Caspar, South Fork and Eastern Railroad
About 1870, Jackson purchased the schooner Cora to transport lumber from his sawmill to San Francisco.
When all timber close to the sawmill had been cut, Jackson build a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) railroad north to Jug Handle Creek in 1874.
Logs were transported to the sawmill from Jug Handle Creek on small cars towed by a horse and 5 mules.
The animal power was replaced in 1875 by a geared locomotive formerly used to transport sand fill behind the Embarcadero (San Francisco) seawall.
By that time the railroad had been extended to a length of 3.5 miles (5.6 km) and equipped with ten railcars available for transporting logs.
The pieces were transported from San Francisco aboard the schooner "Abbie" in 1885 and transferred to lighters for assembly ashore.
Rails had been extended up Hare Creek for a total distance of 8 miles (13 kilometers) from the Caspar sawmill by 1890, and the logging train was making five trips per day.
[2] Caspar Lumber Company began using steam donkeys in the early 1890s to load logs onto railway cars.
A 1000-foot (300) meter tunnel to reach the South Fork Noyo River was completed in 1904 passing under the present alignment of California State Route 20 near milepost MEN 7.
Camp 1 was constructed on the South Fork Noyo River in 1904; and became the headquarters of logging operations.
In addition to redwood logs, carloads of tanoak tree bark were shipped to Caspar and San Francisco from the Noyo River drainage for tanning hides into leather.
Shay locomotive number 6 was purchased to work on an isolated branch line on Three Chop Ridge connected to the remainder of the railway by an inclined tramway.
On 19 April 1923 locomotive number 5 derailed and wrecked after hitting runaway horses on Digger Creek trestle.
Caspar Lumber Company began using gasoline-powered Caterpillar tractors in 1928, and the Three Chop Ridge branch line was dismantled that year.
Geared locomotives 4 and 6 were seldom used after the mill reopened as Caterpillar tractors were used in preference to building new branch lines.
Rail operations were not resumed when the sawmill reopened;[2] although locomotive number 3 would be fired up once a month to move a tank car of fuel oil into the woods from Caspar through 1948.
Railroad equipment which had been kept in storage was largely scrapped when the mill was dismantled; although the two Mallet locomotives survived until it was determined their unsuitability for ICC interchange service made future use impractical.
