Driving home from the Bay Area up Interstate 505 (the “Winters Cut-off), I jumped off the highway at the Midway Road exit just north of the Nut Tree Airport to look for remnants of the Southern Pacific Clear Lake/ Winters Branch along the modern interstate.
I vaguely remember seeing rail cars along the interstate’s predecessor 2 lane highway as our family travelled back and forth between the Bay Area and Siskiyou County in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I rediscovered the railroad branch while looking at old topographic maps of the area recently.
![](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/E7BD30F4-B397-444D-B55F-DF3E6F82E61B-768x1024.jpeg)
The above topo map shows the railroad running between Hartley Road and the under construction Interstate 505. I explored the stretch between the two arrows, heading north from Midway Road to Allendale Road.
![Google Maps of the same area](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/9B695F67-7042-4E65-9E83-487BDCF75B40-830x1024.jpeg)
![](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/9E68B95D-48E2-4677-8FD1-93C19D752302-768x1024.jpeg)
Starting from Midway and Hartley Roads, the railbed would have come through the middle of the warehouse shown in the above picture. (7 January 2021 update: It should be noted that a brand new warehouse has been constructed on the land in the above photo)
![](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/038F4F6E-0E05-42F0-ACEE-3FF936720AF3-768x1024.jpeg)
Also at this corner is found a USGS benchmark with its associated witness post, monumented in 1904 (Solano County B 44, PID JS1521).
![](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/4BE406D7-161A-44FB-9DF0-03D2518C6E24-768x1024.jpeg)
![](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/D0924C56-B1AB-4D91-A250-5D92FEA8D07C-768x1024.jpeg)
![](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/CFC3F9AD-C9D7-446F-83BC-18C52F37D27B-768x1024.jpeg)
Along this stretch of the abandoned railbed, a number of small drainages are crossed. Below is one the the concrete culverts used to cross these.
![](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/412159EB-0935-4CBE-A7FD-484290D84019-1024x768.jpeg)
![](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/5BCAA7C7-3121-44C8-89B3-98BE704569CE-1024x768.jpeg)
![](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/0CEC1623-D085-4B18-85CE-B24CBF138C5F-768x1024.jpeg)
At Hartley and Allendale Roads, we look back south in the next photo, the the raised railbed to the left in the image.
![](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/0BC362A7-779C-473C-8458-5AB2EC8720C7-1024x768.jpeg)
My quick exploration ends at Allendale Road. The next stretch of railbed is now private property across the road.
![](http://mentalscraps.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/4E4D3B29-3E32-43EA-933F-9B6DEDE1B196-1024x768.jpeg)
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