Roaring Camp Railroads

Roaring Camp Railroads operates from a recreated 1880s logging town at 5401 Graham Hill Road in Felton, in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, right beside Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Its signature excursion, the Redwood Forest Steam Train, runs on the 3 ft (914 mm) gauge Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad: every departure climbs over trestles, through redwood groves and up a winding grade to the summit of Bear Mountain, then returns to Roaring Camp, in about 75 minutes while the conductors narrate the history of the camp, the railroad and the forest. Founder F. Norman Clark inaugurated steam service here on April 6, 1963.

According to the company's history, mountain man Isaac Graham settled the site in the 1830s, and Mexican authorities named his rough settlement "Roaring Camp". Graham opened a sawmill in 1842, yet the nearby Big Trees were spared and, 25 years later, became the first virgin stand of coastal redwoods protected from logging. The area's first railroad, the Santa Cruz & Felton, began carrying tourists to the Big Trees and the beach in 1875. Since 1985 the company's second line, the Santa Cruz, Big Trees & Pacific Railway, has operated along that 1875 route down to Santa Cruz. Clark died in December 1985; his wife Georgiana then led the company, and today their daughter Melani Clark serves as CEO.

The fleet is built around geared logging locomotives, the type developed by Shay, Heisler and Climax for steep, tightly curved lumber lines. Roaring Camp owns several Shays, a Heisler, a Climax and five diesel engines; not all are operational at any one time, as some are being renovated. In August 1988 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers designated the railroad's Shay, Climax and Heisler engines National Mechanical Engineering Historical Landmark No. 134.

The depot area in the town is the easiest place to watch locomotives arrive, depart and pass the 1880s-style buildings, and the 1969 covered bridge at the entrance frames the town itself. On board, the climb offers trestles, redwood groves and the switchback, where the train reverses direction on the grade to Bear Mountain. Railfan footage of the switchback and of grade crossings near the town shows how hard the geared engines work on the climb, but stay off the track and right-of-way and ask staff before leaving public paths. Under the redwood canopy the light is low even at midday, so a faster lens or higher ISO helps. During special events the small Kahuku Baldwin is sometimes used to shuttle guests from an outer parking lot, a rare chance to photograph the 1890 engine at work.

Few places in North America still run geared logging locomotives in regularly scheduled passenger service. Roaring Camp's engines date from 1890 onward, and the company describes its 8% grades as the steepest in western America. The climb to Bear Mountain includes a switchback, built after a 1976 fire destroyed the original loop and its trestles at Spring Canyon, where the train reverses direction to gain height.

The named locomotives each carry a documented history. No. 1 "Dixiana" is a two-truck Lima Shay (shop no. 2593, completed October 12, 1912) weighing 42 tons, with 29.5 in (749 mm) drivers and 17,330 lb (77.1 kN) of tractive effort; she served six short lines before coming west and was the first locomotive Clark acquired. No. 2 "Tuolumne" is a two-truck Heisler built by the Stearns Manufacturing Company of Erie, Pennsylvania, ordered in 1899 for the West Side Flume & Lumber Company sawmill near Tuolumne City; Roaring Camp bought her in 1962 for $7,000 as the last steam engine in commercial lumber service there. No. 7 "Sonora" is a three-truck, 60-ton Lima Shay (factory no. 2465, built 1911), formerly Butte & Plumas No. 4 and West Side Lumber No. 7, purchased by Roaring Camp in 1985. No. 3 "Kahuku" is a 12-ton Baldwin 0-4-2 saddle tank built in 1890 for the Kahuku Plantation on Oahu, Hawaii, displayed at the Sutro Museum in San Francisco from 1947 and brought to Felton in 1966.

Roaring Camp is also the inland terminus of a second, standard-gauge railway: the Santa Cruz, Big Trees & Pacific runs about 8 miles (13 km) through Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park and the San Lorenzo River Gorge, across a 1909 steel truss bridge and through an 1875 tunnel to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The Santa Cruz Beach Train is seasonal, so check the official site for its current operating period.

Visitors arrive by car on Graham Hill Road, pay $10 per vehicle to park and enter the town through a covered bridge built in 1969 as the "portal" back to the 1880s. Admission to the grounds is free except during special events. The town includes the Train Depot (tickets and departure information), a General Store selling toys, snacks and memorabilia, Bret Harte Hall (an 1880-style barn used for events), Georgie's Cook House and, on special events and summer weekends, the outdoor Chuckwagon BBQ.

The Redwood Forest Steam Train departs daily and every trip is a round trip to Bear Mountain and back, lasting about 75 minutes with live narration. Which engine pulls a given train varies from day to day, and the operator notes that a 1941 Plymouth diesel may be used. Dogs are allowed on board, seated on the floor of the train car. The operator's booking page encourages booking in advance.

Around the depot, the Kids Club offers activities such as a printing press, hand car, gold panning, candle making, crafts and a blacksmith, and free heritage activities run on summer weekdays for visitors holding a valid train ticket. Horseshoes, Thomas play tables, corn hole, volleyball, hiking and mountain biking round out a day. The events calendar adds themed trains through the year, including Thomas and Percy's Halloween party, a Holiday Tree Walk with a visit from Santa, winter Rainforest Weekends with docents explaining the coastal redwood ecosystem, and the Holiday Lights Train, which departs from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.