Recently, on June 15, 2026, Searles Valley Minerals, the company that owns the Trona Railway, has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. This also affects the Trona Railway itself and another company; Searles Domestic Water Company.
As of me writing this, Searles Valley Minerals is currently under Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection, meaning that is going to sell off substantially all of their business assets through a court-supervised auction.
I do hope that one of the assets sold is the Kodachome SD40R 2003. I’ve made two posts about that, and you can find them here:
- https://forum.trains.com/t/spsf-kodachrome-sd40r-endangered/421321
- https://forum.trains.com/t/trona-railway-sd40r-duo-endangered/421432
This post does mention the SD40R, but is not entirely a full post about it, so it’s NOT a part 3 of “talking Trona Railway 2003”. I know some of you are asking for part 3, if more news about 2003 comes out, or I find more notable information about it, I’ll make a part 3.
I also do wonder if this affects UP SD40-2 #B4316, I’m gonna guess that because it was a parts source, it might get scrapped some time this year or even next year.
-LB&SCR E2