Schellville, California

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Schellville, California
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Schellville, California
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Red pog.svg
Schellville, California
Coordinates: 38°14′46″N122°26′23″W / 38.24611°N 122.43972°W / 38.24611; -122.43972
Country United States
State California
County Sonoma
Elevation
13 ft (4.0 m)
Time zone UTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
  Summer (DST) UTC-7 (PDT)
Area code 707
GNIS feature ID252789 [1]

Schellville is an unincorporated community in Sonoma County, California, United States. Schellville was named after Theodore L. Schell, who lived on a ranch nearby. [2] The community is located in the vicinity of the junction of California State Route 12 and California State Route 121 south of Sonoma, and had a post office from 1888 to 1931. [3] Schellville also boasted a newspaper called the Schellville Ray, which was also used to promote local plots of land for sale. [2]

Contents

The Schellville train depot in 2023 Schellville Depot 2023.jpg
The Schellville train depot in 2023

Schellville has been a regionally important rail junction since completion of the Santa Rosa and Carquinez Railroad to Napa Junction in 1888. The 2 mile long Northwestern Pacific Railroad railyard is located just south of the Schellville Depot at California State Routes 12/121 and Eighth Street East. Service along the mainline was planned to start again in July 2010, from the California Northern interchange at Schellville, north to Windsor until delays pushed the start date to 2011. [4] The depot building, which was formerly a train station, now houses railroad equipment.

Until it ended in 2014, [5] Valley of the Moon Commute Club operated a once-daily transbay express service to San Francisco via Schellville, Sonoma, El Verano, Boyes Hot Springs, Santa Rosa, and San Rafael.

Grain cars laying on their side after derailment Schellville Derailment.jpg
Grain cars laying on their side after derailment

Due to its low position along Sonoma Creek, the town regularly experiences flooding in high-rain years (about every 5–10 years).

The Windows XP "Bliss" wallpaper was taken near Schellville, California in 1996.[ citation needed ]

2023 derailment

On March 16, 2023, an eight-car train carrying corn seed derailed on the tracks near CA-121, across from the depot. The derailment, in which 4 cars toppled over, was reportedly caused by months of sustained heavy rainfall, and oversaturated soil. There were no injuries, and the locomotive, NWP #1501, was unharmed. [6] [7] [8]

References

  1. "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. October 25, 2007. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  2. 1 2 "Schellville - Sonoma Valley - LocalWiki". localwiki.org. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  3. Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Quill Driver Books. p. 700. ISBN   1-884995-14-4.
  4. Brown, Matt (May 20, 2014). "SMART leaves businesses out of loop". The Press Democrat. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  5. "Commute club needs more riders | Sonoma Index-Tribune | Sonoma, CA". www.sonomanews.com. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017.
  6. "Train derailment caused by significant rain, saturated soil". Sonoma Index-Tribune. March 28, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  7. "Train cars derail in Schellville, spilling corn seed". The Press Democrat. March 20, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  8. "SMART to discuss return of liquid petroleum gas tankers to Schellville". The Press Democrat. August 31, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2025.