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Last trip of the Amador Foothill Railroad, May 2004

The last runs of the Amador Foothill Railroad occurred May 10 and May 14, 2004 with little fanfare. The trip pulled two loaded boxcars from the Ampine particleboard plant in Martell down to the Ione branch of the Union Pacific. There, No. 10 was left for three days to await four empty boxcars to make the return to the Ampine mill before closing the doors for no telling how long.

Originally started as the Ione & Eastern, the rails made it to Martell to supply the deep mines of Jackson and Sutter Creek until WWII. When the Winton Lumber Company built the sawmill after the war, it was known as the Amador Central. The last steam was No. 7, a Baldwin 2-6-2, made its last run in 1956. No. 8 took over, an orange and black war surplus GE 44 tonner. The mill went through several owners and two more locomotives. In the late 1990s, the mill and railroad was as sold by Georgia Pacific to Sierra Pacific and the railroad was mothballed. Ampine resurrected the road after a couple of years to haul particleboard from their mill, and rechristened the road as the Amador Foothills Railroad. But in the past few months, the traffic has decreased and the road is closed once more.

May 10, 2004
John Piccardo walks by the highrail truck	Previous name of the Amador Foothill Railroad
Opening the door for Engine No. 10	Amador Foothills Railroad No. 10
John Piccardo walks toward the engine as Winston Deason checks his train orders	Picking up two boxcars of particle board at the Ampine warehouse
Pulling the boxcars back to the main line from the Ampine spur	John Piccardo operates the switches to put the train on the right track
Winston Deason awaits John’s signal that the switch is ready	Winston and John chat
John Piccardo watches as the train passes by the old Martell Depot	Winston Deason watches the scenery pass by. Cattle, turkeys, coyotes, and rabbits usually run as the train passes.
Winston Deason at the controls	Winston Deason at the controls
Looking down the tracks	“Anyone and run the train; it takes brains to stop it.”
Looking down the tracks as it gets closer to Ione	No. 10 parked at Ione after dropping the two box cars on Monday, May 10. Joe Alison ran the highrail truck to operate the signals on the way down and to pick up the crew at the end of the run.
May 14, 2004
Joe Alison attaches the FRED to the end of the box cars before the trip back to Martell on Thursday, May 13.	Running Engine 10 to the end of the four box cars to create the train.
Winston Deason at the controls of No. 10.	Approaching the SR 104 crossing.
Crossing over SR 88 on the railroad’s only trestle	Joe Alison flags traffic as the train crosses SR 88 at Sunnybrook.
The train crosses 88 once more at Mountain Springhouse.	After dropping the four boxcars at the Ampine mill, No. 10 is put away one last time as No. 9 sits nearby, its rear truck removed for repairs for several years.