Abandoned RR tracks in Loleta, CA

[carajul]

In northern CA there is a small town called Loleta. It's where the film Halloween 3 was filmed in 1983. In the movie a nice shiny well maintained railroad line goes thru. Just looked at google maps and the line has been chopped up and severed. Although tracks are still in place in Loleta they are obviously abandoned. From what I could read the town of Loleta was once an important RR town. The RR was everything.

Can anyone give me a history on this line, what is served, who owned it, and when/why it was abandoned? Lots of tunnels and bridges along the line too. Tracks are ripped up here and there along the whole line.

It looks like the line paralled the Eel River. In fact I'm following the line now. Looks like it started in San Francisco and went north along the river. What's interesting is quite a few spurs still in the whole way and there are even stranded/abandon freight cars parked on some of the spurs! All the xing flashers and gates are all smashed up. It looks like this line was just abruptly abandoned and left to rot.

[CarterB]

"The Eel River and Eureka Railroad reached Swauger's Station from Humboldt Bay in 1883.[5] The Swauger post office opened in 1888, and changed its name to Loleta in 1898.[5] The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway reorganized Loleta's railroad as the San Francisco and Northwestern Railway in 1903 and then completed the Northwestern Pacific Railroad to San Francisco in 1914.[11]"

see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northweste ... c_Railroad" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and: http://www.nwprrhs.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel_River_ ... a_Railroad" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for the original railroad in the area

[Backshophoss]

The NWP was NOT abandoned,but was in Embargo status due to massive bridge and ROW problems,with lots of
help($$$)from the feds and the state,freight service has returned to at least Willits-Shellville segment of the
former SP/NWP with the rest of the route still under repair. Any cars that were on the rails at the time of the
Embargo were(are) stuck untill repairs are done.