Route in 1948The lower section of the Railway in 2003
West Side Flume & Lumber Company
The West Side Flume & Lumber Company was founded in May 1898 to log 55,000 acres (22,000 ha) of land outside of the town of Carter (now called Tuolumne). A 10-mile (16 km) long 3 ft (914 mm) gauge railroad was laid into the woods east of the town.[3]
Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valley Railroad
In 1900, the lumber company incorporated their railroad as a common carrier called the Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valley Railroad. Although it never reached either Hetch Hetchy or Yosemite valley, the company hoped to attract tourist traffic.[3]
In 1968, Frank Cottle leased the lower end of the railroad from Pickering Lumber and opened the Westside and Cherry Valley Railroad as a tourist attraction. He restored locomotives #12 and #15 to run trains on tracks laid on the old mill site. In 1970, the Pickering Lumber company took over the operation from Cottle and extended the line by 8 miles to River Bridge.[5]
In the late 1970s, Glen Bell, the founder of the Taco Bell restaurant chain opened a tourist railroad at Tuolumne.[6] This 3 ft (914 mm) gauge railroad used the lower section of the track and several steam locomotives of the West Side Lumber Company railway. The operation also offered boat rides on the old mill pond and RV parking. It closed in the early 1980s after failing to attract enough visitors.[7]
ex-Butte and Plumas Railway #4; now running on the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad
8
Lima
Three Truck Shay
1922
3176
Now displayed at Granby, Colorado at the Moffat Road RR museum, static display. Oct 2021
9
Lima
Three Truck Shay
1923
3199
Operable at Midwest Midwest Central Railroad, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Lettered for West Side Lumber Company. Trucked to Silver Plume, CO, arrived February 2, 2011. Colorado Historical Society will rebuild 9 to operate on Georgetown Loop Railroad - estimated completion 2012. The 12, a Baldwin 2-6-2, will go to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, after #9 enters service on the Georgetown Loop RR.
ex-Swayne Lumber Company railway #6. Now at Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden, CO after service on the Georgetown Loop. (Was Georgetown Loop 12, Operational)
14
Lima
Three Truck Shay
1916
2835
ex-Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Company #10. Now at Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden, CO after service on the Georgetown Loop. Lettered for Argentine Central. (Was Georgetown Loop 14, Operational)
Various artifacts of the railroad and photographs are preserved at the Tuolumne City Memorial Museum in Tuolumne, CA. The museum also arranges annual field trips to West Side logging camps in the woods.[9]
^Krieg, Allan (1962). The Last of the 3 Foot Loggers. Golden West.
^Kauppi, Art, “Annual Field Trip Will Travel to Site of West Side’s Camp 44, Active in 1940’s,” Tuolumne City Memorial Museum Newsletter, pp. 1-2, Summer, 2011, Tuolumne, CA.
