The Santa Maria Valley Railroad (SMVRR) has been in operation for 114 years and survived both the Great Depression and World War II under Capt. G. Allan Hancock’s ownership.
After struggling with the rise of trucking, the railroad remained under Hancock’s descendants until the Himoto family acquired it in 2006. According to Rob Himoto, president of the SMVRR, for 18 years, the Himoto family-owned Coast Belle Rail Corporation has been working to restore the railway tracks, revive traffic, and attract customers back to rail shipping.
“It’s been a pretty challenging 18 years turning the railroad around,” Himoto said.
Since taking over ownership of the SMVRR, Himoto explained that Coast Belle Rail Corporation has received many requests to purchase the railroad, but they’ve always said, “It’s not for sale.” Now, they’ve entered into a joint venture with OmniTRAX, the rail and real estate affiliate of the privately owned, family-run Broe Group.
“It was the wishes, when the Hancock family sold the railroad to us, that they wanted to keep it in family hands, which we are, instead of selling to a big corporation, because family hands are a lot more community minded.”
Himoto expressed excitement over the partnership with OmniTRAX, noting that it will allow Coast Belle Rail Corporation to continue running and revamping the railroad with even more capital to expand. He explained that OmniTRAX operates 28 other railways across the country and has many major real estate holdings.
“Kind of like the Capt. Hancock method of building a railroad, OmniTRAX buys a railroad and then they try to purchase land next to railroad tracks to develop it into industries that the railroad can serve.”
These hopes of expanding operations by purchasing land along the 14.7 miles of SMVRR mainline track are shared by OmniTRAX’s vice president of corporate cevelopment, Scott Remington. He said that OmniTRAX found SMVRR attractive because of its potential for industrial development and its location in an agriculturally rich area.
“We call ourselves ‘OmniTRAX, powered by rail and real estate,’” Remington said. “[The goal] is going to be developing acreage along the railroad, and, of course, trying to grow the existing business, and then try to get more people to look at truck conversion to rail.”
Remington emphasized that this partnership with Himoto and the SMVRR is the first of its kind for OmniTRAX, saying that the reason the company loves this short line railroad so much is “because of Rob and because of the local employees.”
“We wouldn’t have been attracted to this rail if Rob didn’t want to continue being involved,” Remington said. “Because of his connections and everything that Rob’s done in the community, it’s very impactful. For us, this railroad would not have been as attractive if it would have just been 100 percent purchase.”
Both Himoto and Remington described the benefits of rail freight transportation as being more cost-effective and environmentally friendly, as well as reducing congestion on streets and highways in the communities it serves. With this partnership and the potential expansions that come with it, the two expressed hopes that they might be able to bring some additional jobs to the Santa Maria Valley.
“We’d rather people be there working versus leaving to go to San Luis Obispo or heading down to Santa Barbara,” Remington said. “Let’s keep people in the community, and let’s continue to have good-paying jobs for them and have reasons for them to want to stay in the community.”
Highlight
• The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection recently released updated statewide fire hazard maps for the first time in 14 years. The department ranked areas based on their wildfire risk, from moderate to very high. The designations were determined by factors such as fuel load, slope, fire weather, and wind patterns. Lompoc’s draft map was published on March 10 and is now open for public review. As required by law, the Lompoc City Council must adopt and designate the updated fire zones within 120 days of receiving the map. The maps use color-coding to classify areas by wildfire severity and help inform building standards, real estate disclosures, and community safety plans. Lompoc’s updated map includes all risk zones, ranging from gray (no risk) to yellow, orange, and red (very high risk). To view Lompoc’s map, visit cityoflompoc.com/government/departments/fire-department/document-downloads.
Staff Writer Emma Montalbano can be reached at emontalbano@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Apr 3-13, 2025.
I am making a good salary from home $4580-$5240/week , which is amazing under a year ago I was jobless in a horrible economy. I thank God every day I was blessed with these instructions and now its my duty to pay it forward and share it with Everyone,
Here is I started,….. http://WWW.WORK44.COM