Mia Monroe Alert:
"Last locomotive from legendary Mount Tamalpais Line, Engine 9, is in Sacramento! After a yearslong extensive cosmetic restoration, No. 9 is now on display at the California State Railroad Museum roundhouse. Opened in 1896, the Mount Tamalpais & Muir Woods Railway offered train rides to the summit , a tavern and to Muir Woods. A popular way to return was on the gravity car! The last run was in 1929 but the grade is mostly intact and popular with hikers, cyclists to see the views, wildflowers and near the top is the Gravity Car Museum."
And we'll have the opportunity to see #9 a week from Friday, April 24th, on our visit to the California Railroad Museum and Old Sacramento. I'm very excited about this and am thinking that actually seeing #9 and learning more about it will really spice up my Muir Woods/Sausalito tour commentary.
We still have a few spaces available if you'd like to join us on this adventure on Friday, April 24th.
Go to the calendar to register or Register Here.
California Railroad Museum and Old Sacramento
And from Carl Nolte, August 3rd, 2024:
The old steam engine that chugged up Mount Tamalpais is being restored
Quick and Dirty
Sometimes, it takes a while for a great notion to come to life. For years, admirers of the late, great Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway dreamed of a way to acquire and restore old No. 9, the railroad’s last remaining steam locomotive, which had been rusting away in the small lumber mill town of Scotia in Humboldt County.
Six years ago, a group called Friends of No. 9 bought the engine at auction from the Scotia Community Services District for $56,240. They spent $32,000 moving it by flatbed truck to a ranch in Sonoma County where restoration could begin. The friends hoped to bring No. 9 to museum standards and then bring it back to Tamalpais country. Both ideas were harder than they seemed. As it turned out, the locomotive was so rusted and worn that it had to be taken apart and put back together, carefully and slowly.
The restoration project is going well. On a recent morning, a crane mounted on a truck lifted the locomotive’s 1,000 pound cab back on the engine — and for the first time in years, No. 9 looked almost brand new, polished and gleaming in new paint. “It was like putting the cherry on top of the cake,” said Fred Runner, the president of Friends of No. 9.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Runner, an independent film sound technician, is a long admirer of the mountain railroad and has written a book about its life and times. No. 9, he says, “is the last piece of a great story.’’
The railroad itself was the story. It began in 1896 when Marin County business people came up with the idea of building a railroad from downtown Mill Valley to the top of Mount Tamalpais, the beautiful peak 2,400 feet above the town. It was the dawn of the tourist industry in California, and they thought visitors would pay a pretty penny to see the famous view from the top of Tamalpais.
See more S.F. Chronicle on Google
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.
Add Preferred Source
The line was just over 8 miles long and had 281 curves. The company’s marketing department called it “The crookedest railroad in the world,” a name that stuck.
The railroad was a hit almost immediately thanks to nonstop advertising. It was described as “the most scenic railroad in the world,” and celebrities lined up to praise the trip. When Muir Woods became a national monument, the railroad built a branch line to serve it. John Muir himself rode the rails to see the forest that bore his name.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
One of Thomas Edison’s first movies was a film about the mountain train. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, rode the railroad and praised it to the skies. When steam engines pushed passenger cars up Tamalpais, riders could coast down in trains powered by gravity— the longest roller coaster in the world.
It was all “world famous,” the advertising said, and “a trip not to be missed.’’ In 1928, the railroad compared a trip to the top of Tamalpais to a flight on a plane.
No. 9 became part of the scene a bit earlier in 1921. The travel market was booming that year, and in a fit of Roaring Twenties optimism, the mountain railroad managers bought a brand new locomotive from the Heisler Locomotive Works for $16,000, or around $250,000 in today’s money. No. 9 was the newest train, and a special geared arrangement made it the most powerful engine on the mountain.
But Tamalpais railroad ran into financial problems, and in 1924, the company had to sell No. 9 to raise cash.
Five years after selling No. 9, the mountain railroad itself collapsed, done in by a forest fire in 1929, the rise of private cars and changing times.
The rest of the railroad was torn up, and the equipment was scrapped, while the roadbed was turned into a hiking and bike trail. But No. 9 survived. It worked in logging operations in far Northern California, and then in 1953, it ended up in the hands of the Pacific Lumber Co. in Scotia. It was obsolete even then, so instead of scrapping No. 9, Pacific Lumber put it on display near its mill headquarters as an example of the old days.
It sat out in the heat and rain for 62 years. It got a coat of paint once in a while, but that was it. In the meantime, the redwood lumber business collapsed, Pacific Lumber was swallowed up in a hostile takeover, the mill closed and the town of Scotia and No. 9 faded away, like a memory of the old times.
Old times had a powerful pull, and for a long time, the citizens of Scotia held on to No. 9. But in 2018, the town’s governing body changed its mind. “Out of the blue,” Runner says. When admirers of the Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway heard of it, they formed a limited partnership, and then, a nonprofit bought the engine, had it trucked to Sonoma County and figured out what to do next.
It took a lot of time. It was tough finding people with the skills to organize a project like this and the mechanical know-how to fix 103-year-old machinery.
After some time, they enlisted two brothers, Jeff and Don Millerick, who built fishing boats and other vessels in a complex on a back road near Sebastopol. They are expert machinists and interested in railroads. They are careful and precise. “I think they are one in a million,’’ Runner said. ‘I forget they are brothers. So make that two in a million.’
So what makes people become friends of an old steam locomotive? “We are passionists,” said Rick Beach, who helps with organizing and fundraising. The Millerick brothers let the question slide: No. 9 is a complex machine from another time. They like the challenge.
The story is not over. The engine needs some more work — a new headlight, a pilot, the device at the very front that old timers call the “cowcatcher.”
The last chapter is uncertain. No. 9 will never run again — it’s too difficult to legally operate a steam locomotive. The Friends of No. 9 want to put it on display. One idea was to park No. 9 in front of the Mill Valley City Hall. The town’s City Council first agreed to the plan but then changed its mind. So that’s out.
Another idea was to truck No. 9 to a site near the top of Tamalpais, but the state park system is unenthusiastic. A third idea is to display No. 9 at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. That’s a possibility, a maybe. “We’re thrilled they are interested,” Runner says.
Stay tuned.
Greg