Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad

The burned down Trestle Bridge

The Roaring Camp & Big Trees Railroad is a narrow gauge - museum railway with a track width of 914 mm (3 feet ) in California , by the Roaring Camp Depot in Felton long a 5.25 km (3.25 miles) Steilstrecke by a sequoia - Forest climbs to the top of nearby Bear Mountain.

history

The Roaring Camp Railroads were put into operation in 1963 by their founder and owner F. Norman Clark (1935–1985). He had made it his business to uphold the family tradition of building railroad lines under the motto "bring the feelings and colors of steam trains back to America" - "bring the romance and color of steam railroading back to America." For this he signed a leasing contract for the 69 hectare forest area with the much larger Big Trees Ranch . The Big Trees Ranch was acquired in 1867 by the San Francisco businessman Joseph Warren Welch to save the impressive sequoia trees from commercial deforestation. Most of it was sold to Santa Cruz County in 1930 by his heirs and eventually became part of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park . The railway line was therefore laid in such a way that as few trees as possible had to be felled.

Clark found the Dixiana locomotive abandoned, neglected, and rusted at a coal mine in the Appalachian Mountains in 1958 . It was completely overhauled and put back into operation in 1963 on old rails that had been imported from Europe by ship around Cape Horn in 1881 . The first scheduled passenger train ran on April 6, 1963 with 44 paying passengers. Clark's wife Georgiana took over ownership and management of the railway line after his death on December 2, 1985.

Originally there were two large trestle bridges over which the track ran in a corkscrew- like roundabout , but these were destroyed by fire in 1976, the smoke of which could even be seen from San Francisco . Within 6 months, a hairpin was built to bypass the previous loop and the railway line was put back into service. The hairpin has a gradient of around 9.5%, so that it is one of the steepest adhesion routes in the world used for passenger traffic. Their length limits the maximum train length to six cars. Benefit events serve to rebuild the bridge and maintain the locomotives. In 2003, 25,000 visitors took part in the largest event in the 40-year history of this railway line over three days under the motto "A day outdoors with Thomas, the little locomotive ".

Locomotives

Locomotive No. 7 Sonora of the Roaring Camp Railroad

The steam locomotives date from the 1890s, and are among the oldest and best-preserved narrow-gauge locomotives in the United States. Only the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad in Colorado and New Mexico has older steam locomotives from 1883.

The railway has several locomotives in different conditions. Regular operation is carried out with two Shay locomotives , with an occasional use of the Heisler locomotive . The 0-4-2T Kahuku locomotive is the oldest operational locomotive and is used as a feeder on special occasions. Because of its small size, it cannot pull trains up the mountain. Several diesel locomotives were sold in 2010 for economic reasons.

number	Surname	Manufacturer	Type	serial number	Construction year	procurement	comment
#1	Dixiana	Lima Locomotive Works	Shay locomotive with 2 bogies	# 2593	1912	October 1962	Formerly Coal Processing Corp. # 3 at Dixiana, Virginia . Ready for operation and regularly in operation.
# 2	Tuolumne	Stearns Manufacturing Company	Heisler with 2 bogies	# 1041	1899	1963	Formerly West Side Lumber Company # 3. Overhauled in 2001 and 2010. Ready for operation
# 3	Kahuku	Baldwin Locomotive Works	0-4-2T	# 10756	1890	1966	Formerly Kahuku Plantation # 1 "Keana." Ready for special occasions.
# 4	Waipahu	Baldwin Locomotive Works	0-6-2 T	# 15321	1897	1977	Formerly Oahu Sugar # 1. Sold in 1988 to Western Village Theme Park , Nikko, Japan.
# 5	Bloomsburg	Climax Locomotive Works	Climax locomotive with 2 bogies	# 1692	1928	1975	Formerly Elk River Coal & Lumber Company # 3, then Carroll Park & Western Railroad, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Out of order. General overhaul planned.
# 6	Daisy	Lima Locomotive Corp	Shay locomotive with 2 bogies	# 2519	1912	1988	Former WM Knight # 7. Last used at Daisy, Kentucky . Out of order.
# 7	Sonora	Lima Locomotive Corp	Shay locomotive with 3 bogies	# 2465	1911	1986	Formerly West Side Lumber Company # 7 Operable and in regular service Restored 2007-9.
# 40		Plymouth Locomotive Works	14 t diesel (model DDT)				Formerly Kaiser Steel, Fontana, California Operable
# 50		Davenport Locomotive Works	diesel				ex-D & RGW # 50 Operational. Sold to Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden CO
# 50 (2nd)		General Electric	25 t diesel-electric	# 15816			Formerly Bethlehem Steel # 14, Los Angeles, California. Operational. Sold to Kauai Plantation Railway , Kauai, Hawaii (2010)
# 60		General Electric	56 t diesel-electric	# 33250			Formerly Bethlehem Steel # 12, Los Angeles, California Out of order. Sold to Georgetown Loop Railroad, Georgetown CO (2010)
# ?? (30?)		Whitcomb Locomotive Works					Formerly Kauai Plantation Railway # 10, Kauai, HI Acquired in 2010. Sold to Redwood Gulch Shortline (2013)
# 10		Milwaukee Locomotive Manufacturing Company	Rail bus (formerly "Critter")				Formerly West Side Lumber Company . Operational

Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark

Locomotive No. 1, Dixiana

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers has listed three Shay, Climax and Heisle steam locomotives as Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks No. 134 since 1988. They are considered examples of small, slow steam locomotives with reduction gears.

Shay No. 1 ( Dixiana )

The Dixiana steam locomotive was built in 1912 and originally belonged to the Alaculsy Lumber Company, which operated it on the Smokey Mountain Railroad in Tennessee. The Dixiana was listed as a small, narrow-gauge locomotive. The boiler installed off-center for the weight compensation of the one-sided drive and the three-cylinder system are remarkable .

Climax No. 5 ( Bloomsburg )

The Bloomsburg steam locomotive was built in 1928 for the Elk River Coal and Lumber Company in Swandale, West Virginia . Later owners included the WM Ritter Lumber Company, Georgia Pacific Railroad , and Carroll Park and Western Railroad in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania , until it was acquired by Roaring Camp in 1975. It was the last locomotive that Climax built before production closed in September 1928.

Heisler No. 2 ( Tuolumne )

Locomotive No. 2, Tuolumne

The Tuolumne steam locomotive was built in 1899 for the Hetch Hetchy Valley and Yosemite Railroad to operate in the sawmill of the West Side Flume and Lumber Company near Tuolumne City. It was originally called Thomas S. Bullock after the first general manager of the West Side Flume and Lumber Company . The locomotive was purchased by Roaring Camp in 1963 for $ 7,000. It was the last steam locomotive for commercial timber transport in Tuolumne, California , and the oldest operational Heisler locomotive.