06-28-2021, 03:43 PM
The Trains of the Yosemite Valley by Hank Johnston
You are going to really like trains to read this pictorial essay. And yes, every book written about Yosemite ever was written by Hank Johnston. But trains. So many train details. Lots of scale drawings. Lots of maps on how to make Model Railroads of the Yosemite trains. There is a list of every engine and caboose that was on the Yosemite line.
But I read it for the history of the railroad. The book title is a misnomer because they never had rail travel in the park. The Yosemite Valley RR stopped at El Portal. Then you had to at first take a stage coach, at first, and eventually cars, the rest of the way. The book does give a very concise history of the passenger rail service up the Merced Canyon. The train tracks were also used to haul Timber down from the logging operations to a mill at Merced Falls as well as all the crushed rock for a cement plant.
I'm working on an idea for a film, hence the spate of Yosemite books, about early tourism into the park, specifically the stage coach run that went by my house. About a minute after the park was discovered the race was on to bring visitors to the park. There were a lot of entrepreneurs who saw Yosemite as a great money making opportunity. There were three competing concerns to get the first stage coach road built to the valley. Two were north of the valley and one was south. The two northern routes were completed first but the Southern route was shorter and had the benefit of having a rail stop right at the beginning. Yes, that rail stop was Raymond, CA. But the victory only lasted about twenty years until the train was completed up the Merced Canyon. The train was doomed the second they completed the highway that ran parallel to the train tracks. The highway is the 140.
You are going to really like trains to read this pictorial essay. And yes, every book written about Yosemite ever was written by Hank Johnston. But trains. So many train details. Lots of scale drawings. Lots of maps on how to make Model Railroads of the Yosemite trains. There is a list of every engine and caboose that was on the Yosemite line.
But I read it for the history of the railroad. The book title is a misnomer because they never had rail travel in the park. The Yosemite Valley RR stopped at El Portal. Then you had to at first take a stage coach, at first, and eventually cars, the rest of the way. The book does give a very concise history of the passenger rail service up the Merced Canyon. The train tracks were also used to haul Timber down from the logging operations to a mill at Merced Falls as well as all the crushed rock for a cement plant.
I'm working on an idea for a film, hence the spate of Yosemite books, about early tourism into the park, specifically the stage coach run that went by my house. About a minute after the park was discovered the race was on to bring visitors to the park. There were a lot of entrepreneurs who saw Yosemite as a great money making opportunity. There were three competing concerns to get the first stage coach road built to the valley. Two were north of the valley and one was south. The two northern routes were completed first but the Southern route was shorter and had the benefit of having a rail stop right at the beginning. Yes, that rail stop was Raymond, CA. But the victory only lasted about twenty years until the train was completed up the Merced Canyon. The train was doomed the second they completed the highway that ran parallel to the train tracks. The highway is the 140.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm