Almanor Railroad
Encyclopedia
Class III railroad
A Class III railroad, as defined by the Surface Transportation Board, is a railroad with an annual operating revenue of less than $20 million . The term only applies to United States railroads, but is sometimes applied to other countries...
shortline
ShortLine
Short Line is a brand name for three different Coach USA companies, Hudson Transit Lines, Hudson Transit Corporation, and Chenango Valley Bus Lines that provide local, commuter and intercity bus service in lower New York State, primarily along the Route 17 and Southern Tier corridor.-Service...
operating in Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
, USA. It was owned by Collins Pine Company, a division of The Collins Companies
The Collins Companies
The Collins Companies, which began operations in 1855, is a family-owned American forest products company. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Collins was the first privately-owned forest products company in the United States to have all of its hardwood and softwood forests certified by the Forest...
and annually hauled about 300 cars of timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
and lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
products generated at the mill. The railroad was named after Lake Almanor
Lake Almanor
Lake Almanor is a large artificial lake in northwestern Plumas County, northeastern California. The reservoir has a capacity of and a maximum depth of about 90 feet...
, to which the railroad ran over (by causeway) and adjacent to for some distance.
The 13 miles (20.9 km) railroad ran west from a connection with the BNSF Railway
BNSF Railway
The BNSF Railway is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. It is one of seven North American Class I railroads and the second largest freight railroad network in North America, second only to the Union Pacific Railroad, its primary...
(former Western Pacific
Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California...
) at Clear Creek Junction to Chester, California
Chester, California
Chester is a census-designated place in Plumas County, California, United States. Chester is located on Lake Almanor, north-northwest of Quincy. The town is located along State Route 36. The US Postal Service ZIP code for the community is 96020...
.
The Almanor Railroad was incorporated on September 15, 1941, and purchased the line from the Grande Ronde Lumber Company; and was discontinued in late 2009.
The railroad line was built before 1931 by the Red River Lumber Company which had a private electric logging railroad with a trestle
Trestle
A trestle is a rigid frame used as a support, especially referring to a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by such frames. In the context of trestle bridges, each supporting frame is generally referred to as a bent...
over the Feather River
Feather River
The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is about . Its drainage basin is about...
and ran from Westwood (about 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Clear Creek Junction) to Chester. The portion of the Red River Lumber line between Westwood and Chester was the BNSF mainline from Keddie to Bieber. The BNSF also has trackage rights over the Almanor Railroad.
The Almanor Railroad had one 70-ton GE locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
built in 1955.