The Visalia Electric used the unusual choice of 15 Hz AC at 3,300 Volts[4] carried by overhead wire, with pantographs on the cars for pickup.

[5] For a short time in 1950–1951 the Visalia Electric briefly interchanged with the ATSF due to the bridge over the Kaweah River being washed out.

By November 29, 1898 the rails had been extended southeastward from Visalia to Southern Pacific's East Side Line at Exeter, a distance of ten miles.

In July 1881 Editor-Publisher Ben M. Maddox (see Ben Maddox Way) of the Visalia Daily Times began promoting hydroelectric power from John Hays Hammond's Mount Whitney Power Company on the Kaweah River, which emerges from the Sierra Nevada Mountains about fifteen miles northeast of Visalia.

[7] As early as September 10, 1891 Ben Maddox proposed an electric interurban railroad for Tulare County to make use of the extra generating capacity.

Around 1900 John Hays Hammond and Albert G. Wishon propose an electric railroad from Visalia to Three Rivers (about 30 miles).

In 1907 and 1908, offices, the main substation, a carbarn, and a rail yard were built in Exeter to serve as the operations center of the railroad.

Locomotives on the electrified part of the railroad used single-phase, 15-hertz electric current at 3,300 volts drawn from an overhead catenary and converted to DC on board for use by the traction motors.

The locomotives used sliding shoe-type pantograph trolley exerting an upward force of 10 pounds (4.5 kg) on the wire.

Two GE 44-ton switchers in Southern Pacific's tiger-stripe paint scheme lettered Visalia Electric and numbered 501 and 502 began handling the freight trains in September 1945.

The electrified line went from Visalia east through Exeter, thence north and west to Redbanks, a total distance of 29.0 miles (46.7 km).

The San Jose District of the Visalia Electric Railroad was formerly part of the Peninsular Railway, which consisted mainly of spur lines to Bascome, Linda Vista, & Berryessa.

[5] Passenger revenues peaked in 1912 as the availability of automobiles running on well-paved roads provided a more convenient alternative to the interurban railroad.

Southern Pacific reduced service to Exeter from six to three days per week in 1984; and retirement of their aging refrigerator car fleet left them unable to meet shipping demand for the 1984–1985 navel orange harvest.

Visalia Electric's fixed labor costs discouraged continuation of the low frequency traffic remaining after the produce shippers sought better service.