Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad

The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad (YMSPRR) is a historic 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railway with two operating steam locomotives located near Fish Camp, California, in the Sierra National Forest near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park.

[2] The current railroad follows a portion of grade originally carved into the mountain by the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company in the early 20th century.

[5] In addition to the railroad, the Company also transported lumber in a flume that stretched 54 miles (87 km) from Sugar Pine to Madera, California.

The Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company practiced clearcutting, which removed almost every single tree within the stands of timber surrounding the YMSPRR track.

But the graded right-of-way through the forest remained, enabling the Stauffer family to reconstruct a portion of the line in 1961.

View of the railroad's track as it winds south into thick forest cover.
A Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Co. log train climbing a steep grade near Sugar Pine, California, circa 1915.
Thornberry Museum