To add to what Tom wrote about your second question...it's officially known as the Almanor Railroad, and it connected the Collins Pine mill in Chester with the BNSF (former Western Pacific) mainline at Clear Creek Junction, a few miles south of Westwood. Red River Lumber Company originally built the line to bring logs from their holdings around Chester to their big Westwood mill, and Red River electrified the Chester-Westwood line after reaching a deal with a power company that provided Red River with free electricity in exchange for various hydroelectric projects construced on company lands. When Red River quit they sold the trackage to Collins Pine, who set up the Almanor to operate the line.

Almanor used a total of four locomotives- the first was a 2-truck Heisler brought down from the Collin's Big Creek & Telocaset operation in northeastern Oregon when they purchased the line. A few years later they bought a GE 44-ton diesel, which was replaced with a new GE 70-tonner around 1955. Maybe five or six years ago they brought in a second 70-tonner to replace the original ailing unit. Not too long after that Collins shut the railroad down in favor of trucking the lumber directly to a reload established at Clear Creek Junction.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV