In 1993, my family and I were on our way to see the Yosemite National Park in California.  We were driving north on highway 41 from Fresno when suddenly there was a sight more exciting (to a model railroader) than the park could ever be.  Between Oakhurst and Fish Camp, on the east side of the road, is a sign, “Welcome to the Yosemite Mt. Sugar Pine RR.”.  Before I could react, we had passed the entrance and had to turn around and go back.  To the dismay of my three young daughters and wife, I spent the next couple of hours walking around taking pictures and talking to the owner, Max Stauffer. 

This 4-mile scenic narrow gauge railroad, operated by Max Stauffer from 1981 to present, gives a taste of what the famous Westside Lumber Company was really like.  It encounters grades up to 4 % along the route.  Most of the equipment has been restored over the years (from 1965 to date) by the Stauffer family.  Max Stauffer said his parents (Rudy and Lucy Stauffer) restored the railroad in the 1960’s. 

The railroad has two very old West Side Lumber three Truck Shays.  The oldest one is #10 and was built by Lima in 1928. It is reported to be the largest narrow gauge Shay ever built.  It was restored in 1965 and has been a reliable runner for the Sugar Pine ever since.  I was invited into the cab as Max backed this engine away from the two-stall engine house and back to the oil filled tank.  He operated it very smooth and accurately and these are not small locomotives by any means. 

Another Shay on the property is the former WSLC Shay, #15, built in 1913. It was restored in 1986 and belonged to both the WSLC and the Cherry Valley before finding its way to the Sugar Pine. A small diesel YMSP RR #5 built in 1935 and rebuilt in 1965 has a questionable history but is used only for maintenance work. 

An old WSLC #5 Jenny Railcar is on the property and is typical of the ingenuity of the old logging companies. It has its roots beginning in a Ford Model A powered engine and can carry up to a dozen people.  It takes smaller groups of people along some of the original tracks laid out by the WSLC into the woods and back.  In addition to this impressive motive, lots of x-WSLC equipment awaits your inspection, including:  WSLC 4 Wheel side dump car, 30’ wood stock car, WSLC 24’ wood box car, WSLC 24’ wood flat car #218, WSLC 32’ Tank on flat car #7, 10 pair of spare arch bar trucks, WSLC rail crane/bridge carne, and old BN Caboose, and lots of x-logging equipment around including donkey engines on skids.  Four cars that are used behind the Shays are made from 24’ WSLC flat cars and protect the passengers from the elements with a roof, but are open on the sides.  Four other thirty-eight foot cars are made of real logs, set on real Swayne Lumber narrow gauge trucks and are fully open for the photographer to have an unobstructed shot along the right of way.

In 1993, the YMSP RR had four engineers for the Shays, Max Stauffer, Joe Bispo, Greg Haywood, and John Swiger.  The operators of the rail car were Jack Singer, Joe Dunn, and Top Bispo, son of Joe.  Maintenance is pretty much a team effort by everyone when it comes to track work.  The Chief mechanical Officer is Earl Weaver with John Swiger and Greg Haywood doing most of the mechanical work on the motive power and equipment.

A great book to reference to is THUNDER IN THE MOUNTAINS by Hank Johnson.  This book is a story about the life and times of the California Lumber operations known as the Madera Sugar Company.  It includes chapters on The founding of the Madera, the Madera Sugar Pine, Shays and Sugar Pines, Logging in the Woods, Life in the Lumber Camps, and when the Whistles Blow no more.  In the appendix, it also includes a locomotive Roster, Shay by Summit Camp, Recollections of the MSP logging and a two spread of the Yosemite Mountain and Sugar Pine Railroad, including a drawing of the current rail line. 

As a logging and geared locomotive fan, this is an important stop, see, and participate railroad location.  The people are friendly, the equipment has a history short of none and instead of seeing it as a static display, it is a live and operating piece of railroad history worthy of lots of photographs, so take your camera. 

You can contact them or check schedules at www.ymsprr.com or call them at (559) 683-7273.  Their official address is: Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad, 56001 Yosemite Hwy 41, Fish Camp, California 93623