif., after getting into a spat with a local municipality where its operations were previously based. 

The Sierra Northern Railway was designated the operator of the 30-mile former Southern Pacific branch through Ventura County last year after long-time operator Fillmore & Western called it quits. The Sierra Northern is operating it as the Ventura County Division. It has a 35-year lease on the line. Part of that operation was centered around a city-owned piece of property in Fillmore. However, on June 1, the railroad announced in a short press release that it had been asked to leave Fillmore and was moving all of its operations out of town.

The railroad stated that the city was hard to work with on a number of issues. But the city countered that the railroad was not agreeing to the terms of a lease for a piece of city-owned property. City Manager David W. Rowlands said one concern was that the railroad wanted to remove language from the proposed contract that stated the use of the city-owned land could not bother neighbors. The railroad also allegedly wanted the city to “rubber stamp” the construction of buildings on the land without going through the normal review and code compliance process. 

According to a press release, the Sierra Northern will now be working out of a 4,000-square-foot shop owned by Santa Paula Hay and Grain. The facility will be home to all of Sierra Northern’s operations, including passenger excursions, movie and television shoots, freight service and a RailBike rental program. 

“We are pleased to partner with Santa Paula Hay and Grain and the city of Santa Paula to develop our new base of operations,” said Kennan Beard, President of Sierra Northern. “We are looking forward to integrating ourselves into the community.”