Timber Heritage Association brings back speeder rides in Samoa weekend

After three years off the mainline, the Timber Heritage Association brought speeder rides back to Samoa, giving Humboldt County visitors a rare chance this weekend to ride a piece of rail history tied to the region’s logging past.

The rides returned Saturday, May 16, 2026, at the Samoa rail corridor, with THA scheduling them from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. About two to three rides an hour were planned, weather permitting, and tickets were being offered through the association’s event listing. It was the first time the mainline rides had operated in three years.

The featured railcar was the Arcata & Mad River Speeder Crewcar No. 60, a homebuilt vehicle made by the Arcata & Mad River Railroad and Northern Redwood Lumber Co. shops in Korbel in the 1930s. THA says the speeder was used as a maintenance vehicle, inspection car and, at times, an ambulance, but its main job was moving railroad crews to repair tracks, trestles, crossings and culverts between Arcata and Korbel.

Bringing the rides back took three years of volunteer work in Samoa. THA says volunteers spent that time sourcing materials, rebuilding equipment and restoring track so the public crew speeder program could resume on the Great Redwood Trail Agency corridor. The association has hosted crew car speeder rides there since 2009, usually on the second and fourth Saturdays from May through September.

The return matters beyond a single weekend outing. THA has cast the speeder program as part of a larger effort to preserve and exhibit Humboldt’s logging and rail history, a story the organization links to the beginnings of the modern timber industry in Humboldt County. The rides also keep attention on the group’s broader vision for a 16-mile Humboldt Bay Scenic Railroad excursion route between Eureka, Arcata and Samoa, a project that would connect three of the county’s most closely tied rail communities.

For now, the immediate draw was simpler: a working speeder, a restored stretch of track and a chance for riders to see Samoa, the bay and the old corridor from a railcar that once kept the timber roads moving.