UKIAH, Calif. — In a last-ditch effort to save the 117-year-old “Skunk Train,” the California Western Railroad board of directors has filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy regulations, the Ukiah Daily Journal reported.
In the meantime, railroad operations will continue on a limited winter schedule with no interruption expected for planned special events, according to California Western Railroad Board Chairman John Mayfield.
“The Skunk Train is a huge asset for the county that carries an average of 65,000 tourist passengers each year,” said Mayfield. “However, passenger revenues alone are not enough to sustain the operation.”
When Mayfield and other local businessmen purchased the railroad five years ago, it carried passengers by day and lumber by night. “We would pull more than 600 cars of freight annually,” he said.
Financial problems for the Skunk Train began about four years ago when the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, source of the freight business, terminated its operations. While not a large amount of freight by rail industry standards, Mayfield said it was enough to service the railroad’s debt and pay some operational costs.
He also said board members implemented a number of measures over the past few years to improve the Skunk’s financial situation, including a stock offering, none of it enough to offset lost freight revenues.
The Skunk, so named for the pungent odor of its early gasoline-powered cars, is one of about a dozen historic railroads still operating in the U.S. It also is America’s last rail mail carrier, delivering mail to residents along its 40-mile, redwood-lined route between Fort Bragg and Willits.
Mayfield, a former chairman of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, said he and a group of local businessmen purchased the railroad “to protect a community asset and give back to the community. We knew it wasn’t going to make a lot of money. We just wanted to keep it going.”