The Pickering Lumber Corporation - Sugar Pine Logging Along the Stanislaus River

Located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Pickering Lumber Corporation operated a sizable logging operation but it never attracted the following its narrow gauge neighbor, the West Side Lumber Company did. Motive power consisted primarily of Shay & Heisler geared steam locomotives but progress found the Pickering in 1956 when it purchased the first of four General Motors EMD SW-900 diesel switchers to take over log hauling duties. But all good things must come to an end and the last logs to be hauled by rail occured in 1965.

My interest in the Pickering started in the mid 1970's when as a teenager I found a copy of Rail Classics magazine from 1974 with an article on the revival of a portion of the right of way for tourist service. Renamed the Sugar Pine Railway, this revived operation unfortunately only ran Labor Day Weekend in 1971. In 2003 I was fortunate to purchase a large collection of photos and negatives taken in the 1950's and 1960's. The collection contained over 75 negatives of the Pickering taken from around 1956 to about 1961. Unfortunately I'm not sure who took them and only a few of the original prints have dates on them.

I have tried to group the images by subject, location, and time period. Just click on the titles below to begin your journey. I hope you enjoy these photographs as much as I do.

Richard Wilkens

Loading the logs Soap Creek Beardsley Diesel Days Shops and Mill Locomotives and Rolling Stock NEW ! - Life after Pickering, Equipment post logging - NEW !

If you would like to talk to others who share an interest in the Pickering and it's predecessors you should join the Pickering e-mail group at yahoogroups, to join click here.