Steam & Excursion > The Slow Pace Of The Saddest Train Of All - YV -1946!

All good things must come to an end. Such was the case with the Yosemite Valley RR. She ran her last revenue train in April 1945 and was granted permission to abandon at nearly the same time.

There was much debate in railfan circles of the time about whether her abandonment was really warranted or whether it was driven by outside forces such as other railroads that simply wanted her scrap track.

Regardless of why the fabled YV was abandoned, by February 1946 the successful bidder for her rails was using YV 4-4-0 #23 to pull up the rails. By the time of this photo the slow moving scrap train was still in the Merced River Canyon pulling up both the rails and ties of this scenic line that had once carried royalty and Presidents.

The train crew and scrapping crew is taking their lunch break when the photographer L. Bonney snaps this photo.

As the flat cars came filled with the ties and rails of the YV line the #23 would run back to Merced and pick up an empty set of cars and then return to the end of track to start the process of removal all over again.

Did we really have to lose the YV?


Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/14 11:42 by LoggerHogger.

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I met the son of the national park superintendent. He lived in the valley in the mid-1980s. He said the National Park Service sure wished the railroad were still there. Gerry

With today's modern engineering, construction machinery and materials the only thing preventing reconstructing the railroad (around the damn and Hetch Hetchy reservoir of course) is money and lots of it. I often wondered if a small section could be rebuilt from El Portal down the canyon a mile or two as a demonstration piece. As the park service continues to restrict private vehicle access to Yosemite, the reconstruction of the YV could be an alternative, though a far far fetched one.

gra2472 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> With today's modern engineering, construction
> machinery and materials the only thing preventing
> reconstructing the railroad (around the damn and
> Hetch Hetchy reservoir of course) is money and
> lots of it. I often wondered if a small section
> could be rebuilt from El Portal down the canyon a
> mile or two as a demonstration piece. As the park
> service continues to restrict private vehicle
> access to Yosemite, the reconstruction of the YV
> could be an alternative, though a far far fetched
> one.


Not sure it would be feasible to build a new line from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir into Yosemite valley.
My guess it would be better to attempt reconstruction of most of The old line past Lake McClure. Course it's all but a dream as passenger travel alone couldn't pay for the expense.

As usual, Martin, thanks for sharing our daily history lesson!

Lee Hower - Sacramento



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/14 22:23 by mcfflyer.

I get the impression the owners pulled the plug quickly to get some net value out of the assets and avoid hemorrhaging $$$.

Yes, it was raising the level of the dam for Lake McClure that flooded out the line. High level is somewhere around the hiway 49 bridge. During the drought years of the late 70's I hiked around Bagby a few times.

We had a thread about the bridge across the Lake, not sure of it's status. Maybe spend some time in the T.O. archives this weekend. Rebuilding along the Merced, even for just where it parallels the roadway, would be very cool.

TCnR Wrote:

> We had a thread about the bridge across the Lake,
> not sure of it's status. Maybe spend some time in
> the T.O. archives this weekend.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2513098,2513192#2513192

Aha, there it be.

Too bad about the bridge.

Wow that looks like one very short 4-4-0. Is that just perception or was she really that small?

Kris

dcmkris Wrote:
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> Wow that looks like one very short 4-4-0. Is that
> just perception or was she really that small?
>
> Kris


Kris,
I don't think that it's abnormally short, I think it looks short because it's unusually fat for a 4-4-0.

GPutz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I met the son of the national park superintendent.
> He lived in the valley in the mid-1980s. He said
> the National Park Service sure wished the railroad
> were still there. Gerry


I, for one, am glad it's not if for one reason only: Xanterra runs the lodging at Yosemite NP, just as they do at Grand Canyon NP. We've all seen how well they've done with one railroad going to a park. I'd hate to see another one get screwed.