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Short Line To Paradise The Story of Yosemite Valley Railroad by Hank Johnston HC
Short Line To Paradise The Story of the Yosemite Valley Railroad By Hank Johns
95 Pages
Copyright 1962
Hard Cover
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements3
Introduction5
This is Her Story7
From the Observation Car47
Copy of Yosemite Liquidation Folder89
Locomotive Roster96
INTRODUCTION
There are those who say that the Yosemite Valley in the Springtime is the most beautiful spot on the face of the earth. "The only place I have ever found that came up to the brag" was Emerson's tribute long ago.
And who, indeed, can truly disparage the Cyclopean wonders of this paradise? Where else such breathtaking cascades of water hurtling thousands of feet in full flight? Where else such giants of granite, such titan rocks, such meadows of green framed by snow capped peaks on every side?
The very names quicken the heartbeat: El Capitan, Lost Arrow, Cloud's Rest, Bridalveil, Half Dome . . . the list is endless.
Down the middle of this magnitude like a fillet of steel flows the omnipresent Merced, a stream of many moods, changing in a turn from quiet water to roaring rapids, and bounding over the rocks like a many legged acrobat at play as it forces its relentless path to the sea.
Small wonder the sightseers came a hundred years ago and have never ceased to come in ever-increasing numbers. A few came at first, on foot and by horseback. Then more, by wagon and stage as crude roads were built over the summits. And finally, they came by railroad and motor car in such hordes that the valley became a summer sea of humanity.
It is the railroad with which this book is concerned. It was called the Yosemite Valley Railroad, and its two score years of existence deserve a richer epitaph than can be given by a two-line listing in a tourist's guide book.
Here was a short line that had everything: a twisting, turning path of 70 lb. rail hugging the Merced most of the way through magnificent scenery; romantic lineside industries including gold mines and the steepest logging incline ever built; the grandest of passenger lists - Presidents, Kings, Hollywood celebrities, nabobs with their private cars, happy honeymooners on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and plain garden-variety tourists out to see the sights on a one week vacation.
There was nothing but steam on the head end, and nothing but joy in the heart for 38 years.
Yes, the Yosemite Valley was truly a short line that had everything, and one thing more . . . it was a SHORT LINE TO PARADISE
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