West Side Lumber 3-truck Shay #8 was built in 1922 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, OH. It weighs 154,400 lbs and has 12” x 15” cylinders and 34” drivers. An oil burner, it operated at a boiler pressure of 200 psi delivering 36,150 lbs tractive effort.
On May 31st 1898, The West Side Flume & Lumber Company was formed when William H. Crocker, Henry J. Crocker, Andre Poniatowski, Thomas Bullock and Charles Gardner bought 55,000 acres of timber just outside present day Tuolumne, CA, then called "Carter's". A small mill was built in Carter's, and a railroad stretched ten miles east into the woods to Nashton.
Most of the timber logged in the first years went straight to the building of the saw mill but, by 1900, there was enough being brought in to keep the mill operating year-round, even though the railroad shut down during the winter. In 1900, the company incorporated the railroad as a common carrier, the Hetch Hetchy & Yosemite Valley, offering passenger services to the Hetch Hetchy valley and on to Yosemite National Park. Trains ran twice weekly initially and, later, three times weekly although ridership was low, primarily company employees.
In 1903, the operation was sold to W. R. Thorsten of Michigan and the corporate name shortened to the West Side Lumber Company. In 1904 the railroad ceased passenger services and focused on its lumber business.
During its heyday, the mainline stretched some seventy two miles with nearly two hundred additional miles of spurs . The railroad's last operating season was 1960. When the summer logging season ended in Fall that year, the equipment was positioned in expectation of another season starting in the Spring.
However, the following year, only one train ran to haul empties back to the mill. The railroad was put on standby, but never ran again. After closure, there were several attempts to operate it as a tourist line but none was successful.
In 1966, #8 was sold to Malarkey Wall in Banks, OR. In 1977, it was leased to the Colorado Central Narrow Gauge Railroad in Silver Plume, CO, and operated on the Georgetown Loop. In 2004, it moved to Georgetown, CO, for display and, four years later, was relocated to the Royal Gorge Route Railroad in Canon City, CO.
