Steam & Excursion > Even At The End Of This Lines Run, The Loads Were Impressive!

Many times, steam railroads went out of business simply because their business had dried up and was too little to carry operating costs.  In the case of steam logging railroads, many shut down simply because they ran out of timber to cut.  Such was not the case with the West Side Lumber Company of Tuolumne, California as we see here.

The date is the summer of 1960 and this will be the very last logging season that the West Side will use it's logging railroad.  From the size of the logs just brought into town by West Side Shay #9, we see that there still is big timber available to be cut on the West Sides timber lands.

What is spelling the end for the West Side is the fact that Pickering Lumber had taken it over in 1958 and they decided to lower logging costs by converting to truck logging.  They would leave the narrow gauge railroad in place for a couple more years simply as insurance that the trucks could make a go of it.  However, the trucks proved to work, and the West Side never again logged by rail.

Such ended one of the "most bushy tailed and bright-eyed" logging lines of all time.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/19 12:28 by LoggerHogger.

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Glad you are back.

Roger Hogan
Chama, NM
Train Stuff

"The Rumors Of My Demise Are Greatly Exagerated".  Mark Twain.

Martin

agreed, welcome back......many of us were worried.....a day+ without a Martin posting.......Arlen

< < < What is spelling the end for the West Side is the fact that Pickering Lumber had taken it over in 1958 and they decided to lower logging costs by converting to truck logging. > > >
Bolstering Pickering's decision to go to trucks was the USFS's construction of an "improved forest service road" from Hwy 108 to near where the cutting area was.  My Dad and I had gone back in to near the cutting area prior to the road being built, and it took two to three hours on the poor Forest Service roads.  We took the new road after it's construction, and the travel time was cut to twenty to thirty minutes!  Pickering found itself with a much quicker way to deliver the logs to the mill, and they didn't have to pay for and maintain the infrastructure that the trucks were driving on.   

HI Martin! Thank God you're back! I thought I'd have to check myself into rehab because of missing my "Daily Martin Fix"! Welcome back and hope you had a GREAT Thanksgiving!

Welcome back!  Wishing you good health.  Looking forward to more of your posts.

 

Welcome back.  Certainly do appreciate your almost daily "dose" of railroad
history.  Great way to start the day.  YOU were missed.  Happy Holidays.

Yes nice to see that no one missed you, RIGHT, welcome back.

Martin, 
Just where is the location this photo was taken?
It doesn't look like the depot at Sonora to me!

Edit --  Whoa!!  Is 'Dispatch' a station on the Line?
            I am not aware of this.

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/19 22:16 by JimBaker.

Jim,

This photo was taken on the narrow gauge West Side Lumber line in Tuolumne.  #9 is at the dispatcher's office in the mill yards.

Martin