The West Side Lumber Company railway was the last of the

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

logging railroad A forest railway, forest tram, timber line, logging railway or logging railroad is a mode of railway transport which is used for forestry tasks, primarily the transportation of felled logs to sawmills or railway stations. In most cases this form ...

s 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 A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier'') is a person or compan ...

called the Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valley Railroad. Although it never reached either

Hetch Hetchy Hetch Hetchy is a valley, a reservoir, and a water system in California in the United States. The glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River. For thousands of years bef ...

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 Glen William Bell Jr. (September 3, 1923 – January 16, 2010) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Taco Bell chain of restaurants. Biography Glen Bell was born in Lynwood, California, to Glen William Bell Sr. and Ruth Elizabeth B ...

, the founder of the

Taco Bell Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, includin ...

restaurant chain opened a

tourist railroad A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

at Tuolumne. This gauge railroad used the lower section of the track and several

steam locomotives A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

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

Standard gauge

Various artifacts of the railroad and photographs are preserved at the

Tuolumne City Memorial Museum The Tuolumne City Memorial Museum preserves the history of this mining and logging town on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in California. Exhibits trace the area's history going back to early Miwok Indian culture, early agricultural endeavo ...

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.

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