Amador Central Railroad
Martell, Ca / Mar 1993 / Jon Porter 
early every year during the decade of the 1980s, Georgia-Pacific made an acquisition or major expansion in the southern and eastern states. Reflecting its focus on the Southeast, the company moved its headquarters from Portland, Oregon, to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1982. An exception to this continued thrust to the east of the Mississippi River was the purchase in 1988 of the assets of the American Forest Products Corporation in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills.
The main assets acquired were two sawmills, a particleboard plant and 125,000 acres of timberland in Amador and Calaveras counties. Stock ownership of the Amador Central Railroad Company was also included in the transaction. The particleboard plant and one of the sawmills were located at Martell, California, and served by the Amador Central. The railroad’s headquarters and shops were also at Martell. The Amador Central was successor to the Ione & Eastern Railroad that was opened between Ione, California, and Martell in 1905.
Russell Tedder / ForestRails: Georgia Pacific's Railroads
he Amador Central Railroad was a standard gauge shortline that operated 12 miles of trackage between a connection with the Southern Pacific Company at Ione and the town of Martell, California. The line served the Sierra Nevada Foothills gold mining communities and hauled lumber products from the El Dorado National Forest. Amador is the name of the county in which the railroad operated. From 1988 to 1997, the shortline was owned by Georgia-Pacific. The last train operated on the summer of 2004, and in 2011 the line was sold to the Recreational Railroad Coalition Historical Society and the Amador County Historical Society for possible future use.
Winton Lumber Company
American Forest Products
Georgia-Pacific
Southern Pacific @ Ione CA
Ione & Eastern
Amador Foothills Railroad
1948 Official Guide ad / collection
from American Short Line Railway Guide by Edward Lewis - 1975 / collection
from ForestRails: Georgia-Pacific's Railroads by Russell Tedder - 2016 / collection
from ForestRails: Georgia-Pacific's Railroads by Russell Tedder - 2016 / collection
All time Amador Central locomotive roster
| Number | Builder | Model | Built | Number | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | GE | 44 ton | May 1945 | 27980 | blt new for Amador Central |
| 9 | Baldwin | S12 | May 1951 | 75032 | ex Sharon Steel #1 |
| 10 | Baldwin | S12 | Jan 1952 | 75613 | ex Texas & New Orleans #105 |
| 11 | EMD | SW1200 | Jun 1963 | 28344 | ex Ashley Drew & Northern #1208 |
| 12 | EMD | SW7 | Mar 1950 | 11232 | ex Chattahoochee Industrial #11 |
units listed in orange above are featured in our scrapbook below.
Amador Central #8
Amador Central #8
Martell, Ca / 1951 / John Barnhill collection
Amador Central #8
Sunnybrook, Ca / 1962 / Louis Saillard 
Amador Central #10
Amador Central #10
Martell, Ca / May 1996 / Steven Vincent
Amador Central #10
1 of 3 in TNO order from Baldwin
to Southern Pacific #2121
to Amador Central #10
Amador Central #11
Amador Central #11
Ione, Ca / Aug 1995 / Steven Vincent
Amador Central #11
to Ashley Drew & Northern #1208
to Amador Central #11
to Quincy Railroad #5
this locomotive also posted in ashley drew & northern
Ashley Drew & Northern #178
Crossett, Ar / Sep 1973 / collection
Crossett, Ar / collection
See also our complete Ashley Drew & Northern featured scrapbook in Shortlines
Martell, Ca / 1962 / Louis Saillard
Links / Sources
- Wikipedia article for Amador Central
- Diesel Shop roster for Amador Foothills
- Russell Tedder, ForestRails: Georgia Pacific's Railroads (White River Productions, 2016) 300-21
- Edward A. Lewis, American Shortline Railway Guide - Fifth Edition (Kalmbach, 1996) 22