THE WESTSIDE LUMBER COMPANY
By Russ Reinberg
THE WESTSIDE LUMBER Company is probably America's best known narrow gauge logging railroad. It began operations in 1899 as the Westside Flume and Lumber Company. The offices and main facilities were in a town called Tuolumne, about 80 miles east of San Francisco. From there the line wound about 70 miles through the Sierras, up 5-percent grades and around tight curves, to the outskirts of Yosemite.
In 1903, its name changed to the Hetch Hetchy & Yosemite Valley Railway but most people still called it the Westside Lumber Company. In 1925, the Pickering Lumber Company bought the Westside and painted the locomotives red. Fortunately, that era lasted only nine years and, from 1934 until 1961, when the company ceased operations, they again painted the locomotives black. The only graphics were orange numbers.
During its 62 years of operation, the Westside Lumber Company had four Heisler geared locomotives, seven Class B two-truck Shay geared locomotives, seven Class C three-truck Shays and, in the early years, an 0-4-0 Porter saddletank switcher they called Fido.
The locomotives burned wood until 1901, then the company converted to oil. Rolling stock comprised disconnect lumber trucks, 24 foot Carter Brothers flatcars, 36 foot skeleton log cars, a varied collection of work cars, some second-hand boxcars and freight cars, several homemade oil tank cars, a snowplow, and a handful of very unique cabooses.
A few cars and locomotives survive. A former Westside Shay, for example, now runs on the Georgetown Loop excursion line in Colorado. A couple of other Shays and a Heisler remain at or near Tuolumne.
