Trestle Tours

Trestle Tours are guided, self driven tours of old railroad lines of the area. See old grade, ties, rail, logging camp sites, and even trestles! At each stop, the significance of the railroad its history is discussed. At some stops, there are short hikes along old grade. Exploration is encouraged! Mostly it is an enjoyable few hours in the beautiful Truckee area talking about whatever comes up.

Be sure to check in at summertime 2013 for new tours

Joint Truckee Donner Railroad Society/ Truckee Donner Historical Society tour

Did you know there had been four logging railroads north of Boca reservoir?  Come with us and see the traces of the Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Company, Boca & Loyalton, and the Verdi Lumber Company logging railroads. 
The first, The Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Company had narrow gauge tracks laid principally on the west side of the Little Truckee valley.  The tracks and locomotives were moved to Hobart Mills in 1896 after all the available timber in Incline Village had been harvested.
Nelson Van Gundy will show us the remaining vestiges of these railroads including the old locomotive shops at Hobart Mills, the trestles of the Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Company railroad and the ice houses of the Boca and Loyalton railroad.

The J.W. Bowker was one of the The Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Company railroad’s locomotives.  It was later used in Cecil B. De Mille’s movie Union Pacific and also the movie version of The Wild, Wild West. 
The locomotive is now in Sacramento’s California State Railroad Museum.
This narrow gauge railroad hauled logs down to the Hobart Mills sawmill.  The timber was cut to size, and then the standard gauge Hobart Southern railroad hauled the wood to the Southern Pacific railroad connection near the present railyard in Truckee.  Much of the wood was used to build wooden boxes for agricultural crops.  Some of these boxes became California’s classic orange crates.  .  Many remnants of the railroad trestles still exist and we will stop and inspect them.
We will stop and see the foundations of the Hobart Mills locomotive shops.  Not far from these shops, we will also see remains of the flat bed logging cars. As we explore the valley, we’ll come upon evidence of other railroads.

The third, the Verdi Lumber railroad came from the east out of Nevada.   A Central Pacific executive and opera fan named the town after Giuseppe Verdi - the composer of La traviata.  The
track wound up the Dog Valley old emigrant route and then crosses the other two railroads near the center of Sardine Meadows.  The steep grades up and over the pass from Verdi required the low gears of Shay locomotives. The Verdi Lumber Company operated this railroad from 1900 until the forests were exhausted in 1927.





 The last logging railroad was the Boca & Loyalton railroad. It ran from what’s today the base of Boca dam north for 46 miles through the Little Truckee valley past the town of Loyalton.  The railroad was opened in 1901 and by 1908 all the useful timber between Boca and Loyalton had been cut down.  In addition to wood, the railroad transported cattle, dairy products, sheep, hay and grain to the Southern Pacific at Boca. While the town of Boca produced both ice and the famous “Boca Beer,” both products were shipped on the transcontinental Southern Pacific railroad and not north on the Boca & Loyalton. In 1916, the Western Pacific bought the Boca & Loyalton at a foreclosure sale and abandoned the line south from Loyalton.
We will end our trip viewing the ice house and railroad foundations of Boca.

We recommend hiking gear: good boots or hiking shoes are a minimum. This is a backwoods adventure, so come dressed comfortably and prepared for an expedition. We will hike a couple of miles [broken into smaller segments], and the trip will cover 40-50 miles of paved highway, USFS system roads, some   4 wheel—drive trails, and old railroad roadbed.
Cameras are recommended. This trip usually takes from 4-6 hours, depending on road and trail conditions, questions, photo opportunities, debates, wildflowers, serendipitous finds, etc., and is never the same twice. We will never be more than 30 miles from Truckee.

Past Trestle Tours

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