The railroad was built by the
American Trona Company in 1914, to bring the mining company's
potash to an interchange with the
Southern Pacific Railroad. The company and its Trona Railway has had various subsequent owners, including American Potash & Chemical Corporation,
Kerr-McGee Corporation,
IMC Global,
Sun Capital, LLC, before the current ownership of Searles Valley Minerals, Inc. On Dec. 27 2007, Karnavati Holdings, a subsidiary of Nirma Limited, acquired all of Searles Valley Minerals, Inc. In the 1920s, the
Epsom Salts Monorail delivered
epsomite to the Trona Railway at Magnesium Siding, about south of Trona. This unique system extended eastwards into the
Owlshead Mountains, was in use from 1924 to 1926, and was dismantled in the late 1930s.
Construction The idea of building a standard gauge railroad to replace mule-drawn wagons came from Stafford W. Austin, the receiver of the American Trona Corporation. The railroad would connect Searles Valley with a lower cost connection to the markets within the United States and to ocean ports for exports. On 27 September 1913 the wife of Joseph Hutchinson broke ground with an old fashioned plow, to start the construction of Trona Railroad. The work force of 400 included American, Chinese, Greek, Hindu, Mexican, Irish, Norwegian and Swedish workers. They finished the task within 6 months despite battling occasional sandstorms. The construction was event-free, apart from one runaway tank car down the track from Searles Station. This struck the construction train and derailed several cars without causing injuries. The construction of the track was completed by end of March 1914, and the first excursion was conducted in May 1914.
Steam locomotives The operation began with two new oil-fired Baldwin 2-8-0 steam locomotives. The locomotives weighed 104 tonnes each and their boilers produced steam at 200 pounds pressure. When they were coupled together, they had a combined pulling capacity of 500 tons. in Buena Park, California.
Passenger service In addition to carrying inbound fuel oil and outbound fertilizer and chemical products from the new chemical plants in Searles Valley, the Trona Railway also carried passengers to and from Trona. Regular passenger services continued until 1937. A self-propelled coach for pupils of Westend, South Trona and Borosolvay to attend the school in Trona ran up to 1941. This coach was sold in 1941 to the
California Western Railroad as their number M-200 for the
Skunk Train from
Willits, California, to
Fort Bragg, California. At least one
EMD SW1200 switcher is also on the roster. == Operations ==