Steam & Excursion > Steam Railroading In It's Last Days In A Very Beautiful Setting!

By June, 1963 when this photo was taken by R. E. Field, steam powered log trains on Pickering Lumber Corp.'s logging railroad out of Standard, California was clearly on borrowed time.  2 pairs of EMD diesels had arrived years earlier and had taken over nearly all log trains and even most work trains.  Except for their use at Soap Creek Pass in 1963, the remaining 3-truck Shays parked at the shops in Standard hardly ever got the chance to venture out on the line.

Here we see one of the last runs of steam on the Pickering logging line.  Pickering's Pacific Coast Shay #11 is on a work train on a  trestle near Beardsley Lake.  The big Shay's were often preferred on work trains early in the logging season each year because of their lighter axle loading that was easier on the soft track that was still recovering from the winter snows.

The Shays could be found in service at Soap Creek Pass Camp in the rest of 1963, but that would be their last use in the woods before Pickering shut down it's logging railroad for good in December 1965.  For now, let's enjoy the sights of Shays in the woods just a little longer.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/19 07:55 by LoggerHogger.

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Does that trestle still exist?

A former Trainorders member and poster advised me of the following:

"Wrong on naming the bridge Chinaman Creek, which is directly across the canyon on the other side. Is the bridge in the photo is still there? I do not believe that it is.  I hiked that part of the rr about 12 years ago & there was only 1 wooden bridge left on the line and that one was near Tunnel Creek at Mile 37 & it was in sorry shape then."

To answer the question, no, the last of the wood trestles on the south side of the canyon burned in a forest fire five or six years ago. 

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV