Sugar Pine Railroad

Hi Blog.  On Saturday, October 26th, we took a ride on the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad.  We got lucky because this weekend was the last weekend the trains would be running.  We arrived early to make sure we could find a place to park Great White.  This gave us plenty of time to explore the train shed and museum.  The Sugar Pine Railroad uses Shay model steam engines, which were favored for logging work because, while they could not reach high speeds, they produced a lot of torque and could haul heavy loads up steep grades.  The current railroad has two Shay engines.  Here is Number 15 getting ready to take us for spin around the forest:

The museum was filled with all kinds of artifacts from the early days of Yosemite Mountain.  The older fellow hosting the museum spent nearly a half hour telling us the history of the facility and the area.  Here is Dave working the steam donkey engine used to pull large logs down to the tracks to load onto the train cars.

The museum also displayed information about the early prospectors and their search for gold.  If you wanted to, you could try your hand at panning for gold.

Next we explored the train shed.  Here is Dave checking out one of the Jenny Railcars.  These are Model "A" powered railcars that were once used to transport logging and repair crews.  The Model A Ford Engines power the trolley-like cars over the same route as the Logger Steam Train.

Once we boarded the train and got under way, we took a short video so that you could hear the Sugar Pine Train Whistle.  The entire trip was only four miles, but we learned a great deal about the forest and life of the loggers.  We stopped at the halfway point so the train could take on more water for the return trip.

We all got a chance to get out and stretch our legs.  Those interested could climb aboard the engine and have their picture taken.

The railroad follows a portion of grade originally carved into the mountain by the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company in the early 20th Century. The company originated in 1874, when it was organized as the California Lumber Company to log the area surrounding Oakhurst, California. The Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company once had a large sawmill at Sugar Pine, California. The railroad had seven locomotives, over 100 log cars, and 140 miles of track in the surrounding mountains. In addition to the railroad, the Company also transported lumber in a flume that stretched 54 miles from Sugar Pine to Madera, California. It was the largest log flume ever constructed.  This was the most efficient way to transport rough cut lumber out of the mountains for finishing and transport at the bottom of the mountain. The Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company practiced clearcutting, which removed almost every single tree within the stands of timber surrounding the track. The thick forest of today belies this history, although large stumps from the original old growth timber dot the forest floor lining the tracks. There are also a number of rail cars and spare parts lining the tracks waiting to be refurbished and put to work.

Riding the rails all morning can build up a powerful hunger.  So, on the way back to Oakhurst, we stopped at Bass Lake for a bite to eat.  Here is the view from the restaurant.  The mountain on the other side is Goat Mountain which we climbed on Friday.  If you enlarge the photo, you can see the fire tower where we had lunch.

After lunch, we walked over to the Craft Fair.  Unfortunately, being full-time RVers, there's not a lot of room in our RV for extra stuff.  We didn't see anything we had to have, so we spent some time enjoying a local bluegrass band, the Narrow Gauge Ramblers, who were a garage band doing a large public performance for the first time.  Keep note, readers, because when they get famous, you'll remember you heard about the first on this blog!

When the band took their break, we decided to head back to camp to get ready for our camping trip into Yosemite.  We are looking forward to spending some more in the park.