Skunk Train2

Discover a new side of the world-famous Redwood Route on our two-person Railbikes. These pedal-powered vehicles will take you on a roughly one-and-a-half hour roundtrip along the Pudding Creek Estuary to Glen Blair Junction in peaceful quiet.

All passengers are required to fill out a rail bike participant release of liability and assumption of risk agreement prior to receiving their boarding passes. Riders should be capable of bicycling recumbently for 30 minutes at low exertion.

Minimum Age: 6
Minimum Height: 31 inches from hip to the floor
Maximum Weight: 300 lbs per passenger
Step back in time for a magical ride through the redwoods on the world-famous Skunk Train. Since 1885 the historic Skunk has made its way through old-growth redwood groves, over scenic trestle bridges, through spectacular tunnels, and into the heart of the Noyo River canyon. Today’s riders enjoy the same pristine views that have remained largely unchanged for well over a century.

An American Legacy
In the early 1880s, lumbermen C.R. Johnson, Calvin Stewart, and James Hunter joined together to expand timber operations in Mendocino County. By 1885 the Fort Bragg Railroad was formed to make transporting lumber easier. This would form the foundation of what would eventually become the California Western Railroad, more commonly known as The Skunk.

The train played a vital role during this time in transporting families and workers who set up the various logging camps along the route and in doing so, became an entirely different type of line. It played an important part not only in the area's industrial life, but also in its social and cultural activities. No other logging railroad in America has made the deep impression on American life that was created by the line from Fort Bragg – first by the natural beauty of its route and later, by the distinctiveness of its equipment.

A Train Called Skunk
The nickname “Skunk” originated in 1925, when motorcars were introduced (today sometimes referred to as railbuses or railcruisers). These single unit, self-propelled motorcars had gasoline-powered engines for power and pot-bellied stoves burning crude oil to keep the passengers warm.

The combination of the fumes created a very pungent odor, and the old timers living along the line said these motorcars were like skunks, “You could smell them before you could see them.” Although the smell is now much reduced, we still like to think of ourselves as that little Skunk running through the redwoods.

Caretakers in Time
California Western Railroad was initially operated as a division of the Fort Bragg mill (Union Lumber Company, Boise-Cascade). In the mid-1960s, Arizona-based Kyle Railways began managing the railroad and purchased it in 1987. In August 1996, a group comprised entirely of local Mendocino Coast investors purchased California Western, marking the first time in its 111-year history that the line would be operated as an independent business.

Today the Skunk Train is owned and operated by Mendocino Railway.