Lake Tahoe Railway and Transportation Company

The Lake Tahoe Railway and Transportation Company was a 16-mile (26 km), 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad that ran from the Central Pacific Railway at Truckee, California to the waterfront at Lake Tahoe. The railroad's width was converted to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge in 1926. The railroad operated its own property from 1899 until October 16, 1925, at which time it was leased to the Southern Pacific Company, which bought the property outright in May, 1933.^[1] SP abandoned the line in 1943.

The Lake Tahoe Railway and Transportation Company operated a narrow gauge railroad between Truckee and Lake Tahoe, California assembled from equipment formerly used on the Lake Tahoe Railroad of Glenbrook, Nevada (USA). A separate company known as the Lake Tahoe Railway (c. 1904) proposed to build a 65-mile (105 km) standard gauge line northeast from Placerville to Pino Grande and then Lake Tahoe but construction never commenced.

Timeline

Train bound for Lake Tahoe in Truckee, California

• December 19, 1898 – Railway Incorporated
• May 1, 1900 – Operations commence between Truckee and Lake Tahoe
• October 16, 1925 – Railway leased to Southern Pacific Railroad
• May 15, 1926 – Line converted to Standard Gauge by SP
• May 1933 – Railway sold to SP
• November 10, 1943 – Line abandoned by SP

Route

The railroad followed the Truckee River approximately via the modern route of State Route 89.^[2]

• Truckee - Interchange with Southern Pacific
• Deer Creek
• Squaw Valley
• Tahoe Wharf
• Tahoe City
• Tahoe Wharf

Ward Creek Branch

• Ward Creek

Motive Power

The LT RR had four used 3 ft (914 mm) gauge Baldwin locomotives that operated on the line.

See also

• List of defunct California railroads

References

1. Moody's Transportation Manual, 1989, p. 329
2. "Lake Tahoe Railway and Transportation Company" (PDF). Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Retrieved 2022-03-30.

• Fickewirth, Alvin A. (1992). California railroads: an encyclopedia of cable car, common carrier, horsecar, industrial, interurban, logging, monorail, motor road, shortlines, streetcar, switching and terminal railroads in California (1851-1992). San Marino, California: Golden West Books. p. 65. ISBN 0-87095-106-8.
• Gross, Joe (2000). Railroads of North America (Third ed.). Rochester, New York: Railroad Research Publications. p. 113. ISBN 1-884650-10-4.
• Robertson, Donald B. (1998). Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History — Volume IV — California. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers. p. 135. ISBN 0-87004-385-4.
• Walker, Mike (1997). Steam Powered Video's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America - California and Nevada (Post Merger ed.). Faversham, Kent, United Kingdom: Steam Powered Publishing. p. 13. ISBN 1-874745-08-0.