Truckee Railyard Millsite History
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Truckee's railyards were a busy place. The long building on the left is a woodshed for locomotive fuel wood. The long building on the right side is a coal shed. In the1890's both types of locomotives were in use in Truckee. The roundhouse roof is visible over the coal shed. The white building between the two sheds is the Catholic Church. The car shop is just to the right of the church behind the coal shed.
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When the railroad was being constructed, Truckee served as the dominant supply point. As a separate stretch of track was extended down the Truckee River while the Donner Pass tunnels were being built, Truckee was a major staging point for the rails and rolling stock that were brought over the mountains by wagons. The rail yard was a huge stockpile as forty miles of track were constructed down the river to the Nevada state line.
Once the transcontinental railroad was done, Truckee became important to the maintenance and operations and as a division point. The focal point of the operations were the rail yards and the roundhouse. In January of 1869 40 engines a day were coming and going. Around twenty engines were housed in the first roundhouse that was completed in late 1868.
On March 29, 1869 the Truckee roundhouse caught on fire. In a separate column the story of that incident is told. Within several months a new roundhouse was constructed and railroad operations continued to expand.
On May 10, 1869 the transcontinental railroad was completed, and Truckee's future as a railroad town was secured. With its proximity to the Sierra Nevada summit, its vast forests, and its natural transfer point for passenger and freight traffic, south to Lake Tahoe and north to the Sierra Valley, Truckee would remain a railroad town of great importance for many decades. During the 1870's Truckee shipped more freight than any other point on the Central Pacific.
By 1872, the rail yard had a repair and machine shop, a wrecking train, a fire train, the Samson, two immense snow plows, and huge piles of cordwood to supply engines all along the railroad. The repair shop could fix cars or locomotives, assist in getting rolling stock back on track when derailed, and performed all forms of maintenance. There were many derailed cars and locomotives, wrecks, accidents, and damaged cars that had to be repaired in Truckee before they could be put back into service.
The shop also had a backup hand powered fire pump that could shoot a stream over the entire building. The repair shop was run for years by Nate Webb, who was the C. P. 's most prominent supervisor between Ogden and Sacramento. While Webb was in charge, he developed a new flanger that would remove snow and ice from inside the rails. In the late 1870's Nate Webb also ran the Sacramento repair shops.
Another notable repair shop man was George Royal. He invented and manufactured a newer style, improved flanger that cleared the ice from inside the tracks. The Royal flanger was constructed in the Truckee repair shops and was an instant success from its unveiling in 1875. In 1877 an improved Royal ice cutter was also built at the Truckee shops.
Truckee's second roundhouse contained 4 stalls that held 4 engines each. It too was built of wood, but it had an impressive fire protection system. Each stall had a hydrant with a hose attached. A new water supply that was 150 feet in elevation, on the north side of Truckee supplied 75 pounds of pressure. Water barrels were also placed on the roof. Arrangements were made so that the engines could be moved out quickly by hand in case of another fire. Several small fires did occur in the life of this roundhouse, but all were quickly put out before causing major damage.
In 1875 a new larger outdoor turntable and more sidings were added. Tracks were raised in the yards too allow for the easier removal of snow. A 600 foot long wood shed capable holding several hundred cords of 4 foot long locomotive wood was also constructed in 1880. As rail traffic grew so did the Truckee yards.
The Lumber Industry
The immense forest that the railroad passed through naturally led to the construction of sawmills. George Schaffer and Joseph Gray built the first sawmill across the river from Truckee in 1867. Elle Ellen built a sawmill along Trout Creek, just to the northwest of downtown Truckee in 1868. The present Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Company and Catholic Church now occupy the site. Side tracks were extended to the mill so much needed rail ties and bridge timbers could be loaded directly onto rail cars. Ellen also built a factory that produced planed lumber, shingles, windows and doors.
Ellen's mill burned in 1869 and was quickly rebuilt. In 1878 the factory caught fire and burned down, but was also rebuilt. In 1878 Ellen built a new mill 3 miles up Trout Creek in what is now Tahoe Donner. A V flume was built to float rough lumber, timbers, and cordwood down to the railroad tracks. The side tracks were in use until about 1904.
George Schaffer built his second sawmill in Martis Valley, 3 miles from Truckee. He built a box flume to float his lumber to the rail yards. His flume crossed the Truckee River on a 50 foot high trestle and landed the lumber in a large lumber yard on the south side of the tracks next to what is now East River Street.
In 1897 the Sierra Nevada Lumber & Wood Company built the Hobart Mills complex on Prosser Creek.. They connected it with a seven mile standard gauge railroad that hauled the finished lumber to the Southern Pacific. Dozens of miles of narrow gauge logging railroad were built in the forests north of Hobart Mills. Much of the lumber that built the towns and houses of the interior west came from the Truckee area. Millions of board feet of Truckee lumber passed through the Truckee railroad yards.
Railroad Division Point
As an operating point for almost three decades, Truckee figured importantly in the scheme of things. Situated at the foot of the steep climb to the Donner Summit, helper engines would congregate here and trains would crowd the local rail-yard. The affairs of over 325 miles of rail line from Truckee to Carlin Nevada, were administered and dispatched from these rail yards. Train crews were switched at Truckee, which was the first crew change east of Sacramento. Even today some train crews are still changed at Truckee.
The rail yard and roundhouse were also the headquarters for the fire trains that responded to the many fires that plagued the railroad system. The first fire engine was the Samson, which was stationed here to protect the second roundhouse, the freight depot, and more importantly the wooden snow sheds that protected the tracks from the heavy snows. It served the town of Truckee as its fire alarm and was the most efficient fire fighting apparatus in town for many decades.
In 1885 the Central Pacific Railroad ceased to exist. The cars & locomotives were renamed and repainted to reflect the new ownership of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Still Truckee continued its place as a major operation, employing hundreds of railroad workers.
The Third Roundhouse
Larger engines and more rail traffic put a severe strain on the Truckee roundhouse. Planning for a new roundhouse began in 1880. In the fall of 1882 the imposing 24 stall roundhouse was started. This roundhouse was built as fire proof as possible with very little wood. The decking on the turntable pit that turned with the turntable was the only wood in the structure.
The outside of the top was covered with galvanized sheet iron so it would not catch fire from coals or sparks. This metal roof absorbed enough heat from inside so that the snow would slide off of the roof. The floor was constructed of blocks of granite. There were wood stoves in each stall to keep the water pipes on the locomotives from freezing and bursting.
It was built of Rocklin granite and was one of three similar structures in Houston, Texas and Algiers, Louisiana. The walls were 23 feet high and several feet thick. It was designed and the construction was supervised by George Washington Barnhart, who was hired by Mark Hopkins for the project. The roundhouse had pillars in away from the walls with the turntable in the center. It was held up by steel rods and braces, as present domes are constructed. It had to be very sturdy to withstand the heavy snows that Truckee got and still gets on occasion.
At first the engines went into the stalls or pits headfirst. Each engine stack was parked under a chimney in the roof that took the engine smoke out. However, as the locomotives got larger, they had back in to keep the stacks from hitting the braces and the chimneys. With the stacks in the center of the house, the smoke collected in the top of the roundhouse. Enough sulphur fumes were in the smoke that when condensation formed, it turned to sulphuric acid that ate away the steel rods and braces. The building was condemned, the roof was removed in 1939, but the walls and the turntable were still standing until 1955.
The granite roundhouse was torn down in 1955 when the site was converted into a sawmill.
The balloon track was built in 1901 to facilitate the turning of snowplow trains. Before that the individual engines and plows had to be run onto the turntable in the roundhouse, and turned around for another run up to Donner Pass. When larger cab forward engines were put into service in 1909, the balloon track was improved and strengthened. Since these locomotives used more water, an additional water supply was acquired on Trout Creek and new water tanks were built at the roundhouse.
Coal and Oil
In 1905 the railroad started switching its engines to oil fuel. A large oil tank was built east of the roundhouse in 1906. An even larger one was built in 1916. Coal had been both a boon and curse to Truckee. A large coal shed had been built in 1886 to supply passing engines. Before that thousands of cords of four foot wood had been loaded onto locomotives. However two years later most locomotives were changed back to wood fired boilers. Wood engines used many tens of thousands of cords of Truckee cut wood that kept the economy of Truckee rolling along.
In 1904 a coal fire that started in the Truckee yards burned for four weeks, sending up choking noxious smoke that drifted over Truckee. Oil wasn't all that great for the Truckee River. Twice about 1910, oil spilled into the river in large enough quantities that it reached Reno both times. waste oil was dumped into a pit, creating the underground pollution that still is on the site.
In 1907 Truckee lost its place as a crew changing point. The addition of double trackage and the larger engines sped up the trains so that crews could make it from Roseville to Sparks in a single 16 hour shift. Many jobs also went out of town with the change, depressing the Truckee economy a little more.
Ice and Cattle
The California agriculture industry relied on the Truckee yards to get its produce fresh to points east. At first icing was done at ice plants at Boca, Prosser Creek, Polaris and Donner Creek. As early as 1877, an ice house was built to store and transfer ice to cooler cars that kept the fruits and vegetables cool. By 1906 a new Pacific Fruit Express icing shed had been built in the rail yard and was icing 10,000 refrigerator cars a year, using 50,000 tons of Truckee basin ice a year. Nearby the former Ellen sawmill and factory site was transformed into the Trout Creek Ice Company pond and warehouse. By 1920 the icing was shifted to man made ice stations at Roseville and Sparks.
The local cattle and dairy industry also used the rail yards for a transfer point. Each spring cows were brought up from the Sacramento Valley and unloaded, then driven to pastures. In the fall the cows were loaded back up and shipped back below. Local butchers such as Joe Marzen shipped in beef cattle from Nevada and processed them at their local slaughterhouse. The stockyards at the rail yard were at the east end of the site and were also the site of impromptu rodeos.
In the late 1800's the area was used as a shooting range for the Truckee Rifle Club. During the holidays, a turkey and chicken shooting contest was held. At the east end of the site was the Kearney chicken ranch. It supplied the local chicken & egg market for several decades through the mid-1900s.
Cab Forwards
The freight traffic increased to the point that larger and larger locomotives were needed. In 1911 a new freight station was constructed in the western part of town. Beginning in 1909, the first Mallet compound locomotive was tested on the Donner Route. These oil powered steam monsters were large enough to pull the heavy trains up the steep grades. The smoke of these locomotives was choking the train crews, so Southern Pacific created a cab forward Mallet to solve the problem. The new design Mallets began to work the mountain grade in 1910 and train crews were a lot happier and healthier.
The Truckee balloon track was modified to handle the heavier and longer locomotives. A modified articulated Cab Forward was introduced in 1928. These unusual engines were in use as long as steam power lasted. An engine shed was constructed over the main sidings so that waiting helper engines did not have to sit out in the snowstorms.
Continued Operations
Traffic continued to increase and despite no longer being a division point, Truckee still served as an important yard. Helper engines were still needed on the steep grade going west. Maintenance and snow removal crews were still stationed here. However in 1923 the Truckee fire train was reassigned to Andover, on Schallenberger Ridge.
The Truckee yards gained additional staff and responsibilities in 1926 when the Southern Pacific leased the Lake Tahoe Railway & Transportation Co. narrow gauge line from Truckee to Tahoe City. Once standard gauging was complete, Truckee based engines kept traffic moving on that branch.
By 1939 the roundhouse was being phased out in favor of housing engines at Sparks, Nevada. The roof was removed but the turntable was still used. In 1955 the roundhouse was removed, the granite blocks being disbursed around Truckee. Many ended up in gardens and as walkways.
As diesels took over the traffic demands for the Southern Pacific, the importance of the Truckee yards diminished. Yet even today the Union Pacific still intends to maintain a presence in Truckee's railroad yards.
Lumber Industry Returns
By 1955, modern technology and advancements in logging trucks allowed for another round of lumber production. Several sawmills sprung up around Truckee. The vacant rail yard site and land to the east was the perfect spot for the largest and longest lasting of this second round of industry.
The Burney Lumber Company built a large sawmill, hauling logs in from the surrounding mountains that had not been logged in the early railroad based logging operations. Much of this timber was white & red fir which was a secondary lumber species. As the years went by the Douglas Lumber Co, Fibreboard Corporation, Louisiana-Pacific and finally Fibreboard again operated the sawmill. At its close in 1989, the sawmill was capable milling 45 million board feet a year.
The logging & lumber industry in the Sierra has never been a sustainable industry, as the history of the Truckee area shows. The conversion of the abandoned rail yard-mill site is the natural progression of the history of the region. The location could also contribute to history with the addition of a Railroad Museum.
Once the transcontinental railroad was done, Truckee became important to the maintenance and operations and as a division point. The focal point of the operations were the rail yards and the roundhouse. In January of 1869 40 engines a day were coming and going. Around twenty engines were housed in the first roundhouse that was completed in late 1868.
On March 29, 1869 the Truckee roundhouse caught on fire. In a separate column the story of that incident is told. Within several months a new roundhouse was constructed and railroad operations continued to expand.
On May 10, 1869 the transcontinental railroad was completed, and Truckee's future as a railroad town was secured. With its proximity to the Sierra Nevada summit, its vast forests, and its natural transfer point for passenger and freight traffic, south to Lake Tahoe and north to the Sierra Valley, Truckee would remain a railroad town of great importance for many decades. During the 1870's Truckee shipped more freight than any other point on the Central Pacific.
By 1872, the rail yard had a repair and machine shop, a wrecking train, a fire train, the Samson, two immense snow plows, and huge piles of cordwood to supply engines all along the railroad. The repair shop could fix cars or locomotives, assist in getting rolling stock back on track when derailed, and performed all forms of maintenance. There were many derailed cars and locomotives, wrecks, accidents, and damaged cars that had to be repaired in Truckee before they could be put back into service.
The shop also had a backup hand powered fire pump that could shoot a stream over the entire building. The repair shop was run for years by Nate Webb, who was the C. P. 's most prominent supervisor between Ogden and Sacramento. While Webb was in charge, he developed a new flanger that would remove snow and ice from inside the rails. In the late 1870's Nate Webb also ran the Sacramento repair shops.
Another notable repair shop man was George Royal. He invented and manufactured a newer style, improved flanger that cleared the ice from inside the tracks. The Royal flanger was constructed in the Truckee repair shops and was an instant success from its unveiling in 1875. In 1877 an improved Royal ice cutter was also built at the Truckee shops.
Truckee's second roundhouse contained 4 stalls that held 4 engines each. It too was built of wood, but it had an impressive fire protection system. Each stall had a hydrant with a hose attached. A new water supply that was 150 feet in elevation, on the north side of Truckee supplied 75 pounds of pressure. Water barrels were also placed on the roof. Arrangements were made so that the engines could be moved out quickly by hand in case of another fire. Several small fires did occur in the life of this roundhouse, but all were quickly put out before causing major damage.
In 1875 a new larger outdoor turntable and more sidings were added. Tracks were raised in the yards too allow for the easier removal of snow. A 600 foot long wood shed capable holding several hundred cords of 4 foot long locomotive wood was also constructed in 1880. As rail traffic grew so did the Truckee yards.
The Lumber Industry
The immense forest that the railroad passed through naturally led to the construction of sawmills. George Schaffer and Joseph Gray built the first sawmill across the river from Truckee in 1867. Elle Ellen built a sawmill along Trout Creek, just to the northwest of downtown Truckee in 1868. The present Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Company and Catholic Church now occupy the site. Side tracks were extended to the mill so much needed rail ties and bridge timbers could be loaded directly onto rail cars. Ellen also built a factory that produced planed lumber, shingles, windows and doors.
Ellen's mill burned in 1869 and was quickly rebuilt. In 1878 the factory caught fire and burned down, but was also rebuilt. In 1878 Ellen built a new mill 3 miles up Trout Creek in what is now Tahoe Donner. A V flume was built to float rough lumber, timbers, and cordwood down to the railroad tracks. The side tracks were in use until about 1904.
George Schaffer built his second sawmill in Martis Valley, 3 miles from Truckee. He built a box flume to float his lumber to the rail yards. His flume crossed the Truckee River on a 50 foot high trestle and landed the lumber in a large lumber yard on the south side of the tracks next to what is now East River Street.
In 1897 the Sierra Nevada Lumber & Wood Company built the Hobart Mills complex on Prosser Creek.. They connected it with a seven mile standard gauge railroad that hauled the finished lumber to the Southern Pacific. Dozens of miles of narrow gauge logging railroad were built in the forests north of Hobart Mills. Much of the lumber that built the towns and houses of the interior west came from the Truckee area. Millions of board feet of Truckee lumber passed through the Truckee railroad yards.
Railroad Division Point
As an operating point for almost three decades, Truckee figured importantly in the scheme of things. Situated at the foot of the steep climb to the Donner Summit, helper engines would congregate here and trains would crowd the local rail-yard. The affairs of over 325 miles of rail line from Truckee to Carlin Nevada, were administered and dispatched from these rail yards. Train crews were switched at Truckee, which was the first crew change east of Sacramento. Even today some train crews are still changed at Truckee.
The rail yard and roundhouse were also the headquarters for the fire trains that responded to the many fires that plagued the railroad system. The first fire engine was the Samson, which was stationed here to protect the second roundhouse, the freight depot, and more importantly the wooden snow sheds that protected the tracks from the heavy snows. It served the town of Truckee as its fire alarm and was the most efficient fire fighting apparatus in town for many decades.
In 1885 the Central Pacific Railroad ceased to exist. The cars & locomotives were renamed and repainted to reflect the new ownership of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Still Truckee continued its place as a major operation, employing hundreds of railroad workers.
The Third Roundhouse
Larger engines and more rail traffic put a severe strain on the Truckee roundhouse. Planning for a new roundhouse began in 1880. In the fall of 1882 the imposing 24 stall roundhouse was started. This roundhouse was built as fire proof as possible with very little wood. The decking on the turntable pit that turned with the turntable was the only wood in the structure.
The outside of the top was covered with galvanized sheet iron so it would not catch fire from coals or sparks. This metal roof absorbed enough heat from inside so that the snow would slide off of the roof. The floor was constructed of blocks of granite. There were wood stoves in each stall to keep the water pipes on the locomotives from freezing and bursting.
It was built of Rocklin granite and was one of three similar structures in Houston, Texas and Algiers, Louisiana. The walls were 23 feet high and several feet thick. It was designed and the construction was supervised by George Washington Barnhart, who was hired by Mark Hopkins for the project. The roundhouse had pillars in away from the walls with the turntable in the center. It was held up by steel rods and braces, as present domes are constructed. It had to be very sturdy to withstand the heavy snows that Truckee got and still gets on occasion.
At first the engines went into the stalls or pits headfirst. Each engine stack was parked under a chimney in the roof that took the engine smoke out. However, as the locomotives got larger, they had back in to keep the stacks from hitting the braces and the chimneys. With the stacks in the center of the house, the smoke collected in the top of the roundhouse. Enough sulphur fumes were in the smoke that when condensation formed, it turned to sulphuric acid that ate away the steel rods and braces. The building was condemned, the roof was removed in 1939, but the walls and the turntable were still standing until 1955.
The granite roundhouse was torn down in 1955 when the site was converted into a sawmill.
The balloon track was built in 1901 to facilitate the turning of snowplow trains. Before that the individual engines and plows had to be run onto the turntable in the roundhouse, and turned around for another run up to Donner Pass. When larger cab forward engines were put into service in 1909, the balloon track was improved and strengthened. Since these locomotives used more water, an additional water supply was acquired on Trout Creek and new water tanks were built at the roundhouse.
Coal and Oil
In 1905 the railroad started switching its engines to oil fuel. A large oil tank was built east of the roundhouse in 1906. An even larger one was built in 1916. Coal had been both a boon and curse to Truckee. A large coal shed had been built in 1886 to supply passing engines. Before that thousands of cords of four foot wood had been loaded onto locomotives. However two years later most locomotives were changed back to wood fired boilers. Wood engines used many tens of thousands of cords of Truckee cut wood that kept the economy of Truckee rolling along.
In 1904 a coal fire that started in the Truckee yards burned for four weeks, sending up choking noxious smoke that drifted over Truckee. Oil wasn't all that great for the Truckee River. Twice about 1910, oil spilled into the river in large enough quantities that it reached Reno both times. waste oil was dumped into a pit, creating the underground pollution that still is on the site.
In 1907 Truckee lost its place as a crew changing point. The addition of double trackage and the larger engines sped up the trains so that crews could make it from Roseville to Sparks in a single 16 hour shift. Many jobs also went out of town with the change, depressing the Truckee economy a little more.
Ice and Cattle
The California agriculture industry relied on the Truckee yards to get its produce fresh to points east. At first icing was done at ice plants at Boca, Prosser Creek, Polaris and Donner Creek. As early as 1877, an ice house was built to store and transfer ice to cooler cars that kept the fruits and vegetables cool. By 1906 a new Pacific Fruit Express icing shed had been built in the rail yard and was icing 10,000 refrigerator cars a year, using 50,000 tons of Truckee basin ice a year. Nearby the former Ellen sawmill and factory site was transformed into the Trout Creek Ice Company pond and warehouse. By 1920 the icing was shifted to man made ice stations at Roseville and Sparks.
The local cattle and dairy industry also used the rail yards for a transfer point. Each spring cows were brought up from the Sacramento Valley and unloaded, then driven to pastures. In the fall the cows were loaded back up and shipped back below. Local butchers such as Joe Marzen shipped in beef cattle from Nevada and processed them at their local slaughterhouse. The stockyards at the rail yard were at the east end of the site and were also the site of impromptu rodeos.
In the late 1800's the area was used as a shooting range for the Truckee Rifle Club. During the holidays, a turkey and chicken shooting contest was held. At the east end of the site was the Kearney chicken ranch. It supplied the local chicken & egg market for several decades through the mid-1900s.
Cab Forwards
The freight traffic increased to the point that larger and larger locomotives were needed. In 1911 a new freight station was constructed in the western part of town. Beginning in 1909, the first Mallet compound locomotive was tested on the Donner Route. These oil powered steam monsters were large enough to pull the heavy trains up the steep grades. The smoke of these locomotives was choking the train crews, so Southern Pacific created a cab forward Mallet to solve the problem. The new design Mallets began to work the mountain grade in 1910 and train crews were a lot happier and healthier.
The Truckee balloon track was modified to handle the heavier and longer locomotives. A modified articulated Cab Forward was introduced in 1928. These unusual engines were in use as long as steam power lasted. An engine shed was constructed over the main sidings so that waiting helper engines did not have to sit out in the snowstorms.
Continued Operations
Traffic continued to increase and despite no longer being a division point, Truckee still served as an important yard. Helper engines were still needed on the steep grade going west. Maintenance and snow removal crews were still stationed here. However in 1923 the Truckee fire train was reassigned to Andover, on Schallenberger Ridge.
The Truckee yards gained additional staff and responsibilities in 1926 when the Southern Pacific leased the Lake Tahoe Railway & Transportation Co. narrow gauge line from Truckee to Tahoe City. Once standard gauging was complete, Truckee based engines kept traffic moving on that branch.
By 1939 the roundhouse was being phased out in favor of housing engines at Sparks, Nevada. The roof was removed but the turntable was still used. In 1955 the roundhouse was removed, the granite blocks being disbursed around Truckee. Many ended up in gardens and as walkways.
As diesels took over the traffic demands for the Southern Pacific, the importance of the Truckee yards diminished. Yet even today the Union Pacific still intends to maintain a presence in Truckee's railroad yards.
Lumber Industry Returns
By 1955, modern technology and advancements in logging trucks allowed for another round of lumber production. Several sawmills sprung up around Truckee. The vacant rail yard site and land to the east was the perfect spot for the largest and longest lasting of this second round of industry.
The Burney Lumber Company built a large sawmill, hauling logs in from the surrounding mountains that had not been logged in the early railroad based logging operations. Much of this timber was white & red fir which was a secondary lumber species. As the years went by the Douglas Lumber Co, Fibreboard Corporation, Louisiana-Pacific and finally Fibreboard again operated the sawmill. At its close in 1989, the sawmill was capable milling 45 million board feet a year.
The logging & lumber industry in the Sierra has never been a sustainable industry, as the history of the Truckee area shows. The conversion of the abandoned rail yard-mill site is the natural progression of the history of the region. The location could also contribute to history with the addition of a Railroad Museum.
