Pacific Lumber Company - Railroads

Railroads

Pacific Lumber Company incorporated the Humboldt Bay and Eel River Railroad on 17 November 1882 to transport lumber from the Scotia sawmill to Humboldt Bay for loading aboard ships. The railway was completed across the Scotia Bluffs to Alton, California on 20 August 1885 where connection was made with the Eel River and Eureka Railroad for the remainder of the distance to Humboldt Bay. Rails were extended southward up the Eel River from Scotia to bring logs into the sawmill. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged the Pacific Lumber Company railway into their subsidiary San Francisco and Northwestern Railway on 15 May 1903, although Pacific Lumber Company retained timber rights and the ability to use the line for their logging operations. The railway became part of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad on 8 January 1907. Pacific Lumber Company built flatcars from wood and maintained a fleet of locomotives for moving logs from the woods into the mill and for switching cars for loading or unloading at the sawmill. Log trains of wooden flat cars ran to the Scotia mill until 1976 from a log deck in Carlotta, California. Company switchers were stationed at Scotia until Northwestern Pacific Railroad discontinued service.