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. 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 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

Name	Number	Builder	Type	Date	Works number	Notes	Image
Fido		H.K. Porter				Sold to the Sierra and San Francisco Power Company's Schoettgen Pass railroad
Star		H.K. Porter				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 circa 1962. Now Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad No. 2
	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.
	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.
	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		1886	770	Built as a 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 gauge in 1947
	14	Baldwin		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.
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.