The Feather River Railway was built in 1922 for the Hutchinson Lumber Company to bring logs from Feather Falls, California, to a connection with the Western Pacific Railroad (WP) at Bidwell, California. The WP would then transport the logs to the Hutchinson sawmill in Oroville, California. The sawmill burned in 1927; and the railway was unused through the Great Depression until reorganized as a common carrier in 1938 to serve a new sawmill built at Feather Falls. Georgia-Pacific purchased the sawmill and railway in 1955. The railway ceased operation after portions of the grade were flooded by Oroville Dam during the Christmas flood of 1964.[1]
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Feather Falls, California |
| Locale | Butte County, California |
| Dates of operation | 1922–1966 |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Locomotives
edit| Number | Builder | Type | Date | Works number | Notes[2] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-truck Shay locomotive | 1921 | 3169 | purchased new; placed on display at Oroville in 1961 |
| 2 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-truck Shay locomotive | 1922 | 3177 | purchased new. Sold to Sierra Railway. |
| 3 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-truck Shay locomotive | 1923 | 3221 | purchased new, operational as Cass Scenic Railroad #11, Cass, West Virginia |
| 4 | H.K. Porter, Inc. | 0-6-0 Tank locomotive | 1907 | 3951 | built as Mammoth Copper Mining Company #4; scrapped in 1957 |
| 5 | Willamette Iron and Steel Works | 3-truck Willamette locomotive | 1923 | 9 | purchased new; scrapped in 1957 |
| 8 | GE Transportation | GE 44-ton switcher | 1951 | 30791[3] | built as C.D. Johnson Lumber Company #8; purchased in 1963 |
| 91 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-truck Shay locomotive | 1928 | 3322 | built as Polson Logging Company #91; purchased for parts in 1958; scrapped |
| 102 | Electro-Motive Diesel | EMD SW900 | 1959 | 25504[3] | built as Hammond Redwood Company #102; purchased in 1961 |
| A[3] | Plymouth Locomotive Works | gas-mechanical locomotive | 1930[3] | 3476[3] | built for Garfield & Company[3] |
Notes
edit
- ^ Barnhill Web Design. "Feather River Railway". TrainWeb. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
- ^ Stephens, Kent (1965). "The Feather River Railway in 1965". The Western Railroader. 28 (306). Francis A. Guido: 12.
- ^ a b c d e f Barnhill Web Design. "Feather River Railway". TrainWeb. Retrieved 9 December 2017.