Stolen from the Altamont Press:

Fillmore & Western Railway temporarily shut down

The Fillmore & Western Railway, which offers weekend excursions and dinner-train tours between Santa Paula and Fillmore, California aboard vintage railroad cars has been temporarily forced out of business.

A trestle and about 1,200 feet of track at Hopper Creek near Piru and about one-third of a mile of track near Fillmore were washed out, said railroad owner Dave Wilkinson.

The Ventura County Transportation Commission owns the track and will probably obtain federal and state disaster aid for repairs estimated at $750,000, he said.

Meanwhile, the railroad, which also moves limited quantities of lumber between Piru and Santa Paula, will lose $50,000 to $60,000 in revenue and will have to delay expansion of its tour business to Piru until the summer. The only good thing, Wilkinson said, is that it happened during the slow season.

"This happens every seven or eight years," he sighed. "All things considered, it could have been a lot worse. But all things considered, it could have been a lot better, too." - Tim McLain, The Ventura County Star, courtesy Larry W. Grant


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