Tomorrow is the one year anniversary that the Santa Maria Valley Railroad was purchased by the Coast Belle Rail Corp. from the descendants of Captain G. A. Hancock. The SMVRR will be celebrating by having an open house during Santa Maria's Grapes and Grains Festival on Saturday Oct. 6 from 10:00 to 4:00 at the freight depot, 628 S. McClelland Street, Santa Maria, California. On display will be Engines 70 and 1801, speeders, and other equipment, possibly San Luis Railroad Museum's private 1926 Pullman observation car La Condesa. The SMVRR is considering to use the La Condesa for future dinner excursions. Also a 7 1/2" miniature train ride for children and adults alike. Inside the depot will be displays of the current operations and the company store. Recent news The SMVRR appointed long time GM Dave Jennings to additional title VP and Chief Operating Officer and Business Manager Leah Figaro as Controller. Santa Maria Valley Railroad has announced an alliance with Cochiolo Trucking Company to serve as SMVRR's third party transportation logistics partner. This alliance provides transload services, temporary warehousing of products, cross docking, and trucking for door to door service with any customer in the Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County. This will enable businesses outside of the Santa Maria Valley to take advantage of the pricing, service, and environmentally friendly advantages of rail transportation with the convenience of truck delivery to their location. Rob Himoto, President of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad, stated that a good example is "a building contractor in San Luis Obispo needed building material for a major project and transporting the material by rail was significantly less expensive than trucking the material from the manufacturing plant. The problem is that the contractor did not have access to rail in San Luis Obispo. Cochiolo Trucking solved the problem by having the material transported by rail to the Santa Maria Valley Railroad. The material was transloaded off of the railcars in the Santa Maria Valley Railroad rail yard on to trucks. Cochiolo Trucking transported the material by truck directly to the job site in San Luis Obispo. By reducing the truck transit from over 1,000 miles to 30 miles, it represented a significant cost savings as well as alleviates congestion on the highways. Another benefit is less greenhouse gases and air pollution due to the efficiency of railroads." Cochiolo Trucking, Inc. is based in Santa Maria, California and has been providing Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties with truck transportation service since 1969. Cochiolo Trucking, Inc. can provide general freight transportation to anywhere in the continental United States. For more information contact Cochiolo Trucking Inc. at (805) 343-2100.
