On Southern Pacific's Coast Line, the little agricultural town of Guadalupe is located immediately south of the Santa Maria River in the northwestern extremity of Santa Barbara County. The small town, a tight cluster of buildings surrounded by farmland near the Pacific Ocean, is only 1.3 square miles in size. But although most of SP’s passenger trains did not stop here, it qualified for an SP Standard Depot 22 because it was the junction with the Santa Maria Valley Railroad, which interchanged with SP and headed east to the larger city of Santa Maria. This station is seen here on July 1, 1976, with a still active train order signal. A few years later, I stopped here again in the evening with the thought of attempting some night shots, only to find that the center section of the station had already been razed as the venerable wood structure was being reduced to kindling. Today, however, Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner trains stop in Guadalupe’s newer, smaller stucco station.
