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55-507: The California Western Railroad ( reporting mark CWR ), AKA Mendocino Railway, popularly called the Skunk Train , is a rail freight and heritage railroad transport railway in Mendocino County, California , United States, running from the railroad's headquarters in the coastal town of Fort Bragg to the interchange with the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at Willits . The CWR runs steam- and diesel-powered trains and rail motor cars through Redwood forests along Pudding Creek and

110-577: A stagecoach connection to the inland town of Willits. On July 1, 1905, the railroad was renamed the California Western Railroad & Navigation Company and shipped lumber on a fleet of steam schooners, first with wooden hulls and later with steel, until shipboard transportation of lumber ended in 1940. Rails were gradually extended up the Noyo River headwall with a 3.3 percent grade and five 33-degree horseshoe curves with

165-671: A 17.6-mile (28.3 km) logging branch line was built northward along the Pacific coast from Fort Bragg to the Ten Mile River and up the middle fork of the river to Camp 6. A 4.4-mile (7.1 km) branch extended up the north fork of the Ten Mile River to Clark Fork Landing. Trains brought logs from the Ten Mile River to the Fort Bragg sawmill until the rails were replaced by a road for logging trucks in 1949. Much of

220-695: A 2-digit code indicating the vehicle's register country . The registered keeper of a vehicle is now indicated by a separate Vehicle Keeper Marking (VKM), usually the name of the owning company or an abbreviation thereof, which must be registered with the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and which is unique throughout Europe and parts of Asia and Northern Africa. The VKM must be between two and five letters in length and can use any of

275-484: A broad line of wood products and building materials through Boise Cascade Building Materials Distribution's 38 distribution locations. The company has approximately 6,000 employees across North America. Its logo, designed in the 1960s, depicts a pine tree inside the containing circle. The company is neither affiliated with the Canadian paper company Cascades nor is there any connection to Boise, Inc. or Boise Paper,

330-525: A division of Packaging Corporation of America . Boise Cascade Corporation was formed in 1957 through the merger of Cascade Lumber Company of Yakima, Washington , and Boise Payette Lumber Company of Boise. Robert Hansberger of Boise Payette became the CEO, and the new corporation focused on ownership and management of timberlands, the growing and harvesting of timber, and the manufacturing and distribution of lumber products and building materials. By late 1958,

385-478: A goal set at $ 300,000, the estimated cost to remove the blockage and repair the tunnel walls. The announcement explicitly stated that if some manner of external funding was not secured it would have no option but to cease operations permanently. On June 19, Save the Redwoods League announced an offer to pay the amount required to meet the fundraising goal in exchange for a conservation easement along

440-464: A hyphen. Some examples: When a vehicle is sold it will not normally be transferred to another register. The Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD. The UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number . The third and fourth digit of the number indicated

495-496: A nationwide building material wholesale distribution system for Boise Cascade. The next decade continued to bring big changes. In 2003, the company acquired OfficeMax . In 2004, Madison Dearborn Capital Partners purchased the paper, forest products and timberland assets and created a privately owned company called Boise Cascade LLC. Remaining portion of the company changed its name to OfficeMax and traded with ticker OMX. When Tom Stephens began as CEO of Boise Cascade, LLC in 2004,

550-522: A newly built lumber mill located 6.6 miles (10.6 km) to the west at coastal Fort Bragg. Fort Bragg Redwood Company was incorporated into the new Union Lumber Company in 1891; railroad ownership remained with the parent lumber company until 1969. Chinese tunnel builders completed 1,184-foot (361 m) Tunnel No. 1 from Pudding Creek to the Noyo River in 1893. Rails had been extended up the Noyo River to Alpine by 1904 when passenger service began with

605-700: A predecessor of the CNW, from which the UP inherited it. Similarly, during the breakup of Conrail , the long-retired marks of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad (NYC) were temporarily brought back and applied to much of Conrail's fleet to signify which cars and locomotives were to go to CSX (all cars labeled NYC) and which to Norfolk Southern (all cars labeled PRR). Some of these cars still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on

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660-483: A railway distance of 6.5 miles (10.5 km) to climb 932 feet (284 m) over the straight-line distance of 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from Soda Springs to the summit. Completion of 795-foot (242 m) tunnel #2 on December 11, 1911 allowed interchange connection with the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at Willits, 40 rail miles (64 km) from Fort Bragg. The rail connection to Fort Bragg

715-486: Is the current CEO. The company operates through two vertically integrated divisions: Boise Cascade's executive leadership includes CEO Nate Jorgensen, Kelly Hibbs (CFO, SVP and Treasurer), Mike Brown (EVP, Wood Products) and Jeff Strom (EVP, Building Materials Distribution). The company's board of directors is currently led by Chairman Tom Carlile, former CEO and CFO of Boise Cascade. After over-extending into non-traditional areas under CEO Hansberger and young CFO Agee,

770-573: The Noyo River . Along the way, the tracks cross some 30 single bridges and trestles and pass through two deep mountain tunnels. The halfway point, short of Northspur , is a popular meal and beverage spot for the railroad's passengers. The railroad was originally built by the Fort Bragg Redwood Company as the Fort Bragg Railroad in 1885 to carry coast redwood logs from the dense forests at Glenela (Glen Blair) to

825-588: The Sierra Northern Railway and Mendocino Railway, which includes funding for the planned 2018 improvements. On May 6, 2024, the railroad announced that work to reopen Tunnel #1 would commence on May 28. In 2019, the railroad purchased 77 acres (31 ha) of the former Fort Bragg Georgia-Pacific mill for redevelopment and extending service to a new terminal. In 2021, they acquired an additional 270-acre (110 ha) site from Georgia-Pacific. Pop singer Michelle Lambert performed weekly shows on

880-669: The TTX Company (formerly Trailer Train Company) is named for its original reporting mark of TTX. In another example, the reporting mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX (whereas the usual Amtrak mark is AMTK) because the state transportation agency ( Caltrans ) owns the equipment used in these services. This may also apply to commuter rail, for example Metrolink in Southern California uses

935-454: The finger-jointing technique for manufacturing LVL that remains unique to the EWP industry today. After leading the company for 22 years, Fery retired in 1994, and George Harad was named CEO. During his tenure, the company focused on expanding its activity in distribution and reducing its presence in manufacturing. In 1999, Furman Lumber of Billerica, Massachusetts , was purchased, which led to

990-645: The 1980s progressed, a decline in the housing market led to a downsizing in building products distribution business, and by 1987, all retail outlets had been sold or closed. In the early 1990s, the company sold the wholesale portion of its office products distribution business while keeping the consumer business. In the 1990s, Boise Cascade invested in engineered wood products, building mills in White City, Oregon , and in Alexandria, Louisiana , for producing laminated veneer lumber (LVL) . Boise Cascade introduced

1045-513: The 26 letters of the Latin alphabet . Diacritical marks may also be used, but they are ignored in data processing (for example, Ö is treated as though it is O ). The VKM is preceded by the code for the country (according to the alphabetical coding system described in Appendix 4 to the 1949 convention and Article 45(4) of the 1968 convention on road traffic), where the vehicle is registered and

1100-568: The AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of the railroad name. As it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code , the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. Marks ending with the letter "X" are assigned to companies or individuals who own railcars, but are not operating railroads; for example,

1155-457: The CWR off from the national rail network. Gas-powered, self-propelled, passenger railcars were added in 1925; and, after Pullman service was discontinued, CWR steam passenger trains ran only when the motorcars were out of service for maintenance. The passenger coaches were scrapped in 1949. The motorcars were nicknamed "Skunks" because people said, "You can smell 'em before you can see 'em." In 1965

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1210-485: The CWR's midpoint, on selected weekends summer to early autumn. Without the considerable revenue lumber and general merchandise freight once contributed to the bottom line, maintaining the railway through such rugged terrain is a major undertaking, both logistically and financially, and service is not always available for the full trip from Fort Bragg to Willits, California . However, shorter trips to intermediate points usually run year-round. Beginning April 11, 2013,

1265-581: The Skunk Train during her teenage years. The railroad has also been featured in several movies, including The Signal Tower (1924), Racing with the Moon (1984), and The Majestic (2001). The M-300 railcar also appears in the 2019 video game Transport Fever 2 , the 2016 video game Transport Fever , and the 2014 video game Train Fever , as the first multiple unit that can be built, even carrying

1320-682: The VKM BLS. Example for an "Einheitswagen" delivered in 1957: In the United Kingdom, prior to nationalisation, wagons owned by the major railways were marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway concerned; for example, wagons of the Great Western Railway were marked "G W"; those of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway were marked "L M S", etc. The codes were agreed between

1375-541: The acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, the discontinued mark is referred to as a "fallen flag" railway. Occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas and five-bay coal hoppers. CMO originally belonged to Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway ,

1430-651: The air brakes failed on a downgrade train. G-P initially leased the CWR's operations to Kyle Railways, but in June 1987 the CWR was sold to the Kyle Railways subsidiary Mendocino Coast Railway. Mendocino Coast Railway continued to operate the CWR under the California Western name. No longer able to make a profit when the G-P mill began to reduce operations and finally closed altogether, Kyle Railways opted to sell

1485-419: The company entered office products distribution. The mid-1960s brought an even more diverse portfolio including ownership of a motor home manufacturer, a cruise line, involvement in real estate and recreation projects, and an acquisition in the engineering and construction business for major utilities. Boise native William Agee joined the company in 1964 and was the chief financial officer from 1969 to May 1972;

1540-535: The company had established more than 100 retail outlets for its wholesale distribution business. That same year, BC's first paper mill became operational in Wallula , Washington, to produce corrugated shipping containers. The 1960s saw the company's swift expansion into the forest products industry, as well as wide variety of other businesses. Boise Cascade owned concrete ready-mix plants, plastic manufacturing plants, textiles, and sand and gravel companies. In 1964,

1595-436: The company had incurred $ 3.2 billion in debt to fund the acquisition. The company's 1.6 million acres of timberlands were sold in 2005 to help pay down that debt. Three years later, a publicly traded shell company bought the pulp and paper operations and became Boise, Inc., allowing Boise Cascade to pay off most of the remaining debt. The timing was fortuitous when, in 2008, the housing market collapsed and tough times ensued for

1650-504: The company nearly went into liquidation in 1972. A management team under new CEO Fery got the company back to basics through the rest of the 1970s. After the purchase of OfficeMax in 2003, Boise Cascade separated its distribution and manufacturing businesses the following year. The pulp and paper assets of Boise Cascade L.L.C. were sold to an investment firm in 2008, then acquired by Packaging Corporation of America in 2013 and became its Boise Paper division. Boise had entered

1705-492: The entire industry. Tom Carlile assumed the position of CEO in 2009, and began to lead the company through the slow housing recovery with investments in EWP and veneer facilities and the building materials distribution footprint. By late 2012, the company prepared to launch an IPO , which was completed on February 6, 2013, when it rang the bell at the NYSE . Tom Corrick was named CEO in 2015 and retired March 6, 2020. Nate Jorgensen

California Western Railroad - Misplaced Pages Continue

1760-780: The financially starved CWR. On December 17, 2003 the California Western Railroad was rescued when it was bought by the Sierra Railroad . The Skunk Train is owned and operated by Mendocino Railway, a subsidiary of the Sierra Railroad. The railroad owned 199 freight cars in 1912, including 156 flatcars for logs and lumber, six tank cars for locomotive fuel oil, three boxcars , a stock car , and some ballast cars. California Western leased steel freight cars from other railroads when these wooden cars became unsuitable for interchange service . Most of

1815-448: The first letter of the reporting mark: A railway vehicle must be registered in the relevant state's National Vehicle Register (NVR), as part of which process it will be assigned a 12-digit European Vehicle Number (EVN). The EVN schema is essentially the same as that used by the earlier UIC numbering systems for tractive vehicles and wagons , except that it replaces the 2-digit vehicle owner's code (see § Europe 1964 to 2005 ) with

1870-410: The former railroad grade between Fort Bragg and the Ten Mile River is presently used as a MacKerricher State Park coastal trail; and an unused trestle is visible from California State Route 1 on the beach at the mouth of Pudding Creek. The original rail line to Glen Blair operated as a branch line from Glen Blair Junction at the west portal of tunnel #1 until dismantled in 1942. On December 19, 1947,

1925-627: The grant been approved, reconstruction of Tunnel No. 1 would have begun in 2019 and been completed by 2021, while tie replacement would have lasted until 2024. The railroad planned to reopen the tunnel by the end of 2022, but as of January 2024, the tunnel remains closed. On January 29, 2024, the United States Department of Transportation announced that the Build America Bureau had provided a $ 31.4 million Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) loan to

1980-539: The hillside, which has a history of instability dating back to its construction in 1893. Railbike tours began in 2018 as a response to the tunnel closures, with multiple other tourist lines around the country introducing their own railbike experiences after the California Western's railbikes proved very popular. The railroad applied for a United States Department of Transportation BUILD grant in 2018 to fund tunnel repairs and replace over 30,000 ties made of chromated copper arsenate installed by Kyle Railways; this grant

2035-473: The line reintroduced summer steam passenger service between Fort Bragg and Willits with "Super Skunk" Baldwin-built steam locomotive No.45 pulling four former Erie Lackawanna Railway 72-foot (22 m) Stillwell coaches built in 1926. That train was discontinued in 2001, then revived in September 2006. No.45 continues to power excursion trains from Fort Bragg, California as far as Northspur, California ,

2090-529: The old wooden cars were scrapped when the Ten Mile River branch was dismantled in 1949, but a few remained in use for maintenance of way service and to move lumber around the Fort Bragg sawmill yard. In the late 1980s, the railroad's freight redwood lumber traffic rapidly declined. Georgia-Pacific gradually shifted lumber shipments to more flexible highway trucks until the Northwestern Pacific Railroad [North Coast Railroad Authority]

2145-572: The owner of a reporting mark is taken over by another company, the old mark becomes the property of the new company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad (mark UP) acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway (mark CNW) in 1995, it retained the CNW mark rather than immediately repaint all acquired equipment. Some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If

2200-405: The owner, or more precisely the keeper of the vehicle. Thus each UIC member got a two-digit owner code . With the introduction of national vehicle registers this code became a country code. Some vehicles had to be renumbered as a consequence. The Swiss company BLS Lötschbergbahn had the owner code 63. When their vehicles were registered, they got numbers with the country code 85 for Switzerland and

2255-406: The railroad it is traveling over, which shares the information with other railroads and customers. In multinational registries, a code indicating the home country may also be included. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board , Transport Canada , and Mexican Government. Railinc , a subsidiary of

California Western Railroad - Misplaced Pages Continue

2310-525: The railroad name was shortened to the California Western Railroad. In 1952, the railroad retired all of its steam locomotives in favor for diesel power . On September 26, 1964 westbound railcar M-80, carrying 32 members of San Mateo Masonic Lodge No. 226 on a sightseeing excursion, ran past its scheduled meeting place to collide head-on with eastbound railcar M-100, carrying 41 members of the Aircraft Pilot's Club of Oakland. The incident sent nine of

2365-433: The railroad was in a crisis following the partial collapse of Tunnel No. 1 which buried nearly 50 feet (15 m) of its 1,200 feet (370 m) of track under rocks and soil, the third major collapse in the over 100-year-old tunnel's history. Without sufficient cash reserves to finance the excavation the railroad announced a fundraising campaign on June 7, selling lifetime passes and seeking private donations to meet

2420-463: The railroad's familiar skunk mascot. 39°26′44″N 123°48′24″W  /  39.4455°N 123.8068°W  / 39.4455; -123.8068 Reporting mark In North America , the mark, which consists of an alphabetic code of two to four letters, is stenciled on each piece of equipment, along with a one- to six-digit number. This information is used to uniquely identify every such rail car or locomotive, thus allowing it to be tracked by

2475-682: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . Boise Cascade Boise Cascade Company is an American manufacturer of wood products and wholesale distributor of building materials, headquartered in Boise, Idaho . A public company with sales over $ 7.9 billion in 2021, it is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol BCC. Boise Cascade Wood Products manufactures plywood , engineered wood products and lumber ; it supplies

2530-762: The railways and registered with the Railway Clearing House . In India, wagons owned by the Indian Railways are marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway divisions concerned along with the Hindi abbreviation; for example, trains of the Western Railway zone are marked "WR" and "प रे"; those of the Central Railway zone are marked "CR" and "मध्य", etc. The codes are agreed between

2585-820: The reporting mark SCAX because the equipment is owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority —which owns the Metrolink system—even though it is operated by Amtrak. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation , which is an operating railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. Private (non-common carrier) freight car owners in Mexico were issued, up until around 1990, reporting marks ending in two X's, possibly to signify that their cars followed different regulations (such as bans on friction bearing trucks) than their American counterparts and so their viability for interchange service

2640-546: The stock price rapidly rose to $ 77 in 1969, but was down to $ 15 by the fall of 1971. Boise Cascade's current headquarters in Boise was built in 1970, designed by architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill . With the share price at around eleven dollars, Hansberger resigned in October 1972; John Fery was promoted to CEO and moved the company back to its core competencies of building materials and paper products. As

2695-576: The track's 40-mile (64 km) right-of-way. The acceptance of the offer allowed the railroad to resume full service in August 2013. Tunnel No. 1 was once again closed in 2016 after sustaining damage from the 2015–16 El Nino , but the railway was left in a better position, having equipment at the Willits depot to allow the running of half-routes to the Northspur Junction and back (which

2750-405: The westbound occupants to the local hospital with serious injuries. Union Lumber and its California Western Railroad came under the ownership of the various lumber producers, including Boise Cascade (1969), and later Georgia-Pacific Corporation (G-P). A January 1970, derailment on the horseshoe curves destroyed diesel locomotives 51, 52 and 54. The engineer and fireman were able to jump clear when

2805-702: Was denied in February 2019, but the request was reportedly in the top-third of those sent, and the Department of Transportation encouraged the railroad to re-apply. The railroad also planned to address deferred maintenance issues, and upgrade its tracks for commuter and freight service in anticipation of the reopening of the Northwestern Pacific to Willits and the potential extension of Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) to Willits. Had

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2860-687: Was embargoed and shut-down from Willits to the California Northern Railroad and Union Pacific mainline connection near the SF Bay Area. By 1996, before the NWP embargo, CWR lumber shipments were less than 500 cars per year and passenger service became the line's main source of revenue. All freight service was discontinued in 2001, and the Federal Railroad Administration's emergency order effectively cut

2915-580: Was impaired. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR. Companies owning trailers used in trailer-on-flatcar service are assigned marks ending with the letter "Z", and the National Motor Freight Traffic Association , which maintains the list of Standard Carrier Alpha Codes, assigns marks ending in "U" to owners of intermodal containers . The standard ISO 6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When

2970-497: Was not the case during the 2013 crisis); trains from Fort Bragg are limited to running only 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to the Glen Blair Junction (one hour round trip) before returning to the depot, officially called the "Pudding Creek Express." No announcements regarding the status of Tunnel No. 1 have been made since 2015, though the railroad is fully committed to its reopening. Both tunnel collapses were related to

3025-555: Was very popular for passengers traveling to and from San Francisco . Union Lumber Company selected premium grade clear redwood lumber (without knots ) to build a Tyrolean Alps -style depot in 1916 where passengers changed trains at Willits. A Pullman car began operating between Fort Bragg and San Francisco in May, 1921; and this steam passenger train continued operating in addition to the Skunk railbus schedule until November, 1929. In 1916

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