Blue Goose: The Story Of The Yreka Western Railroad
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- From 1889 until 2012, the sound of steam whistles and diesel horns pulling freight and special passenger trains up and down the Shasta Valley from Yreka to Montague was a familiar sight. This video tells the story of what has now become a legend, the story of "Pancho", The Blue Goose, and the Yreka Western Railroad. Photos set the scene for the railroad's beginnings, through The Great Depression, and World War II. Then it's onto the 1950s and '60s when the 19 was joined by its sister from the McCloud River Railroad, 2-8-2 18. See the 19 when it spent time in Oregon in the 1970s, where it also starred in two major motion pictures. Then see Pancho as she makes one last trip over Butcher Hill in 2008, and the quick end to the railroad as a whole shortly thereafter.
This video features 8mm and Super 8mm movies from 4 different railfans, as well as video used with permission from "Shasta Steam" by @tsgmultimedia
The full DVD of this program may be purchased here:
tsgmultimedia.....
Enjoy this look at the Yreka Western, a little railroad that created big memories that will remain for generations to come!
My mom took my two sisters, brother and I to Cottage Grove, Oregon, the Village Green to ride the Blue Goose Excursion Train. It was a very scenic and wonderful ride. Riding through the areas where Hollywood movies were once film help put the town on the map. This was back in the late 70's to 80's when she took us. It is sorely missed.🙂😪🚂🎥
Well Done Documentary..👏👏👏
We have been by Yreka many times, in passing on I-5. Montague, CA., in honor of Samuel Skerry Montague, Chief Engineer who gained recognition as the man who had a large part in construction of CPRR from Sacramento, CA. to Promontory Summit, UT. He cut his teeth on this almost impossible project. The most famous photo of the 19th Century by A.J. Russell shows Montague and UP Chief Engineer Grenville Dodge shaking hands May 10, 1869, during completion of the "Moon -Shot", as it is referred to. Montague resided in Oakland, CA., with family, and lived only to his 50's...too bad, as he probably had many more years, in mind. He continued his surveys thru Northern CA., quite a feat, back then. Thanks, from an "Original Transcon RR" enthusiast, Darrell.
In the late 90's I had picked up a load on my step deck trailer and was heading to Portland Oregon and just caught a glimpse of some rolling stock as I went by. I went up to the next exit and turned around and came back. There was plenty of parking and I looked around and spent the night. The next day I bought a round trip ticket. I was lucky enough to ride the cab on the way over to Montague. We laid over and had lunch. The trip back was uneventful. I'm sure glad I turned around.
I’ve ridden the Blue Goose. So much fun even though it was slow
O M G this video is so beautiful xD
Thx so much for making this and including such great shots of 19 :)
Also lol everyone from culp creek I have ever met says Row not Roe. Lol
Thanks again for such a great film!
And yet again I edit with the note of the CORP suffering multiple tunnel fires that led to a huge slow down in service around the 2000's. I had been told the fires affected the yreka, but I don't really know lol.
fantastic video nice to see locomotives working for real freight nice to see the 19 is being restored but to bad the railroad had to fold it looked like a nice place to run
Very nice work, Hunter. Thank you for putting this video together.
Rode the Goose #19 out of Cottage Grove, Or. several times! Could not get enough!
This was when Bohemia Lumber Co. was still running a mill in Culp Creek. They ran the 19 on weekends for tourists and fans like me!
As I road it many times also. Got to climb in the engine that was interesting. The Culp Creek loop was interesting when they stopped and blew the whistle and you could hear it echo in the mountains. if you still look you can see a trestle where the railroad was a logging railroad and went into the woods on the old Bohemia log road.
Just found this 12/10/2023
You mentioned the acquisition of diesel power, but this aspect is mostly overlooked in this video. Perhaps in a future presentation? Nice coverage of #s 18 and 19.
I was once volunteer in 2008 for the Yreka Western. It was so much fun I definitely miss it . A little update on the Yreka Western company itself it got bought by another company called railmark and there are some plans to make the Yreka Western Haul only freight
I will believe it when I see it, literally as I can see the YW tracks from my house east of Fiock Rd.The only customer on the line anymore is Timber Products and it is questionable as to whether they would go back to using rail instead of trucks to haul their freight, but who knows? I did see what looked like maintenance activity over there a couple of weeks ago near the Fiock crossing. Didn't get over there to see what they were doing but it does seem like they do work on the track/ROW every once in a great while. The depot is boarded up and they have installed barriers to keep people from driving cars around the property. They had frequent break ins before they did secure the building and the last time I was in the interior there had been some minor damage done to the interior. The door between the gift shop and freight house had been kicked in and splintered, some artifacts and gift shop items including brass model engines had been stolen. That was some years back, 2014 maybe.
Between 1889 and 2012
Great video documentary - so neat that old films like this can be converted to Digital-A+. There are some great scenes of the area, and the open space north and west of Montague show well. The old depot in Yreka was a travel trip marker point for me traveling San Jose to Seattle by car for 30 years, I never stopped at the YW depot as always a long drive for us. I sure wish I had now. I'm adding my clip from Cottage Grove from the 1980s Im sure some have seen this video before, for those who haven't crank up the volume on the hill climb. th-cam.com/video/8JAG1-HyLEE/w-d-xo.html
I was born in the mid 90s so unfortunately I had to miss this, one of my next big trips I plan to make is to Ohio literally just for 19 when she is ready, the sound in that is amazing
@@HunterLohseRRVideos Thanks Hunter, your video here is really awesome...get plenty of film in Ohio!! I subscribed, TV
I wonder what the status is on her restoration at the age of steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek Ohio
If you have Instagram they have a page in from there you can get almost every update on the 19
@@TheLoneRailroader1992 thanks for the info. I’ll definitely check that out.
Are those people standing on an open flat car???
Yep, sure is wild what you could get away with then!
Those were the days, we didn't need drugs for excitment just a big old Mikado! Of course the train probably wasn't going above 20mph...