Yreka Western home town installation. Office and freight station at left, shops on other side of main line. The town of Yreka is out of the photo on the right. Track continues around the mountain in the background to terminate at large lumber mill.
   

More Than You Probably Need To Know

About The Yreka Western

by Regis Cordic
  

There is not a whole lot going on in the town of Yreka, California, on a Saturday afternoon; even less is happening In the nearby home yard of the Yreka Western Railroad.

Working on a movie location in this beautiful country just south of the Oregon border, I found myself with a free weekend in which to do a little railroad snooping. From the town, the Y-W is not hard to find. A short walk beneath the 1-5 overpass brought me face-to-face with the office, yard, shop and a marvelous collection of equipment.

No one was about; many questions had to wait. Nippy autumn weather was invigorating enough to inspire a stroll along several miles of right-of-way. Fall colors brightened the bucolic setting of the sharp turns and up-and-down amblings of the main line.

Much work was going on here: long stretches of track sported new ties, ballast was being refurbished, new rails and switches were in place in a lumbering complex at the end of the line beyond Yreka proper. It appeared as if this railroad was in good shape and getting better

Roughly eleven miles of track (counting sidings) meander from here to the connection with the Southern Pacific main at Montague. It is a short-line modeler's dream: ample switching problems, a route that does not seem to be in a hurry to get there, a location that is spacious without overwhelming the rightof-way and, from the lumber-laden backdrop comes a supply of revenue that should make for a promising tomorrow. In short, the Yreka Western looks like it belongs.

< LEFT - Passing track and line-up of stored equipment directly in front of freight station. RIGHT > Yreka trackage map.

Y-W 409 sports a coat of bright silver paint. Was formerly Santa Fe Business car 409. Came to the road in the 60s. Perfect prototype for modification of one of the "shorty" kits.

General clutter of the area outside the shop features many details worthy of model railroader's consideration. Among them, note half-gondola, half-caboose in the background which was once used as a visitor's guest house.

Garden-like setting frames handsome Yreka Western 13 which was used as a home for president Willis Kyle and his family when they visited Yreka. Basic bright blue color contrasts with light gray window strip, roof and doors. Good ideas for modeling stationary rolling stock: high chimney, protruding air conditioners.

Indeed, history has pretty much corroborated that concept since the first rail was laid back in the summer of 1888.

Heavy rain clouds hung over the mountains the following days as I entered the yards for a few final photos. A car was parked in front of the freight office. The light was on inside.

A knock brought a response from a most pleasant young lady who explained that there was a little extra bookwork that needed catching up. That was why she was working on Sunday.

Obviously, she had little time to discuss 2-8-2s or observation cars, but she kindly proffered a compact, well-assembled history of the road that Peggy Walsh wrote and the company published in 1966 under the title of "YREKA WESTERN MILESTONES."

She promised it would answer all my questions. It did.

When the S.P.'s California & Oregon Railroad was constructing their north-south mainline, a mood of gloom settled over the thousand-or-so residents of Yreka when word came that their town was to be bypassed as the big road pointed its construction crews in the direction of a more favorable route through the Shasta Valley. Not of a mind to be left behind in the march of progress, these hardy citizens declared that if the SP. would not come to them, they would go to the S.P.!

Overwhelmingly, they voted to bond their town to the tune of $85,000 to build their OWN connecting line to Montague. Only four dissenting ballots were cast, rumored to be from a quartette of disgruntled stagecoach drivers.

Then followed the all-too-familiar financial scrambles, disappointments and delays in the receipt of materiel. But, finally, on January 9, 1889, a gala celebration sent the first train of dignitaries and passengers on their way from the fresh, new depot at Yreka.

The brand new Baldwin 2-4-2T needed 30 minutes to cover the route. This was trimmed to a quarter of an hour once all ballasting was completed. If not one of the wonders of the world, it was a vast improvement over the old stage road.

The Yreka Railroad (its original name) vindicated its founders' optimism. Rounding the turn into the new century, the line was the envy of many townships similarly removed from the through route. In 1906, a group of private investors from San Francisco made the town "an offer they couldn't refuse" for purchase of the little money-maker. The new owners immediately revived an older scheme to extend the original trackage an additional 42 miles to the town of Etna. Alas! That idea died in the ashes of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire in which the holding company sustained crippling losses.

In the years to come, the Y-W was able to withstand the ups-and-downs (mostly the latter) that are the lot of a line of such limited range. Fate added its share of woes in the form of a few floods and even a circus train wreck.

At one point, a flamboyant president with a touch of con man in his soul was able to convince an importer of expensive Cuban cigars to dispatch a generous supply of free samples to his office to be considered for exclusive use on the dining and parlor cars of the line. Evidently, no one in Havana bothered to check the book on the operation. The stogies were duly delivered and the executive personally "considered" the smokes for years.

While he puffed away, the Yreka Western was slowly sinking beneath him.

The Great Depression and anxious debtors (notably Southern Pacific) almost turned the line into a memory. Instead, they forced a receivership which brought the company back under the control of a native of the town that had started it all in the first place.

Mr. O. G. Steele headed the road in the direction that would ultimately lead to its present stability. He sums up succinctly, "I didn't know what I was getting into!"

Among the many vicissitudes he faced was the chore of keeping enough nickels on hand to operate the business; the bill was so high, the telephone company installed a PAY phone in the main office!

The complex job of reorganization covered everything from establishing new and more favorable tariffs with the S.P. to settling-up the long-standing liquor bills run up by former directors.

Additional locomotives were acquired from the likes of the State Belt Railroad of San Francisco and the neighboring McCloud River Railroad. Most important was promoting the growth or addition of on-line industries.

As the distant rumblings of World War II began, the Y-W was well on its way back from the edge of oblivion. Extraordinary wartime demands for lumber, copper concentrates and other products of the region kept a shine on the rail-heads and a balance in the bank.

By 1948, the picture was rosy enough for the receivership to be lifted. The Yreka Western re-entered the world of free enterprise with all debts paid.

Diesels growled onto the property in the late Fifties. A used 800hp EMD Switcher was soon followed by a pair of second-hand Alcos. Steam was maintained for some time, however, by a Sentimental management for the pleasure of occasional Fan Trip passengers. No. 18 is still about-condition dubious.

Despite several more shuffles of ownership, today, one encounters a modest, well-maintained line that gives plenty of indication that it will be with us for quite a while. Active lumber operations attest to that

Though trucking service now provides a goodly portion of the company revenue, it appears that the bright blue locomotives and the rails that wind to Montague remain an important part of the Yreka Western story.

If you chance to be in the area of the California-Oregon border, a visit to the picturesque gold-mining town of Yreka and its proud little shortline is certainly worth the time.

Union Pacific Alco 1171 seems to have been acquired by Y-W for rebuilding or as a source of parts for the line's other Alcos. On this Sunday in October of 1977, the far side was open, revealing gaping voids where vital organs had been removed. Anyone know what's up?-or out?

Interesting hoist in shop area looks like it would be fun to model and would nicely fill a vacant spot somewhere along the line. Timber is beautifully weathered by nature, metal parts are a deep brown rust color. Very little paint in evidence.

This article was originally published in the August, 1979 issue of the NMRA (National Model Railroad Association) Bulletin. Copyright © 1979, Rege Cordic and the NMRA. Article(s) courtesy of (and reprinted with permission from) the A. C. Kalmbach Memorial Library, National Model Railroad Association. Click here to visit the NMRA.