Western Railroad Discussion > Good News For Oregon Short Line

Sharing parts from Railway Age News:

Improvements to Oregon short line to commence

Construction is scheduled to begin later this month to improve a 14-mile stretch of the Clark County, Ore.-owned Chelatchie Prairie Railroad. The $1.1 million in improvements are expected to increase traffic volume during the next 15 years. Improvements include new ties, rail and surfacing, as well as crossing reconstruction at two locations. The line serves 11 commercial clients, including a drywall shipping company and Bonneville Power Administration.

Aaron 20

Uh, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad in Washington (it is!!!)???

Why is this "good news for an Oregon shortline"?

Railbaron,

YES, you are correct. That is Clark County, Washington state. Also, I haven't heard of that line being
called the Chelatchie Prairie in some time. It is now operated by a division of Columbia Basin RR. Even media closely aligned with a given subject can't seem to get their news accurate.

Keith A

It's operated by Portland Vancouver Junction Railroad, a division of the Columbia Basin Railroad, and it's all in the state of Washington. PVJ operates the line for freight service from a BNSF connection at Vancouver Junction through Rye and Battle Ground to Heisson (though no trains pass Battle Ground these days). The Chelatchie Prairie Railroad, a volunteer organization, runs the line from Heisson to Chelatchie Prairie with weekend excoursion passenger trains. The entire line is owned by Clark County.

The articles say that the line is being improved from Rye to Battle Ground because of an expected growth in freight traffic. That seems strange to me. The only customer on that stretch now is Johnsen Plastics in Battle Ground, which receives a covered hopper or two of plastic pellets weekly. I wonder what else is coming up.

PVJ uses a single old EMD switcher. There is no runaround or siding in Vancouver Junction, so the switcher must push loads from Rye or pull them from Vancouver Junction, but only one or the other operation at a time.

Stan Praisewater

there was a rr called the OSL, have you not heard of it=confusing header

I accidently clicked on private message, so whoever that went to, sorry, it was meant for the public thread....

I have an article on the PVJ/Chelatchie Praire operation from about 3 years ago...

http://www.brian894x4.com/ChelatchiePrairieRailroad.html

My understanding is that Clark county owns the entire railroad and leases the line out to freight operators. LINC had the lease until about 2003. Clark County didn't renew their lease and instead gave a 30 years lease to the PVJ. This includes the entire railroad including where the Chelatchie Praire operates, which has created some problems and controversy, I've been told. I was told by Clark County Officials a few years ago that a deal was worked out to allow the two operations to co-exist and because the PVJ doesn't operate on the north end, this hasn't been a problem. I have no idea what would happen if they wanted to operate on that end, however.

I'm curious if the track work has to do with improving the rails for a dinner train since the PVJ is associated with a now shut down dinner train up in Seattle? I've always wondered if they were going to bring that thing down here.

I have no association with any of these operations and I haven't kept up for several years now so I can't speak to what is happening now.

Brian McCamish
http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/
and
http://www.brian894x4.com/AbandonedRRmainpage.html

Yes, you're right about the "Spirit of Washington" dinner train. In fact, it was parked just past the end of PVJ freight operations in Battle Ground this spring. Lots of speculation about it running there but no indication that it will.

Stan

Brian894x4 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I accidently clicked on private message, so
> whoever that went to, sorry, it was meant for the
> public thread....
>
> I have an article on the PVJ/Chelatchie Praire
> operation from about 3 years ago...
>
> http://www.brian894x4.com/ChelatchiePrairieRailroa
> d.html
>
> My understanding is that Clark county owns the
> entire railroad and leases the line out to freight
> operators. LINC had the lease until about 2003.
> Clark County didn't renew their lease and instead
> gave a 30 years lease to the PVJ. This includes
> the entire railroad including where the Chelatchie
> Praire operates, which has created some problems
> and controversy, I've been told. I was told by
> Clark County Officials a few years ago that a deal
> was worked out to allow the two operations to
> co-exist and because the PVJ doesn't operate on
> the north end, this hasn't been a problem. I have
> no idea what would happen if they wanted to
> operate on that end, however.
>
> I'm curious if the track work has to do with
> improving the rails for a dinner train since the
> PVJ is associated with a now shut down dinner
> train up in Seattle? I've always wondered if they
> were going to bring that thing down here.
>
> I have no association with any of these operations
> and I haven't kept up for several years now so I
> can't speak to what is happening now.
>
> Brian McCamish
> http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/
> and
> http://www.brian894x4.com/AbandonedRRmainpage.html

Railbaron Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Uh, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the
> Chelatchie Prairie Railroad in Washington (it
> is!!!)???

Oh now DB... you know we are a bedroom community of Oregon over here..:o)

For the record, there was an OSL (Oregon Short Line), started in 1881, that later was absorbed by the Union Pacific. It roughly consists of the entire UP Idaho Division, from Granger, Wyoming to Huntington, Oregon, including the line from Ogden, Utah to Butte, Montana (McCammon, ID to Ogden later became part of the Utah Division). Until the 1950s, numerous freight and passenger cars were lettered UP but had the reporting marks OSL. Also, many of the UP steam locomotives that were assigned to the OSL had their own OSL number series and OSL sublettering. Other UP Divisions were similarly distinctive, including the LA&SL, and the OWR&N.

When I saw the title of your thread, I expected something about the UP between Granger, Butte, MT, and Huntington, OR.

http://www.co.clark.wa.us/longrangeplan/railroad/railroad.html

North End operator (excursion train): http://www.bycx.com/

South End operator (freight service): http://www.pvjr.com/

If that Clark Co. website is correct, I stand corrected. The county appears to have two seperate leases on the railroad. One for the PVJ for the south end and one for the Chelatchie Praire. This is good news. This is the way it should be in my opinion.

Brian McCamish

That's cool, be great if we heard good news on the Coos Bay Branch!

ProAmtrak Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's cool, be great if we heard good news on the
> Coos Bay Branch!

There's a WORLD of difference between a 30 mile shortline that doesn't wash out every year and doesn't really go through the mountains (OK, it has one big bridge and one tunnel); and a 150 mile shortline that is a maintenance headache like crazy, with multiple tunnels and bridges, oceanside running, high mountain running, riverside running...and little traffic to pay for it.

If the Clark County railroad suffers multiple washouts or bridge collapses, I bet Clark County would be **quick** to pull the plug and turn it into a rail-trail. Heck, it's almost suffered that fate several times, this railroad just won't die.

If nothing else, this route has commuter rail potential, serving the northern end of the Vancouver area and Battle Ground, a bedroom community of just over 15,000 residents. Would be a good place to use non-FRA compliant DMU equipment given the once-a-week freight movements (run 'em on Sundays!), except that Rye Junction is in an out-of-the-way area requiring the commuter trains to at least run on the BNSF main to Vancouver station. (And kiss those non-FRA compliant DMUs goodbye on the mainline.)

sagehen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> The articles say that the line is being improved
> from Rye to Battle Ground because of an expected
> growth in freight traffic. That seems strange to
> me. The only customer on that stretch now is
> Johnsen Plastics in Battle Ground, which receives
> a covered hopper or two of plastic pellets weekly.
> I wonder what else is coming up.
>
My company was involved in a study of the then Louis and Clark RR in 2003 to determine if the RR had any chance of surviving. At that time, there were on-going negotiations with a rock quarry around Wishram that was studying moving small unit trains of aggragate to just south of Battlefield where there were plans to build an asphalt plant. The projections were something like 3 trains per week, 30 cars per train. The cash infusion would have dwarfed any revenue that was currently being collected, which, as Stan pointed out, was plastic pellets to Battlefield for milk cartons. I know the permitting process had begun (so they were serious) - I don't suppose there is any "plant" that has been recently built in that area?

There was also some talk by a developer in the Chelatchie area that wanted to use the combined line to haul machinery into a facility in Chelatchie. He had big plans, but like so many others, no money. Was hoping that somebody would upgrade the RR from Battlefield to allow him to operate trains to his plant. I think the Chelatchie Prairie guys liked that idea, but didn't have the resources to do the work themselves. Obviously, if the PVJ doesn't operate past Battlefield today, nothing became of that pipedream, either.

The operator of the LINC was the same guy that previously had run the Chehalis Western (or was it Tacoma Eastern?). A nice guy, a good heart, a real love of railroading as a hobby, but not a guy that was going to make it work as a business. There were also factions within the County that wanted the right of way for a recreation trail. Shortly thereafter, the County terminated the operating lease with the LINC, and I believed leased the operating rights to the Columbia Basin, doing business as the PVJ.

Interestingly, the Chelatchie Prairie RR had just bought a steam engine from a logging railroad and was in the process of shipping it to Chelatchie to restore and run on their excursion trains. Don't know if they ever got it going...

Working from memory here...

As I recall, the county refused to talk to the Lewis & Clark Railroad when their lease came up for renewal. The county chose the Columbia Basin instead, which set up the Portland-Vancouver Junction to operate the line. Lewis & Clark then tried to force the issue by invoking a clause in their lease allowing them to purchase the railroad, but the county came back with what sounded like an unrealistically high price and LINC went away. LINC had run both freight and the passenger excursions in their early years, with the passenger excursions later turned over to the BYCX group. The LINC owner had operated the Tacoma Eastern.

I do remember quite a bit of conflict between the BYCX group on the north end and the Portland Vancouver Junction on the south end right after they took over. PVJ had rights to operate over the entire line and controlled the dispatching and operating authority, and not long after they took over PVJ did ban BYCX from running anything after one or two incidents where the group allegedly moved some equipment without getting authority from PVJ to make any movements, and I seem to remember that PVJ went so far as to order BYCX completely off the property. BYCX was shut down for a while, but I think the county eventually brokered an agreement that allowed BYCX to start operating again.

BYCX did get two steam locomotives, one of which they put back in operation. It ran throughout 2007, but something happened in the organization over the past winter that prevented any steam operations this year.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV