The Boca & Loyalton Railroad

The Boca & Loyalton Railroad ran from Portola, California eastward 5.7 miles to Beckwith (Beckwourth) then south 40 miles to Boca on the Southern Pacific, with a 1.6 mile branch known as Grizzly Creek Spur (later part of the WP Gulling Branch) extending north from the mainIine at a point 3.3 miles east of Portola. The B&L engine house and shops were at Loyalton, milepost 19, a wye at Summit, milepost 30.5, the Verdi Lumber Company track crossed at Merrill, milepost 33.5 and at Boca there was another wye, an engine house and a quarter-mlle switchback from the end of the mainline at milepost 44.85 down the hillside to a connection with the Southern Pacific. Equipment as of June 30, 1909 included 7 active engines and as of June 30, 1914, six engines. The Boca & Loyalton was incorporated September 24, 1900 and opened in 1902 and at that time was controlled by the D&RG through ownership of 51% of capitol stock.

The Western Pacific purchased the B&L on November 30, 1916 but never operated into Boca, for authority had been granted November 25, 1916 to abandon the portion south of milepost 23 and the tracks and other facilities were removed in the summer of 1917. During construction westward in 1909, the WP had rebuilt the B&L right-of-way between B&L Junction and Portola, 2.7 miles and later it abandoned the B&L trackage between Grizzly Junction and Beckwith (Beckwourth), 2.4 miles. The rails were taken up in August 1920, and in 1939 the 2.4 mile Gulling Branch was abandoned.

The Clover Valley Lumber Company, operators of a large mill at Loyalton, had trackage rights over the Loyalton Brunch, which is the present name of the remaining B&L trackage between Loyalton and Hawley, near which their own track connected and extended fifteen miles or so north into the timber area. The Clover Valley had two steam engines, a 2-6-2 saddle tank, No. 4 and No. 8, a little 2-6-2 obtained from the old Hobart Southern Railroad at Hobart Mills, California.