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mm hmm. Mm hmm, mm hmm mm hmm. Mhm. Right. Mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah. And the sound once lost now is hurt again in the beautiful woodlands of Mendocino County. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Mm hmm, mm hmm. Mhm mm hmm. While

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the world goes about writing its history of international snarls and entanglements, another and quite delightful bit of history is being written in the heartlands of California's beautiful Mendocino County Woodlands. Almost everybody has heard about the unique trains operated by the California Western Railroad there called the

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Skunks and they are diesel powered. The latest and biggest story is this in this day and age when a steam engine is almost as much a fossil as a brontosaurus California. Western Railroad is now adding this genuine old steam locomotive to the line. It will pull

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these quite beautiful and ornate antiques, Real old time passenger coaches from the days of steam. They are far older than most of you who view this program. This delightful page out of railroading history now being rewritten by the California. Western Railroad Will supplement its regular service

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of the three Skunk trains. This will expand the service that has annually carried more than 40,000 enthralled passengers on the 80 mile scenic round trip from Fort Bragg to willits, California And the inaugural trip will take place on Monday, July 9th. The history back of this

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heartwarming event makes up our KPI X report. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah. 150 miles north of San Francisco. The historic Lumber Town, Fort Bragg purchase above the Pacific Ocean. Fort Bragg looked like this in 1862. Beginning as a military stockade, it was

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named after Captain Braxton Bragg who later wound up as a major general in the confederate army. But except for a natural wonder, neither Fort Bragg north san Francisco might today exist. The natural wonder was and is the growth of enormous redwoods and other timber in Mendocino

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County. So it is only natural that lumbering was and still is the main reason for the existence of fort Bragg typified by the Union lumber company which incidentally owns and operates the California Western Railroad. Right, Yeah. Mhm mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm. For

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many years now passengers, some of them from all over the world have gathered at the Fort Bragg railroad station to board the unique trains affectionately known as the skunks. There are several of them. Mm hmm mm hmm. Yeah,

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they have made and will continue to make the fabulously beautiful trip along the neue river from Fort Bragg to the inland town of Willits, It's an 80 mile round trip two hours each way. Mm hmm mm hmm mm

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hmm mm hmm. If you like the train will let you off anywhere along the line to fish and pick you up on the way back or if you live up there. The skunk will stop to pick up parcels or even to carry a message for you

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to someone along the line or at willets. Yeah. Yes, but the trains didn't always look like this, nor did they always operate on diesel fuel. As early as 1904 the redwood country echoed to the whistles of venerable steam locomotives and their boilers

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were fired by redwood logs. It was redwood and other timber that really wrote this story for starting with the gold rush. The crying need for California villages and towns and cities was lumber. And with this cry, the echo of axes and the rasp of great crosscut

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saws grew in crescendo in the Timberlands of Del north humboldt and Mendocino counties. The work was backbreaking and the methods primitive teams of 20 oxen dragged the logs to streams where they could be floated to the ocean. Primitive wooden railroad tracks were laid for struggling oxen

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to haul the loads of timber longer distances, but inevitably better methods and the power of steam had to come into it. In the mid 18 hundreds, the exhausts and whistles of locomotives could be heard inevitably to a small passenger activity developed by 19 oh four passengers

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had become a real consideration. Locomotive number four was ordered and arrived in fort Bragg by ship fred Hansen who joined the railroad in 1905 and later was a conductor recalls those days. Well, it was may 95 when I went to work for the railroad passing wood

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from the tender to the fireman. All he did was put it in the firebox and I passed it to him on a trip was going to the woods with the empties and you got there while you got out and did some breaking and then when you

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started back again while you went and passed the wood to the fireman when I went on as conductor where he was only 18 miles the Alpine and carried the coach and the baggage car. Then you get up to the end of the line where the passengers

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were transferred onto a horse stage that took them to Sherwood than Sherwood had a train from there down to Willits, Willits to san Francisco. Passenger service was steadily increasing by 1905. It was apparent that the line from Fort Bragg to Willits could and should be extended.

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And so the work began. It has been said that this was the most expensive railroad in the world to build. Even today there is not one single stretch of straight track more than one half mile in length. There worked countless

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curves and trestles in one area, it was necessary to stretch the tracks more than eight miles in order to cover a distance of 1.5 miles. Finally, the six year task was ended on december 19th 1911. Engine number five with its new passenger cars had a clear

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track for 40 miles from Fort Bragg to willits and if the passengers who had boarded the train at Fort Bragg were excited by the historic event. They were to be met by an even more excited crowd at will. It's, it was a big moment, a very

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big moment in northern California history. History has a way of changing things. World War One had its effect. And then the depression came along. Passenger travel on the California Western Railroad dropped and costs increased. It had been shown that steam engines however romantic, their history and

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legend were more expensive to operate than diesel engines. However ugly. And so the economics of railroading dictated a goodbye to the last steam locomotive on the California Western Railroad, no longer with the Mendocino Forest echoed to the melodious sound they had known for so long. Then

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those same forest heard a new sound and were astonished to see a most unusual vehicle on the rails. It was a kind of a monstrosity, literally a bus on train wheels with a mack truck engine up front, it didn't look the part of a train at

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all. It's smoked and its smell bad. And because of this it was soon being referred to as the skunk, but it was efficient, it was economical, it kept on schedule and in time people forgot their objections to the loss of the steam trains and began referring

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with some affection to the skunk. Well, things picked up a little and soon the California Western Railroad added another more elaborate skunk to the line, the M. 100 following this and even more modern skunk, which was designated as the M 200 And that's the way it's

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been even up to the year 1963 when a very elaborate sort of streetcar type of skunk was also added. The now international fame of the California Western Railroad has been built by these types of skunks. Over 40,000 people have written on them annually and the traffic

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is increasing. But you know, there's something about steam steam locomotive, steam whistles that's irresistibly romantic. Today, there are generations of young people who have never ridden on a steam train. Many have never heard a live steam locomotive whistle. There

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really is something about steam engines. Mm hmm. The movie industry found this out very early in 1903. The first genuine story ever to be attempted on film was called the Great Train robbery. It was a sensation. It gave movies their biggest boost. Mm

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hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm. This film among the most historic in the world today first recognized the possibilities and the romance of steam trains and we've never quite forgotten. Neither had the California Western railroad with passenger service steadily

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increasing in recent years, it seemed that a genuine steam engine and passenger cars would be a wonderful thing to have on the line again. So they found old three spot in Medford Oregon Built in 1920 for it had done service in the logging industry until 1961

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for the Medford Corporation and then had been retired. It took some hunting to locate these old passenger cars on a side track, dusty and almost forgotten. They were discovered in pennsylvania. They had been abandoned after many years usage on the Syrian lackawanna railroad. But they were

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repainted and refurbished. New seats were installed and they were hauled over the lines to fort Bragg. But all three spot was not so easily revived When it arrived in Fort Bragg, £150,000 of rusted iron, broken steam pipes, protesting bearings, time

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and rust had just about finished it. It had to be rebuilt practically from the rails up welders, boilermakers, steam fitters, machinists worked around the clock rebuilding, refitting repairing, getting the old locomotive ready to breathe life and fire again. Even a new cow catcher to replace the

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former freight bar was made while the frenzy of mechanical rebirth was continuing decades of rust and worn paint where sand blasted off bright new paint was added. Then came hydrostatic tests, breaking strain tests, pressure tests All to determine whether the old locomotive could stand the 200

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lb of steam necessary to spin its drive wheels once again, The big and the final test came on June 28, 1965, Proudly displaying its new number 45. It was taken out on the line to prove its right to live again. And it came through beautifully. Yeah,

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Yeah, yeah. Mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm mm hmm. And again. The mendocino redwood forests echoed to a melodious whistle and the thrilling sound of steam. The younger generations would know what their parents and grandparents had experienced California.

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Western railroad enterprising public relations gal Kathy furnace had already christened it the super skunk and so it shall be known forever. We hope. I think he had about 10 locomotives here at one time steam locomotives. I think that a lot of people are more in favor

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of steam. I don't sound about a steam engine. That's well, I'm glad to see it. Yeah. Mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm. Okay. Yes, thank you. Mhm. Right, okay.

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Mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah. Mhm. Okay folks, this is your super skunk engineer. William Munson have started to work in November 1900 and 18 wiping in and firing up standards wiped engines. So 1921 was promoted as a fireman in 1924 was promoted to an engineer who

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worked on the logging trains. Which engine in the yard, night and day passengers that they used to have in the olden times on a freight train at night for a good many years. Well, my part, that's the only thing that's good about railroading is a steam

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locomotive. There's more thrilled and there's more kick to it. It's more like railroading than there is with these with these diesels. They have and we've been without them for a good many years now and I never expected to see another steam locomotive around. There's Children here

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that I never have seen a steam locomotive so they ought to have quite a thrill, a lot of them. The only place to see one is a picture of one and that that it will show up as nice as what one of these do. Well I

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hope you folks will come up and have a ride on this wonderful super skunk because this will be the first time in a good many years and it ought to be quite a thrill and I'd like to see you all here. Yeah. Mhm. Okay.