Sugar Pine Lumber Company

The Sugar Pine Lumber Company could not afford to build a single private railroad from the valley to the mountains. The distance covered more than forty miles of private rangeland and ranchers could set any price they wanted. A workaround was concocted to create a separate, subsidiary company that was incorporated as a common carrier. This allowed the necessary right-of-way to be secured easily and inexpensively at a fixed price. The 43.45 mi (69.93 km) right-of-way was negotiated for $175,000, paid for by the Fresno County location incentives.[4]^: 144 The railroad construction was financed by an initial company bond issue of $2.2 million.

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  Railway route along the San Joaquin River.
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  San Joaquin River trestle.
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  Finegold trestle.
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  Minarets and Western Locomotive Number 102.

The Minarets and Western Railway connected with the Sugar Pine Railroad at the Wishon switching yards at Bass Lake.[2] From there, the Minarets and Western flat cars were pulled up a 10.82 mi (17.41 km) standard gauge railroad to Central Camp, the base of logging operations in the woods.[1]

The Sugar Pine Railroad railway was built at a consistent 4.5 percent grade that wound through a series of sixty-two 20-degree curves.[4]^{: 122, 145} This required the Sugar Pine Railroad to run a different set of 2-8-2T locomotives where the water is carried in tanks mounted on the engine to increase tractive power. Between Bass Lake and Central Camp there are no places where the railroad grade is flat or opposite grade. This allowed for an easy descent. Loaded timber trains could coast all the way to the mill, requiring a locomotive only for braking.[4]^: 145 This requirement added several miles to the serpentine route.[2]

From Central Camp, 150 mi (240 km) of logging rails were laid to reach outlying timber tracts. Fifty trestles were required to span the steep terrain. Trestle Number 14 was the highest at 110 feet (34 m) feet high.

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  Track laying.
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  Tracks across Bass Lake Dam.
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  Trestle footings.
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  Trestle 1.
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  Locomotive 1 on Trestle
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  Trestle Number 14.

Minarets and Western American Locomotive Company Number 5 Builders Photograph

Sugar Pine Railroad Company used custom-built 2-8-2T Mikado engines from American Locomotive Company. The water tank sat over the boiler. This added more weight over the wheels for better adhesion on climbs. It also allowed the engine to run equally well forward and backward.[3]^: 38–39

From Bass Lake up to Central Camp, because of the steep 4.5% grade, the Mikado engines could only pull twelve cars at once. This meant that three trips were required to get a full thirty-five-car train up. Often this meant that trains ran overnight to keep ahead. The company added two more similarly specified Mikado locomotives as they began cutting further out lumber tracts.[4]^: 145

In 1927, Sugar Pine ordered a unique tank locomotive, designated a Minaret engine after the nearby mountain peaks.[3]^: 122 It was the most powerful saddle tank locomotive ever made and forty-percent heavier than their Mikado engines. With two pony trucks, ten drivers, and two trailer trucks it could pull about twenty-five cars up the grade.

The massive saddle-tank locomotives proved to be overbuilt for the application in the woods. Lighter, geared Shay locomotives could negotiate sharper curves over lighter roadbeds with significantly lower operating costs.[3]^: 100

While different locomotives were used, the Minarets and Western and Sugar Pine Lumber Company shared the same 200 standard-gauge flatbed cars.^: 27 Six all-steel flatbed moving cars were used in the woods to transport electric logging equipment.[3]^: 101 Each day, lumberjacks used flatbed cars to travel from Central Camp to more remote worksites. This arrangement was called “The Man Train.”[3]^: 79

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  Wood Flatcar.
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  Steel Flatcar.
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  Steel Flat Car.
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  Log Cars at Bass Lake.
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  The "Man Train."

Central Camp was the Sugar Pine Lumber Company's base of logging operations supporting five hundred people living together in the woods. This included single lumberjacks living in group dormitories, lumberjacks and their families living in detached cabins, as well as railroad and construction workers, cooks, teachers, doctors and other seasonal support staff.[1][3]^: 79

Sparing little expense, it was the industry's finest, costliest and most modern logging camp. The Fresno Republican covered the camp's grand opening in 1923, which stood in stark contrast to primitive woods camps. The Republican reported:[3]^: 43

Central Camp, the little capital of the sugar pine hills, is hidden away in a grove of towering trees. Huge buildings have been erected that are substantial enough to stand for 75 years or more, even in the trying weather that exists during the winter when snow piles up from six to eight feet high. Two of the buildings have fully as large a floor space as the Fresno Auditorium. From garage to hospital, this lumber city is the most modern of any in the world, the builders claim. To the visitor, the contention is substantiated when a tour of the ‘city limits’ is made. Comforts and conveniences that would be found at the country’s finest summer resorts are in evidence everywhere.

Built at a cost of $600,000, the investment was elaborate for what was ultimately a transitory work site. A hydroelectric plant supplied the town with electricity for lighting and cooking. A large central boiler provided the living quarters with steam heat.[1] Lumberjacks returned by train to Central Camp for the midday meal prepared by a large cook staff. Meals features fresh produce that was brought into the mountains by refrigerator car.[7] Entertainment included a theater, recreation hall and a boxing ring. Operating during the Prohibition era, Central Camp did not have a saloon. However, whiskey was occasionally bootlegged in.

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  Main Street
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  Commissary
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  Cookhouse
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  Cookhouse Staff
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  Hospital
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  School
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  Man Train Lunch.
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  Machine Shop

Sugar Pine Lumber was one of the few large operations where the primary logging equipment was electrically driven. Earlier operations extensive use of the steam donkey which transformed the industry in the 1880s. Later operations transitioned to modern-day truck logging.[3]^: 59 Electricity was preferable to steam for several reasons. Electricity greatly reduced the risk of forest fire, did not require a supply of water or fuel, and provided instant and continuous power.[3]^: 60 Power was supplied by San Joaquin Light and Power through high tension wires running from the hydroelectric power station at nearby Bass Lake. As a result, late-season windstorms became a hazard, and sometimes interrupted operations during the fall months.[8] Twelve transformers mounted to donkey sleds allowed power to be deployed anywhere throughout the timber tract. Two 70-ton Willamette railroad logging units were used to pull cut logs to the railroad line.[1]

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  Trainload of transformers.
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  Willamette slope hoist.
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  A transformer powering logging equipment.
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  Electric car unit loading crew.
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  Electric winch punk.
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  Willamette loader on railway.