West Side Lumber Company Railway

The West Side Lumber Company railway was the last of the narrow-gauge logging railroads operating in the American west.

History

West Side Flume & Lumber Company

The West Side Flume & Lumber Company was founded in May 1898 to log of land outside of the town of Carter (now called Tuolumne). A long gauge railroad was laid into the woods east of the town.

Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valley Railroad

In 1900, the lumber company incorporated their railroad as a common carrier called the Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valley Railroad. Although it never reached either Hetch Hetchy or Yosemite valley, the company hoped to attract tourist traffic.

West Side Lumber Railroad

In 1925, the Pickering Lumber Company purchased the West Side Lumber Company.

Westside and Cherry Valley Railroad

In 1968, Frank Cottle leased the lower end of the railroad from Pickering Lumber and opened the Westside and Cherry Valley Railroad as a tourist attraction. He restored locomotives #12 and #15 to run trains on tracks laid on the old mill site. In 1970, the Pickering Lumber company took over the operation from Cottle and extended the line by 8 miles to River Bridge.

In 1972, Fiberboard Corporation (which owned Pickering Lumber Company) transferred the railroad to another subsidiary, Trimont Land Company, with the rationale that the property might be suitable as a real estate development. The plan to carve up the property did not come to fruition, and in 1976, the railroad was sold to Glen Bell, the founder of the Taco Bell restaurant chain, who invested over $10 million in the railroad. This gauge railroad used the lower section of the track and several steam locomotives of the West Side Lumber Company railway. The operation also offered boat rides on the old mill pond and RV parking. The theme park/railroad did not attract the anticipated number of visitors, and in 1981, Bell sold the 340-acre property to Henley Management Company for less than $500,000 and the railroad was shut down. In 1986, Quality Resorts of America bought it from Henley, and converted the property into an RV park, with limited railroad service. It sold off much of the rolling stock to other railroads, such as the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad, the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad and the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum. Today, the railroad is no longer in operation, but part of the right-of-way is a hiking trail.

Locomotives

Narrow gauge

Standard gauge

Various artifacts of the railroad and photographs are preserved at the Tuolumne City Memorial Museum in Tuolumne, CA. The museum also arranges annual field trips to West Side logging camps in the woods.Kauppi, Art, “Annual Field Trip Will Travel to Site of West Side’s Camp 44, Active in 1940’s,” ''Tuolumne City Memorial Museum Newsletter,'' pp. 1-2, Summer, 2011, Tuolumne, CA.

Several pieces of rolling stock from the West Side Lumber Company are preserved at the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad & Transportation Museum, including two tank cars, two cabooses, a hopper car, flat car, block car and a parts car. The West Side had a very capable shop, that could make major engine repairs as well as build cars from scratch, including a caboose which is on display at the Southern California Railway Museum.

References

External links

Abandonedrails.com: The West Side Lumber Company Railroad2007-02-23 Press release regarding restoration effortTuolumne City Memorial Museum website

{{DEFAULTSORT:West Side Lumber Company Railway
Narrow-gauge railroads in California
Logging railroads in the United States
Industrial railroads in the United States
3 ft gauge railways in the United States
Railway lines opened in 1900
Railway lines closed in 1962
Defunct California railroads
History of Tuolumne County, California
Transportation in Tuolumne County, California
Railways with Zig Zags