Curiously Amusing. DIY “Locomotive” On Risky Rails

I must have looked at some train video… but EwTube gave me some train links / thumbnails. In the mix was this one. What looks like a rust bucket knock-off “jeep” (a Suzuki Samurai) with rail wheels on a frame on front to be lowered onto rails, then driven down the tracks. On a defunct bit of railway in the Northern California Coastal area along the Eel River. I’ve been around that area before. More on the I-5 run up to Oregon, but sometimes up highway 101 (even before it was upgraded to a freeway).

The rail line they are on was used to haul a LOT of redwood out of those hills as the redwoods from Oregon to San Francisco were cut down to make houses and fences. That was a big business when I was a kid, now ended.

Per the wiki, in about 1964 a big storm caused a lot of the rail to be washed out, and reconstruction took a while. Also 101 was upgraded enough for trucks to be competitive. The result was that profitability never returned and eventually the line was abandoned. More on that here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwestern_Pacific_Railroad

1964 flood damage
Main article: Christmas flood of 1964

The catastrophic Christmas flood of 1964 destroyed 100 miles (160 km) of the railroad in Northern California, including three bridges over the Eel River, and permanently changed the topography of the area. The line was closed for 177 days while 850 men rebuilt the railroad through the Eel River canyon. The line was reopened on 16 June 1965. In the years following the 1964 flood, the rail line was less reliable due to increased landsliding in the Eel River Canyon; but freight traffic remained high until the 1970s, as improvements to US Highway 101 cut hauling times, making trucking competitive with the rail line.

With other segments taken out of service in other decay & weather events over time.

The California Legislature formed the North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) in 1989 to save the NWP from total abandonment. NCRA purchased the Eureka Southern in 1992 and leased the line to the newly formed North Coast Railroad In late 1996, severe flooding of the Eel River led to widespread landslide damage and destruction of roadbed which remained unrepaired and halted most service. A lack of capital along with previous customers now finding the railroad expensive and unreliable after switching to truck traffic made repairs difficult to finance and complete. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) prohibited any train operation north of Willits in 1998.

I’m not sure when the particular segment they drive over was abandoned, but some stretches look fine and others near collapse. (one scene at 20 minutes has them driving on rails holding up the ties over a gravel washout…).

All in all, an interesting visual tour of an area you will never see by any other means except perhaps walking it all. Some really nice views of the Eel River, the mountains it cuts through, and some of the least populated land in California.

Their description:

559,641 views Sep 2, 2023
Crazy washed out tracks, stunning river gorges, and a redwood trestle. The first part includes a short trip up the first section of track north of Ft Seward with my daughter. This was the easy part, a straight and safe section about 1 mile. The next day the footage continues where we left off. The young girl did not venture down the unsafer sections of track with us.

This footage is of the historic closed railroad taken from a modified Suzuki Samurai “rail cart”. it starts north of the Fort Seward Railroad Depot and goes past the 226 mile marker north of Eel Rock (The “Begin South Fork Block/End Fort Seward Block” sign is where we start here).

The Northwestern Pacific Railroad was one of the most scenic and expensive sections of railroad in US history because of the awesome scenery it offered between San Francisco and Eureka. This footage goes over a redwood trestle bridge at Brock Creek, with stunning river views around the 222 mile marker – then over tracks hanging in the air. The Samurai plows blindly and boldly through 10 foot high vegetation in a thrilling ride better than Disneyland. We were the very last “car” ever to venture up this track and it’s some interesting footage. This was 16 years ago in 2007, and the track has long since further deteriorated with landslides and mass movement of the hillside, and the overgrowth has made it completely un-passable. Here, we had on and off track capability as some sections were subject to landslides (or a missing piece of track!) and we had to 4-wheel around some areas. On this occasion, I took the most video and we went the furthest we ever did. Cool stuff for rail buffs. There is very little record of this storied rail line on video.

00:00 – A quick look at the Samurai
01:40 – Start traveling north at 1/2 mile north of the Fort Seward Train Depot
18:22 – Redwood trestle bridge at Brock Creek
19:28 – Stunning river views around the 222 mile marker
20:30 – Tracks hanging in the air from mass movement of hillside
26:30 – Pulling a log off the tracks with a winch
28:53 – Passing the old bulldozer
30:00 – Continuing North
38:30 – Plowing through high vegetation south of Eel Rock
40:38 – Eel Rock Rd.
45:54 – Big landslide blocking the tracks after mile marker 226 north of Eel Rock. We couldn’t get around it, so we headed back to Eel Rock Rd, where the video ends.

The Samurai was originally built by local legend and friend Johnny B. That vehicle had nine lives.

Offroad railroading… what a concept ;-)