West Side Lumber Company railway

West Side Lumber Company railway
Overview
The engine shed in 1979.
Headquarters	Tuolumne
Locale	California
Dates of operation	1898–1962
Successor	Westside & Cherry Valley Railroad
Technical
Track gauge	3 ft (914 mm)
Length	70 miles (110 km)

The West Side Lumber Company railway was the last of the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge logging railroads operating in the American west.

History

The lower section of the Railway in 2003

West Side Flume & Lumber Company

The West Side Flume & Lumber Company was founded in May 1898 to log 55,000 acres (22,000 ha) of land outside of the town of Carter (now called Tuolumne). A 10-mile (16 km) long 3 ft (914 mm) 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 the late 1970s, Glen Bell, the founder of the Taco Bell restaurant chain opened a tourist railroad at Tuolumne. This 3 ft (914 mm) 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. It closed in the early 1980s after failing to attract enough visitors.

Locomotives

Narrow gauge

Name	Number	Builder	Type	Date	Works number	Notes
Fido		H.K. Porter	0-4-0 ST			Sold to the Sierra and San Francisco Power Company's Schoettgen Pass railroad
Star		H.K. Porter	0-4-0 ST			ex-Ferries and Cliff House Railroad, San Francisco
	1	Heisler	Two Truck	1899	1028	Sold to the Swayne Lumber Company; scrapped 1940
	2	Heisler	Two Truck	1899	1040	Placed in West Side Memorial Park, Tuolumne, Ca. in 1960
	3	Heisler	Two Truck	1899	1041	Converted to standard gauge in 1947. Converted back to 3 ft (914 mm) circa 1962. Now Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad No. 2 (operational)
	4	Heisler	Two Truck	1901	1049	Scrapped 1950
	5	Lima	Two Truck Shay	1902	730	Scrapped 1950
	6	Lima	Two Truck Shay	1903	817	Scrapped 1942
	7	Lima	Three Truck Shay	1911	2465	ex-Butte and Plumas Railway #4; now running on the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad
	8	Lima	Three Truck Shay	1922	3176	Now displayed at Granby, Colorado at the Moffat Road RR museum, static display. Oct 2021
	9	Lima	Three Truck Shay	1923	3199	Operable at Midwest Midwest Central Railroad, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Lettered for West Side Lumber Company. Trucked to Silver Plume, CO, arrived February 2, 2011. Colorado Historical Society will rebuild 9 to operate on Georgetown Loop Railroad - estimated completion 2012. The 12, a Baldwin 2-6-2, will go to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, after #9 enters service on the Georgetown Loop RR.
	10	Lima	Three Truck Shay	1928	3315	Now running on the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad. Reportedly the largest narrow-gauge Shay locomotive ever built.
	12	Lima	Three Truck Shay	1927	3302	ex-Swayne Lumber Company railway #6. Now at Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden, CO after service on the Georgetown Loop. (Was Georgetown Loop 12, Operational)
	14	Lima	Three Truck Shay	1916	2835	ex-Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Company #10. Now at Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden, CO after service on the Georgetown Loop. Lettered for Argentine Central. (Was Georgetown Loop 14, Operational)
	15	Lima	Three Truck Shay	1913	2645	ex-Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Company #9. Operable at Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad.

Standard gauge

Name	Number	Builder	Type	Date	Works number	Notes
Old Betsie		H.K. Porter	0-6-0+T	1886	770	Built as a 2-6-0 for the Prescott and Arizona Central Railroad
	1	Heisler	Two Truck	1899	1036	ex-Sierra Railway #9
	3	Heisler	Two Truck	1901	1049	converted from 3 ft (914 mm) gauge in 1947 (see above)
	14	Baldwin	4-4-0	1882	5851	ex-Sierra Railway #4

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.

References

Ferrell, Mallory Hope, West Side: Narrow Gauge in the Sierra, pp. 1-32, 293-312, Pacific Fast Mail, 1979.
"West Side Lumber Company". Tuolumne City Memorial Museum Web. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
^ "The West Side Lumber Company". Pacific Narrow Gauge.
Whitehead III, Jerry (2012). Tuolumne City. Arcadia Publishing. p. 75.
"San Francisco Area". The Western Railroader. 33–34. Northern California Railroad Club. 1970.
Cook, Walt (19 January 2010). "Taco Bell founder remembered". The Union Democrat. Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2018.
Rowland, Marijke (3 September 2015). "Strawberry Music Festival returns to Tuolumne". Modesto Bee.
Krieg, Allan (1962). The Last of the 3 Foot Loggers. Golden West.
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.

External links

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