Wander Or Ponder: Niles Canyon Railway

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Niles Canyon Railway - the M200

On Sunday, August 14th, Frank and I took Alex for a ride in a specialty railcar on the Niles Canyon Railway in Sunol. We drove from Livermore to San Ramon to pick Alex up and then south to the Sunol station. The round trip the railcar makes is from the station, north to the bridge at Happy Valley Road, and back south to the Sunol Station starting point. The rail trip was about 90 minutes total.

As we were waiting for our rail bus to arrive, a larger locomotive loaded with passengers drew into the station from the west. That was not our ride. We would be riding a newly renovated rail bus M200 on a newly opened stretch of track to the east and north. Frank was particularly excited about our route since we had never before seen this extension of track. It had been laid by volunteer members of the Niles Canyon Railway from rails and ties they had rescued from being salvaged. Each tie runs ~$600 and they got the ties for free along with the rails by devising a method and team to pick up all the components. Laying the miles of track was a labor of love (and sweat) we learned from a narrator during our ride.

Not only the route was special but also the rail bus we would be riding. We learned some history per the website https://www.mendotraintony.com/railbus-m200-which-used-to-belong-to-the-califiornia-western-railroad-running-at-niles-canyon/. The seven minute YouTube video, also accessible from this site, gives a marvelous moving view of the following still photos. Midway through the video, the inside of the M200 rail bus begins to show.

The California Western Railroad (aka The Skunk Train) used to have four railbuses – M80, M100, M200 and M300. One of them, M-200, still exists and is still running but not on the Skunk Line. She has been completely restored and she runs on the Niles Canyon Railroad (out of Sunol not too far from San Francisco).

M200 was built by the Skagit Steel & Iron Works, MAC Division, in January 1926. Only her rear truck is powered by a diesel-hydraulic engine. She weighs 21 tons. Her history: She was built new for the Longview, Portland and Northern Railway as their #20. She became the Trona Railway #22, Trona. She was acquired by the California Western Railroad in 1941 as #M200. She was acquired unserviceable by the Niles Canyon Railroad in July 1975. Completely restored she returned to service in 1985. Her inaugural passenger service was in May 21, 1988. She is still in service.

The trip was sold out so we were fortunate Frank had been able to get three tickets a few weeks before. The logo on the side is a skunk. Why? When the M200 had been used as a commuter bus, its route went past some fish processing yards, ripe with the stench of rotting fish. The name stuck and was adopted as a logo, perhaps not as prestigious as Starbucks' or Apple's, but certainly much cuter.

Did all this background information matter to Alex? Not one bit. But he looked forward to an outing, a ride on a train, and a multi-page glossy brochure to page through and eventually feed to his bunny. He was dressed appropriately in a train shirt and a red bandanna. He had a window seat and could move about for other views.

Did you ever wonder what the "end of the line" looked like? Well, here it is, viewed from inside. The track just ends. There are plans to extend it to Pleasanton at some point. The outside view is from the Niles Canyon Railway website blog post https://www.ncry.org/blog/m200-to-the-end-of-the-line/ which has many other great photos published with permission from the photographer.

After reaching the end of the line, the M200 reversed direction and returned to the Sunol station. We passed a railroad crossing gate and experienced a train's view coming and going rather than a car's view stopped at the gate.

When we reversed directions Alex moved to the now front of the rail bus and watched our route along the tracks as the engineer ran the train. Frank joined him and the two of them were quite content with their privileged vantage points.