Steam & Excursion > If You Look Around Long Enough This Is What You Could Find!

I am constantly amazed at the resourcefulness of railfan.  Decades ago there was no internet, and very few written sources for railfans to study to seek out some of the more remote railroad lines.  However, they still managed to find fascinating items of railroad history to photograph in some of the most out-of-the-way areas. This photo demonstrates my point.

Here we see Coos Bay Lumber ALCO 2-8-2T parked nest to some lumber buildings in April 1961.  By this time she had been largely replaced by the diesel that CBL had brought in to handle the log hauling.

She is parked at Fairview, Oregon.  This is miles from the CBL main shops at Powers, Oregon which is what most railfans knew of as a location they could capture steam on film.  Where is Fairview?  Good question.  This little unincorporated burg is on the Coos Bay Lumber line northeast of Coquille, Oregon.  This is very remote to say the least.

Richard Buike of Albany, Oregon was the railfan who managed to find #10 sitting all by herself so many miles from the main CBL facilities.  Well done Richard.

Soon after this photo was taken #10 would be donated to the Oregon Museum Of Science & Industry and sent to Portland, Oregon to be raffled off in a a fund raising project.  #10 would then be purchased by a railfan who would put her on display next to the Oregon Pacific & Eastern enginehouse at Cottage Grove, Oregon for the next several decades.  Unfortunately when the OPE&E shut down in the late 1980's #10 had to go and she was sold to a series of owners from Kansas to finally Florida.  Just a few years ago #10 was cut up for scrap when no one in Florida knew what to do with this huge piece of logging railroad history.

Thank you Mr Buike for seeking her out in 1961 and capturing her in her natural environment.

Martin



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/16 03:56 by LoggerHogger.

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My first job out of college took me to Coos Bay for a couple years, 1974 through most of '76.  You could still see the right of way of the logging line to Fairview where it crossed the road over from Coquille. The line showed on an old 15' topographic map I had (and still have) of that area.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/16 18:06 by roustabout.