Yosemite Valley Railroad

The Yosemite Valley Railroad (YVRR) was a short-line railroad in Merced and Mariposa counties, California, that operated from 1907 to 1945. The railroad ran 78 miles (126 km) from Merced along the Merced River canyon to El Portal, on the western boundary of Yosemite National Park. Railroad construction was prohibited within the park, so passengers disembarked at El Portal and continued to Yosemite Valley by stagecoach or, after 1913, by motor stage. Overnight accommodations were available at the Hotel Del Portal until its destruction by fire in 1917.

The YVRR replaced the stagecoach routes that had served Yosemite-bound travelers since the mid-1870s. The railroad's opening in 1907 reduced through traffic on the Coulterville Road, which had been the primary tourist route to Yosemite via the historic mining town of Coulterville. By the 1920s, automobiles had begun to overtake the railroad in tourist volume. The completion of the All-Year Highway and the decline in recreational travel during World War II eliminated most remaining demand for rail passenger service.

In addition to passenger traffic, the YVRR served as a freight carrier, transporting logs for the Yosemite Lumber Company and limestone for the Yosemite Portland Cement Company. The closure of both operations in the early 1940s hastened the railroad's decline. The last regularly scheduled train ran on August 24, 1945. Some structures and rolling stock survive on display in El Portal, but little else remains.

Among its notable passengers, the YVRR carried two presidents: William Howard Taft in October 1909 and Franklin D. Roosevelt on July 15, 1938.