Cut along the YSL grade above Sullivan Creek, in 1984.
Rick Mugele serves as yardstick (and guide..)
Photo by Lennart Elg. Click on picture to see a larger version!

The Yosemite Short Line Railway Co.

Passengers would arrive at Jamestown on the Sierra Ry. in the afternoon, and spend the night at the Nevill's Hotel. Next morning they would board the YSL for a scenic ride which would "hold its own with any line in California" according to the Tuolumne Prospector. The fact that the National Park Commission was not likely to grant permission for the YSL to enter the park does not seem to have bothered its promoters.

In addition to carrying tourists into the national park, the YSL would pass rich timber holdings owned by the investors, led by railroad entrepreneur Thomas Bullock. This was his third attempt to reach the Yosemite Valley. The first was the three-foot gauge Hetch Hetchy & Yosemite Valley R.R., sold in 1903 (later better known as the West Side Lumber Co.), and in 1905 the National Park Commission had refused permission for the standard gauge Jamestown & Yosemite RR, to enter the national park, favoring the Merced River route being constructed by the Yosemite Valley R.R.

We can only speculate about the choice of such a narrow gauge for what was expected to be a fairly ambitious project. By 1905 most narrow gauge railroads had either been abandoned or converted to standard gauge, and no new lines were being constructed. While some 30” gauge railroads operated in Mexico, only a few small industrial trams had ever been built to this gauge in the US, so availability of second-hand equipment can not have been a consideration.

The choice of gauge may have been a gamble to reach the Yosemite National Park ahead of competing projects by minimizing the need for construction in difficult tcrrain. A subsequent upgrading would however have involved almost a total rebuilding of the line. The survey included a series of 70 degree curves (87ft radius !) down the canyons of Sullivan and Woods Creek. In order to accommodate track like this, the YSL's equipment was unusual not only in the choice of gauge: The freight cars were extremely short at 18', and the link-and-pin couplers were mounted on wide-swinging radius bars more often found on streetcars.

Old YSL grade at Quartz Junction, as it appeared in 1984
Photo by Lennart Elg. Click on picture to see a larger version!

Construction on the YSL started in the autumn of 1905. A third rail was laid down the Sierra Ry. from Jamestown, and the 30” gauge track diverged from the Sierra at Quartz Junction. The right-of-way would follow Woods Creek, pass Jacksonville, and then head eastwards into the mountains along the same route followed by the Big Oak Flat Road.

By December 1905 ten miles had been graded, and rails laid on a portion of the grade. The narrow gauge followed a fairly steep grade, crossing Sullivan Creek on a high trestle and passing the huge Eagle-Shawmut mine before reaching Jacksonville. A spur was laid to the mine, which was by this time the largest deep quartz mine in Tuolumne County, employing some 250 men.

After Jacksonville the grade followed the Tuolumne River eastward, crossed Moccasin Creek and began climbing the Tuolumne River canyon to meet Big Creek two miles north of Groveland.

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Map of the proposed YSL route. Click on map to see a larger version!

It was clear that additional financing was needed in order to complete the grading. At an emergency meeting in San Francisco on April 17, 1906, the Sierra directors agreed to extend the Sierra Railway Co's responsibility in backing Yosemite Short Line bonds.

Next morning at 5 a.m. disaster struck. The shocks and the ensuing fires of the great San Francisco earthquake destroyed nearly 28.000 buildings, including the Sierra's headquarters and all company records. In the following economic chaos Bullock's investors withdrew their support, and he was forced to abandon construction of the YSL.

At the time of abandonment tracks had been laid for 8 1/2 miles from Jamestown past the Eagle-Shawmut mill. Grading continued past an unfinished bridge across Tuolumne River at Jacksonville, and up the river past the mouth of Moccasin Creek at Stevens Bar. The survey was completed through Carlon, some 50 miles from Jamestown.

The third rail from Jamestown to Quartz Jct was removed around 1915, and the rest of the rail was taken up in 1917. In 1916 the std gauge Hetch-Hetchy RR used the YSL grade between Jacksonville and Stevens Bar on its way to the Hetch-Hetchy water project. The stands of sugar pine once owned by Bullock and Crocker were eventually logged by the Yosemite Sugar Pine Lumber Co. out of Incline, near El Portal on the the Yosemite Valley RR.

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Equipment

Clearly, the YSL boxcar was constructed on top of a flatcar
Photo by Mal Ferrell. Click on picture to see a larger version!

The boxcar ended up as a toolshed in the Sierra R.R. yard at Oakdale, Ca., where I saw it in 1984, 78 years after the last train rolled on the YSL.. Note that the original Wagner plug door was cut in half and standard hinges were added at that time. This car is now at Railtown 1897 at Jamestown, the last relic of the Yosemite Short Line.

YSL boxcar in Sierra RR yard at Oakdale, ca 1988
Photo by Mal Ferrell. Click on picture to see a larger version!

A former YSL flatcar (it appears to be numbered "53") in service as a watercar
on the Union Construction Co. Click on picture to see a larger version!

Some rolling stock was sold to the Union Construction Co. for work on a Sierra & San Francisco Power Co. water project, northeast of Sonora, where it was regauged to 3' gauge. Two larger 18-ton Porter 0-4-0T engines, c/n 3467 and 3468 were on order but never delivered to the YSL. Engine 3467 was delivered to the Empire City instead in 1908, while #3468 was sold to Pittsburgh Plate Glass in 1907. The J. Hammond Co had also prepared proposals for a dainty little 26 foot, 22 seat coach/parlor car.

A final, sad postscript was written in the early 1970's when the Dom Pedro dam was raised, flooding part of the old Yosemite Short Line mainline, along with the entire town of Jacksonville and the remains of the Eagle-Shawmut mill. The little boxcar is the only piece of surviving equipment, but you can also walk the grade above Woods Creek, if you know where to look. In 1984 a few trestle bents were still standing.