Steam & Excursion > Spectacular Railroad Scenery Could Be Found On Many Steam Roads!

There were many mainline railroads during the age of steam that could boast extremely scenic stretches of right-of-way that was seen by many travelers of these lines. Even some shortlines and Colorado narrow gauge lines were widely known to have some very scenic parts.

However, it was not just these famous lines that were blessed with such scenery. Yes, the lowly logging railroads of the West did on occasion have scenic stretches to rival even the most famous of the mainlines.

One such railroad was the Pickering Lumber Corp.'s logging railroad out of Standard, California. Along some of it's 60-miles of mainline, could be found some of the most spectacular scenery in all the West.

In this photos from the 1950's we see one of Pickering's big 3-truck Shays pulling her loaded log train up the grade above Beardsley Dam on that portion of line known as "The Peeled Onion".

It was on this section of Pickering's line that the railroad clung to a narrow shelf blasted out of the granite mountain sides with a steep adverse grade to the loaded log trains. With the big Shays working at full throttle, usually with mid-train helpers, this was quite a sight to behold. The noise of the rapid exhaust of the 3-cylinder steam geared monsters echoing off the granite walls was equally incredible.

Steam with spectacular scenery could surprise you where you found it.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/18 03:57 by LoggerHogger.

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A quick search on Google turned up an old thread with more on the Pickering grade: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,2902733.

And, an amazing video from 1990 recording many scenes of the Pickering and West Side operations, from log to board: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJRPzZTUUBg

Much more out there... gone but not (completely) forgotten!

As a kid growing up in the Sierra's, some of this old right of way was our playground during the summer. I lived in Sugarpine and we had easy access to the grade after crossing the highway and heading down the fire roads. We would ride along looking for old parts and pieces along the line and spend our entire day zipping around thru the woods. We never made it up the line past Lyon's but it's definitely on my bucket list at some point.

~RM

In 1991 several also visited the old Pickering line and found the same old logging camp at Soap Creek, an abandoned Willamette donkey engine engine in the trees, Shottengun Pass, etc. Stan Kistler's excellent recording "Whistles in the Woods" features a Pickering log train on the "Peeled Onion." What beautuful whistle noise.

I come across some old ROW while hiking in the Big Trees park each year.Is this part of Pickering's operation?.Have come across an old water tank also, that looks like it dates back to the old days,and seems to be still in use.(Emergency fire fighting water ????)
Regards,DK