It was owned by Collins Pine Company, a division of The Collins Companies and annually hauled approximately 300 carloads of timber and lumber products generated at the mill.

The 13-mile (21 km) railroad ran west from a connection with the BNSF Railway (former Western Pacific) at Clear Creek Junction to Chester, California.

The Almanor Railroad was incorporated on September 15, 1941,[1] and purchased the line from the Grande Ronde Lumber Company; and was discontinued in late 2009.

The railroad line was built before 1931 by the Red River Lumber Company which had a private electric logging railroad with a trestle over the Feather River and ran from Westwood (about 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Clear Creek Junction) to Chester.

The portion of the Red River Lumber line between Westwood and Chester was the BNSF mainline from Keddie to Bieber.