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Amador Central Railroad

defunct California railroad

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ4739069 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Amador Central Railroad (reporting mark AMC) was a standard gauge railroad that operated 11.8 miles (19.0 km) between a connection with the Southern Pacific Company (SP) at Ione and Martell near the town of Jackson, California. The carrier 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.

History

The Amador Central traces its history back to the Ione & Eastern Railroad. In 1902, the Ione & Eastern proposed to build a 14-mile (23 km) line from Ione to Sutter Creek and then an additional 13 miles (21 km) to Volcano, California. The Ione & Eastern only completed a line to Sunnybrook. The railroad survived a few short years and filed bankruptcy, then sold in 1904 and renamed as the Amador Central Railroad. The line continued to Martell, CA and the first train pulled into Martell later that same year.

Timeline

March 5, 1902 Ione & Eastern Railroad incorporated

April 10, 1902 Grading commences

June 20, 1902 Laying rails commences

November 15, 1902 First trains operates to Sunnybrook Milepost 5.0

May 12, 1903 Ione & Eastern Railroad, filed bankruptcy.

June 15, 1904 Amador Central was incorporated, and continued track work towards Martell, CA.

November 22, 1904 First train operates into Martell, CA.

July 12, 1942 Last Passenger train departs Martell, CA.

January 1, 1943 AMC leased by Winton Lumber Company

June 22, 1964 AMC purchased by American Forest Products

June 1988 AMC acquired by Georgia-Pacific

March 28, 1997 AMC's owner, Georgia-Pacific sells its Martell operations to Sierra Pacific Industries and last freight train runs.

Editorial summary

“Amador Central Railroad” enters the record as defunct California railroad. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Amador, Central and Railroad can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1902, 1904, 1903, 1942—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1908-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Amador, Central and Railroad.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Amador Central Railroad” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Amador, Central and Railroad provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4739069. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1902, 1904, 1903 and 1942.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Amador Central Railroad primary sources, Amador Central Railroad archive and Amador research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Amador Central Railroad” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.