Western Railroad Discussion > Oregon Coast Scenic RR Strong! POTB Notice is Good!

I need to set the record straight given the posts on the POTB notice of "abandonment" of common carrier status for the line from Chochran to Tillamook. This will be a good thing for OCSRR.


As many of you know, Oregon Coast Scenic RR is one of the lines that I work with closely. Rest assured, this action by the POTB will not affect the on going operations and expansion of the OCRSRR.

Please look at the notice. This is a "discontinuance of service" notice and not an Abandonment of all rail service notice. There is a big difference. This notice will actuall help OCSRR by relieving them of certain testing requiremnts. OCSRR worked directly with POTB in crafting this notice.

The steam operation will continue as before and the expansion plans of a restoration shop in Tillamook are underway. This notice simply removed the common carrier status for the line damaged in the December 2007 flood. It does not mean the line will be scrapped. To the contrary, the line is opeational up to Salmonberry.

OCSRR is still adding to thier fleet of passenger cars and the Skookum will be running on the OCSRR when the re-build is done shortly.

While the POTB needed to remove the common carrier status for the insular portion of the railroad, they are not scrapping the line and the OCSRR will continue to run and expand.

Here is thier web site: http://ocsr.net/

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/09 07:51 by LoggerHogger.

Martin,
Thanks for clarifying this. Had some of us worried about operations over on the other side of the coast range!

This is great news. For a line left for dead, atleast the public will be able to enjoy it. Thanks for clarifying it.

Thanks Martin for the clarification. I'm very pleased to hear that this is good news for the OCSR.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Does the "port" of Tillamook have the ability to barge railcars in? Reason I ask, is I've been there, rode your great train, and railfanned the POTB, and don't recall an actual port of any kind..
Just curious if you have to truck things in/out.
Glad to hear you're staying open! It's easy to convince the missus to let me railfan if she can stay at Rockaway Beach!

Yes, it is possible to barge railcars into Garibaldi; however, the connection between the wharf and the rail line would have to be laid.

Many other considerations such as economics, labor, and political (Not In My Backyard folks) make the actual accomplishment of this feat very unlikely.

Probably 20 years ago, L-P barged oversize logs from Alaska to Garibaldi. One of the issues then was that the Longshoremen felt they needed to do the unloading, not the mill crew. Logs were trucked to the LP mills at the Industrial Park south of Tillamook, about 14 miles.

What about the cheese?

TCCA has its own fleet of trucks. They control conditions very tightly that way to guarantee the quality.