Fillmore Sees Spring Rail Festival as Turning Point for the Future

For the residents of this dusty little town sandwiched between the Santa Susana and Topatopa Mountains, hedging its future on the past is as much a necessity as it is a good idea.

City leaders are betting that widespread interest in Fillmore’s railroading heritage will fill town coffers and stimulate an economy that has been stuck in neutral for years.

Confident their gamble will pay off, city officials expect as many as 8,000 people from as far north as Eureka to help celebrate Fillmore’s 110 years as a railroad stop and transfer point at the second annual Spring Rail Festival to be held today and Sunday at Fillmore’s Central Park.

Participants will be able to learn more about the early days of railroading, tour museums and even take short jaunts on a vintage steam engine through fragrant citrus groves ripe with softball-size oranges.

“Railroading built Fillmore and this is part of our heritage,” said Fire Chief Pat Askren, who is vice president of the Santa Clara River Valley Railroad Historical Society. “We’d like people to come up and experience that history with us.”

Fillmore, which has weekend train excursions to Santa Paula, plans to extend the line to Piru and Ventura in the next few years. It eventually wants to create a railroad museum, complete with the city’s original depot and turntable for box cars.

But this weekend’s festival is much more than just an expression of Fillmore’s love affair with the railroad. Organizers said it will mark the city’s transformation from quaint rural hamlet to a regional attraction--from being just a pit stop for passing motorists to a destination for urbanites hungry for history and in need of small-town therapy.

“Railroading is in a lot of people’s history,” Askren said. “I think people might want to get back in touch with that and see what trains were all about.”

City officials said the festival is just one of several ways Fillmore is trying to reinvigorate an economy traditionally supported by agriculture--where salaries and sales-tax receipts rank as some of the county’s lowest.

“The businesses that we have haven’t been able to generate the funds we need to support the town’s activities,” said City Manager Roy Payne. “Tourism is a nice, clean way to raise those funds while preserving Fillmore’s character.”

Other civic leaders want to diversify and expand Fillmore’s industrial base, which has long been dependent on citrus growers.

“Agriculture is wonderful and has given so much to us, but let’s face it, in all economies you need four or five industries to support it,” said Cecelia Uber, executive vice president of the Fillmore Chamber of Commerce. “What would happen if we ever got hit with a fruit fly infestation?”

In addition to the railroad attractions, Fillmore is home to the county’s most recent upscale draw, the Giessinger Winery, which offers public tours. There are also plans to build a microbrewery nearby.

Additionally, repairs and renovation of Central Avenue, Fillmore’s main commercial artery, were recently completed and now feature turn-of-the-century architecture with well-appointed store fronts complete with colorful awnings, hand-scripted signs, brick planters and wide sidewalks.

City leaders had been planning to buttress Fillmore’s sagging economy with a railroad attraction since they acquired Southern Pacific’s railroad property in 1990. Southern Pacific intended to sell the depot, rail line and yard to a housing developer, but city leaders decided to preserve the area as a historical attraction.

But those plans were put on hold after the 1994 Northridge earthquake left many of Fillmore’s commercial, government and residential buildings severely damaged.

“In a way, the quake helped us get the project going,” said Kevin McSweeney, Fillmore’s city planner. “Two days after the quake we got started rebuilding using the models we’d developed during the [attraction] planning process.”