Steam & Excursion > Arcata & Mad River Railroad steam excursions

The attached file is a brochure from the A&MR Railroad from 1969 promoting their steam tourist operation. Unfortunately it only lasted a few years. This was one of the first steam powered trips I was on and I actually rode an Northwestern Pacific freight train from Petaluma to Eureka to get there. A friend and I hitch hiked from our East Bay homes to Petaluma where we hopped an empty boxcar on a train headed to Eureka. We picked a car with both doors open so we could see out both sides to enjoy the scenery. Along the way we picked up a loaf of sourdough french bread, some salami and cheese and a gallon of Red Mountain wine and we were set!   As I remember the train stopped at Ft. Seward, deep in the Eel River canyon, where the crew ate dinner in some old MOW cars that the NWP  had there. A fine economy vacation I will always remember!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 -Chris Collins

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The better ride would have been East, too bad the line was torn up.

Out 

While the ride on the A&MR had some nice country, it also presented passengers with some outstanding views of trackside auto wrecking yards plus some ramshackle housing with their assortments of old washers, dryers and water heaters with the occasional discarded bathtub scattered about. It is too bad the old logging line was gone by the time they decided to run these excursions. It would have been much nicer.