Tom Moungovan asked me to post some information and photos about the Sugar Pine Railway both here and on Trainorders, for those of you who might have seen the following both places.

The late 1960s and early 1970s were in a lot of ways the golden era for steam excursions. The country as a whole seemed to respond to the space age, increasingly complex lives, and growing threats of nuclear annihilation by embracing romanticized myths of simpler times, especially those set in the nation's period of western expansion. Ghosts towns, dude ranches, sagebrush "ranch" lots for sale in subdivisions that existed only on paper, western movies, and a host of other diversions sprange up to fill this craving. Though the arrival of the railroad usually brought an abrupt end to the "frontier life", in the alternate reality created at that time trains became as much of a trope as a host of other caricatures and symbols. A thriving steam tourist railroad industry grew across the country to tap into the nostalgia market; railroads big and small bought or restored steam locomotives, often painted in gaudy paint schemes to make them look more "western", that would pull coaches full of tourists seeking to recreate a version of the past. Some of these excursion operations matured into long lasting operations, a few of which continue today, while others had only flash in the pan existences. We are approaching the 50th anniversary of one of the more remarkable examples of the latter.

The spectacular mainline of the Pickering Lumber Corporation logging railroad in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains at its height stretched 71.8 miles from a connection with the Sierra Railroad at Ralph to the end of track near the Calaveras Big Trees State Park's South Grove. Pickering trains also had trackage rights over four and a half miles of the Sierra main line to reach the mill in Standard, California. By 1964 only eighteen miles of the original Pickering railroad remained in operation, designed to be a heavy line haul operation from a log storage and reload site to the mill, but the economics simply didn't work out and the last log trains rolled into Standard near the end of 1965. However, by this point Fibreboard Corporation had bought the Pickering operations as part of their on-going program to buy sawmills primarily in California to guarantee and protect the woodchip supply for their giant paper mill in Antioch, and there was growing interest in the region to convert at least part of the railroad to a tourist operation. To that end Pickering's Shay #33 pulled a special train carrying Fibreboard's Board of Directors from Lyons Dam to Standard on 26 October 1966 to demonstrate the possibilities the line might have for a tourist railroad. It's worth noting that the steam locomotives on the lower end of the railroad almost always pointed east, but for this train Fibreboard wanted the #33 pointed west, which required running the locomotive down to Jamestown before and after the trip to run it on the turntable at the Sierra roundhouse.

The Board was sold on the idea, but almost immediately a new problem cropped up. CalTrans was then in the process of revising the route of Highway 108 at Twain Harte, and the new alignment would bisect the Pickering railroad. Fibreboard agreed to have the line severed by the highway, but not before it could position equipment on the east side of the break for any potential tourist operation. Fibreboard selected Shays 7 and 33 from the stored steam locomotives at Standard; the #7, under steam but with its cab still fully boarded up and helped by Pickering SW900 #102, travelled from Standard to Lyons Dam on 30 September 1966, where the #7 was left and the #102 returned to Standard. The #33 alone ran from Standard to Lyons Dam under its own power on 1 November 1966 in what would be the final train movement on the line before the revised highway severed the railroad. Former Pickering railroader Karl Koenig worked with Fibreboard to identify cars useful in any future tourist operation, and these last trains brought up several tank cars, flat cars, a caboose or two, and a few other cars from the Pickering fleet. Fibreboard parked the railcars on several sidings along the orphaned parts of the line and mothballed the two Shays at Lyons Dam where they awaited future developments.

The orphaned railroad equipment sat in silent repose, an oddity to the casual visitor and reminder of the glory days to others, for almost five full years. Then, at the 1971 annual election results meeting of the Pacific Locomotive Association (PLA) in Berkeley, CA, member Bob Hogan announced that he and Karl Koenig had secured a lease of the remaining Pickering Lbr. Corp. trackage and they were planning to work with PLA to operate excursion trains over the Labor Day Weekend. It would require a lot of labor from PLA members. Joe Ward, Chris Collins and Tom Moungovan were asked if they would like to be the train crew, and all three jumped at the chance. Preparations for the trips started some time before the event, as both Shays had to be inspected and certified, tracks had to be cleared of five years of vegetation growth and rock slides and inspected and repaired, and the log flats left at a couple different sidings on the line had to be serviced and rebuilt to excursion cars.

The reborn Sugar Pine Railway only operated that one long weekend in September 1971. While both Shays were available, only the #7 was fired up and used, largely because it hadn't operated in many years and Karl Koenig, engineer for the weekend, had never seen it run. Pete Rogers Sr. worked as the Fireman, and Joe Ward's recent experience working as a Switchman for the Western Pacific earned him an appointment as the Conductor on the trains. Chris and Tom served as Brakemen. The trains originated and terminated at Lyons Dam each day, but the excursion trains operated from a cleared off field turned into a parking lot next to the crossing of Middle Camp Road just behind Twain Harte. The crew started their days hostling the #7 and preparing the train at Lyons Dam, then they'd run down to the crossing. Once the passengers had been loaded for each trip the #7 would shove the cars a short distance up the hill to Long Siding, where it would run around the train and couple onto the head end for the trip up to Lyons, where the #7 would again run around the train for the trip back down to Middle Camp Road. The operation arranged to use a fire hydrant adjacent to Middle Camp Road to water the #7, and between trips Joe, Chris, and Tom took turns running up to the road to turn on the hydrant. The train made several round trips a day on all three days, then after the last trip each day the crew would return the empty train to Lyons for the night.

At the end of the weekend the Shays and other equipment were returned to storage at Lyons Dam, where it would wait for another call to service that never came. Various PLA members visited the equipment and did some various repairs and servicing to keep it ready for use, but logistics and especially high insurance prices killed every proposal to run the railroad again. Finally, in 1974 Glen Bell Jr. bought the two Shays and other equipment for possible use on his West Side & Cherry Valley operations. He used a trackmobile to bring the equipment down to a crossing near Twain Harte where they could be loaded onto trucks for the trip to Tuolumne. Scrappers claimed the remaining trackage on the Pickering railroad shortly after the equipment departed. The two Shays are still around today, Dr. Al Nickel bought the #7 and trucked it to the PLA's Castro Point Railroad, where it remained until moved to Niles Canyon before being trucked to Jamestown, California, in 1997, while Northern Counties Logging Interpretive Association (now Timber Heritage Association) purchased the #33 and returned it to the Eureka area, where it had operated for many years for the Hammond companies as their #33 before its sale to Pickering.

I'll turn the rest of this narration over to Tom Moungovan, who sent the following pictures along with some of the story and information related above. The photos are by Tom unless stated and mostly feature the work that went into preparing the line and equipment for the excursions and the people involved. Many thanks to Tom for putting these together!


Pickering Shays 7 & 33 sitting at Lyons Lake near Mile 14 on the morning of August 8th, the first steaming of the 7. Both locomotives had been inspected and had California boiler permits but it was decided to use the 7 over the 33 as she had not been used in years and Karl Koenig had never seen it in operation. Photo by Karl Koenig.


The 7 running light a short distance out of Lyons on the same day. This trip was to check for clearances.


This photo was also taken on August 8. Brakeman Chris Collins is getting something out of the toolbox of the 80-3 class Shay.


Several people working to clear a downed tree just about a mile out of Lyons Dam on August 8. Left to right, unidentified, Paul Gordenev, Joe Ward, Tom Moungovan and Bob Hogan. Photo by Karl Koenig.


A vertical image by Karl Koenig showing Joe, Chris & Tom at Tramway fabricating benches for one of the passenger flats on 8-15-71.


Fireman Pete Rogers Sr. in the cab of the 7 at Lyons. Pete & Tom worked together at the Std. Oil Refinery in Richmond with Tom operating boilers and Pete as a boiler shutdown foreman. Photo by Karl Koenig.


Photo of the #7 taken by Karl on 8-28-71 and labeled as the first through trip over the remaining line. The 7 got away on the 4.7% out of Twain Harte on account of the combination of vegetation on the tracks, rust on the rails, and no train cars to help brake the locomotive. Pete stood up, looked at Karl and said "This ain't for me" and bailed off. Karl got the Shay stopped, reversed direction, and came back ahead and picked Pete up and all was forgiven.


This photo was taken on the Labor Day Weekend by Chris Holombo. Karl was the engineer for the weekend, but would graciously let Tom run around the train at Lyons, a kindness that has never been forgotten. Tom also got to run one trip west and fire one trip east. Tom writes "This event was an exceptional experience for all of us. We were a lucky bunch of kids. Joe, Chris & I missed out on several hot meals, slept in sleeping bags right on the ground & got up at 1am to hostle and switch. You can't buy an experience like that on eBay."


Finally, photo 9 is a contemporary shot by Jeff Moore of the #7 at Jamestown.

Thanks for looking!

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Jeff has my thanks for the time that he spent to put this together.

This was a truly great experience for all involved. We had locals, who were not even railroad enthusiasts, come forward and spend time clearing the right of way and also helping to fabricate benches for the passenger flats.

Pickering had crews lengthen the short siding at Lyons and add another switch so that we could have a runaround at that end.

Perhaps the best part for me was getting up at 1 a.m. each night with Joe & Chris and relighting a fire in the 7 so she'd have adequate steam in the morning. Pete Rogers and Karl both had motel rooms up on the highway above Lyons so it became our responsibility.

Great post. Was no where near this AO and am not familiar with the road or equipment. But that time frame of early 1970s if you were in the right place at the right time you could have some life changing experiences around steam and railroading. These were the days before "OSHA and the Cowboy" and no doubt someone will bring up how things are better now. But these days written about above were priceless. Even though I recognise the need for changes that have since occured. Wonderfully done posting. Thanks for sharing it. Regards, John.

Thank you for the awesome look back, Tom. Hard to believe it's been 50 years. Karl's and Chris' photos are great to see.

In the photo Karl took from the tender looking down on the guys at work, I think that's George Childs, Jr. on the left. There are other photos that show him at work out on the line, in addition to the work he did on the 7.

Best,

Brian

Brian, I thank you for your comment regarding George Childs. You are likely correct.

I think that is you sitting atop the oil tank on the 7 at Lyons.

With respect, I have to disagree with your father regarding Karl having never been an employee of Pickering. From an October 25, 1963 letter by Art Ronten, V.P. and Ass't. Manager, I cite the following:

To Whom concerned:

This is to certify that Mr. Karl R. Koenig, whose signature appears below, entered service as a locomotive fireman on August 18, 1963, working continuously in that capacity while the company was in operation. Resigned October 7, 1963.
During the entire time that he was with us we found his services very satisfactory, being ambitious and well qualified, also bears an excellent personal record.

Very truly,
PICKERING LUMBER CORPORATION
By
Arthur H. Ronten

(signature of Karl encl.)

You are absolutely right Tom, I forgot about that. My apologies.
Howard

Thanks Howard. I learned about this late from Karl. He wasn't one to boast about that,
but I could tell that he had pride in his time spent firing.

stay well,
Tom

Just to point this out, but it was 50 years ago this evening that the last Pickering Lbr. Corp. steam move took place when Shay 7 took most or all of the cars on the West end of the remaining trackage back to Lyons Dam for storage.

It had just gotten dark and I was riding atop one of the Pickering reefers with PLA President Warren Smith. There was something almost mesmerizing watching the headlight of 7 as she wound her way around one curve after another.

Warren quietly mentioned to me that we might never see something like this again. Sadly,
he was right.

Shay 7 was one of two Pickering geared locomotives to get large brass numbers affixed to her instead of the usual paint. Shay 8 was the other.