The CWR runs steam- and diesel-powered trains and rail motor cars through Redwood forests along Pudding Creek and the Noyo River.

Rails had been extended up the Noyo River to Alpine by 1904 when passenger service began with a stagecoach connection to the inland town of Willits.

Completion of 795-foot (242 m) tunnel #2 on December 11, 1911[3] allowed interchange connection with the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at Willits, 40 rail miles (64 km) from Fort Bragg.

226 on a sightseeing excursion, ran past its scheduled meeting place to collide head-on with eastbound railcar M-100, carrying 41 members of the Aircraft Pilot's Club of Oakland.

No longer able to make a profit when the G-P mill began to reduce operations and finally closed altogether, Kyle Railways opted to sell the financially starved CWR.

Most of the old wooden cars were scrapped when the Ten Mile River branch was dismantled in 1949, but a few remained in use for maintenance of way service and to move lumber around the Fort Bragg sawmill yard.

By 1996, before the NWP embargo, CWR lumber shipments were less than 500 cars per year and passenger service became the line's main source of revenue.

All freight service was discontinued in 2001, and the Federal Railroad Administration's emergency order effectively cut the CWR off from the national rail network.

[4] Without the considerable revenue lumber and general merchandise freight once contributed to the bottom line, maintaining the railway through such rugged terrain is a major undertaking, both logistically and financially, and service is not always available for the full trip from Fort Bragg to Willits, California.

[16] Without sufficient cash reserves to finance the excavation the railroad announced a fundraising campaign on June 7, selling lifetime passes and seeking private donations to meet a goal set at $300,000, the estimated cost to remove the blockage and repair the tunnel walls.

On June 19, Save the Redwoods League announced an offer to pay the amount required to meet the fundraising goal in exchange for a conservation easement along the track's 40-mile (64 km) right-of-way.

1 was once again closed in 2016 after sustaining damage from the 2015–16 El Nino, but the railway was left in a better position, having equipment at the Willits depot to allow the running of half-routes to the Northspur Junction and back (which was not the case during the 2013 crisis); trains from Fort Bragg are limited to running only 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to the Glen Blair Junction (one hour round trip) before returning to the depot, officially called the "Pudding Creek Express."

[19] The railroad applied for a United States Department of Transportation BUILD grant in 2018 to fund tunnel repairs and replace over 30,000 ties made of chromated copper arsenate installed by Kyle Railways; this grant was denied in February 2019,[20] but the request was reportedly in the top-third of those sent, and the Department of Transportation encouraged the railroad to re-apply.

The M-300 railcar has appeared in all three games of the Transport Fever series, as the earliest multiple unit that can be built, even carrying the railroad's familiar skunk mascot.