Skunk Train

Overview

• Location: Fort Bragg
• Category: Tours & Sightseeing
• Hours: Monday - Saturday 8am to 8pm; Sunday 8am to 5pm

Except for the passengers' high-tech cameras and modern garb, a time traveler from the last century would feel quite at home riding Sierra Railroad's Skunk Train today.


The view from the restored rail cars is pretty much unchanged: towering trees, deer drinking from the Noyo River, an isolated fisherman's cabin peeking from the forest. With occasional whistles as it chugs through tunnels, over bridges and past open meadows, the train follows the coastal "Redwood Route" as it has since 1885.

Built as a logging railroad, the Skunk line began that year as a logical vehicle for moving massive redwood logs to Mendocino Coast sawmills from the rugged back country. Steam passenger service was started in 1904 and extended to the town of Willits in 1911. In 1925 self-powered, yellow "Skunk" rail cars were introduced. The little trains were quickly nicknamed "Skunks" for their smelly gas engines, which prompted folks to say, "You can smell 'em before you can see 'em." The train no longer uses that smelly gas but the "Skunk" name stuck. The railroad now uses steam engines, diesel engines and Skunk rail cars on this historic line.

Moving at a leisurely pace (29 miles per hour maximum), the trains pull covered cars as well as open observation cars -- perfect for capturing photographs of the truly exhilarating journey.

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