Santa Maria Valley Railroad

10/01/2026

20 years ago today Coast Belle Rail Corp led by Rob Himoto and the Himoto Family purchased the Santa Maria Valley Railroad from the descendants of Captain G. Allan Hancock. Today we are partnered with OmniTRAX, a private short line holding company owned by the Broe Family. The Santa Maria Valley Railroad has been a private family hands since 1925!

07/11/2026

The Santa Maria Valley Railroad is 115 years old today! The SMVRR was formed to serve the world's largest asphalt plant at Roadamite. The railroad continues to be an important economic driver for the Santa Maria Valley and the Central Coast hauling agricultural products, building materials and industrial materials.

A year ago the SMVRR and OmniTRAX formed a joint venture partnership providing resources to accelerate the growth of the railroad.

05/28/2026

It's always so humbling to see the amazing amount of support given to the Friends of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad by the community and our customers!

05/02/2026

Happy Anniversary!!! A year ago today we started our partnership with OmniTRAX, cheers to our continued growth 🎉

05/01/2026

Today is our 1 year anniversary of our joint venture partnership with OmniTRAX! The Santa Maria Valley Railroad is OmniTRAX's first joint venture partnership with another railroad. This partnership has accelerated our long term growth plan to be the economic engine for the Santa Maria Valley and the Central Coast!

04/29/2026

Crew working on the Airbase Branch, all in a days work.

04/22/2026

On April 11th the SMVRR crew was invited to participate in the On Duty with SMFD. It was a full day event where we went through various modules from EMS Response, Search & Rescue, Repelling and Extraction. Some modules had even had actors to enhance the experience too, they were volunteers from the EMS academy and really rounded out the experiance. Each round of training helped us gain a deeper understanding of what our local crews do and how diverse their skill levels are for the responses needed in our area and state. We even had a couple of firefighters volunteer on their day off to BBQ for us, it was delicious!

Everyone attending had a great time, and our team learned how we can continue to improve our safety and communication skills, we can hardly wait until next year!!!

Thank you Andrew Kline, Chief Dandrige and all the SMFD staff that put this on.

04/10/2026

Our non profit organization Friends of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad is having their annual gala next month!

Our 11th Annual Friends of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad Dinner Gala is next month! Friends will be raising money for the restoration of Caboose 210 and renovation of the newly acquired railroad museum at the Santa Maria Transit Center! Don't miss this fun filled event at the Edwards Barn in Nipomo! Tickets on sale www.friends-smvrr.org/gala

04/10/2026

Our non profit organization Friends of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad is having their annual Gala next month! Don't miss this funfilled event!

Our 11th Annual Friends of the Santa Maria Valley Railroad Dinner Gala is next month! Friends will be raising money for the restoration of Caboose 210 and renovation of the newly acquired railroad museum at the Santa Maria Transit Center! Don't miss this fun filled event at the Edwards Barn in Nipomo! Tickets on sale www.friends-smvrr.org/gala