Steam & Excursion > Steam graveyard Merrill Oregon

I was out cruising the Tule Lake area along the California Oregon border on Sunday and got some shots of the graveyard of quite a few locomotives. Does anyone out there know any of the history of some of these locos?

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Bob,
This is part of Fred Kepner's collection. The Great Northern 2-8-0 used to be stored inside the old Williamson Lumber mill near Chiloquin. Many of the other engines came from their long term outdoor storage near the SP at Cottage Grove, before they spent a few years near a mosquito breeding lake near Chiloquin. The Sierra 2-8-2 and the Deer Creek Scenic 2-8-0 came from Ogden. - Tony J.

The GN1246 has been in the K-Falls area for years. Back in the 70's when I drove truck to KFS from PDX it was stored out at the old Johns-Manville plant near Modoc Pt south of Chiloquin. It was in terrible shape then too. From rumours I've heard the individual that owns this equipment will never do anything but let it grow rust.


Butch,,,,,,here we go

truxtrax Wrote:
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> The GN1246 has been in the K-Falls area for years.
> Back in the 70's when I drove truck to KFS from
> PDX it was stored out at the old Johns-Manville
> plant near Modoc Pt south of Chiloquin. It was in
> terrible shape then too. From rumours I've heard
> the individual that owns this equipment will never
> do anything but let it grow rust.
>
>
> Butch,,,,,,here we go

Well...that's sad. So some fellow buys some locomotives, to let them rust. To what avail? I guess this collection is as good as "scrapped". The only answer is for somebody else with MORE money to try to buy some of this stuff from him, but, it could well already be ruined. It's a shame to see equipment like this in this condition in this day and age, but what is one to do? Perhaps the individual in question has Alzheimer's Disease, or some other terrible condition, and there is simply nothing to be done about it.

One of the other locomotives in this group is the former Pickering Lbr. Corp. 3T Shay 8. Although only used by Pickering for about 6-7 years in logging service, she gained a small degree of fame in December of 1965 when she was taken out of storage in Standard, CA., fired up & featured for the "last log train" ceremonies.
The 8 was formerly Long-Bell 1008 & is a 90-3 class Shay. She spent a few years stored in Banks, Ore. after her days on the Pickering & was fired up & operated at least once in the VSP & S yard. I rode her there in June of 1969.
Tom

The guy also owns the ex-Sierra mallet 38 stored in pieces in McCloud.

1. See this site for information:
www.sunsetd.com/~ryan/steam/
2. I asked about this on 7.7.04 Trainorders and here are some of the responses:

A good friend of mine who grew up in Klamath Falls was recently down in the area checking things out. He went out to the site and looked things over. Indeed it is sad. He did some talking to the locals and found out that Fred is living in a trailer on the back of the property and subsists now on biking in to town, collecting pop cans and selling them to partially live on? Apparently his money is gone now. My friend was going to go talk to Fred, but said there were some pretty mean looking dogs there. He didn't go any farther. There may be some other issues coming up soon too regarding how some of the equipment was acquired. The saga continues.  700railfarm

And

Owned by Fred Kepner, I understand that the locos pictured here have now been moved southward to Merrill near the state line. He has a huge collection that has little hope of ever becoming anything usable unless he changes his mind and becomes willing to sell the equipment to people who have the both the will and the means to do major restoration. It is particularly sad to me as my first pay trip as a locomotive fireman for the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway was between Banks and Vernonia, Oregon on the ex-Oregon American Lumber Company 2-6-2 #105 pictured on this website.
Jim700

3. This is all bad. I truely would like to see either the CSRM or maybe the Doyle and the gang could get these......

The GN 1246 was orginaly on display in Seattle, WA. Woodlawn Park Zoo I think?

The GN 1246 was orginaly on display in Seattle, WA. Woodlawn Park Zoo I think?

As I recall sometime in the last 12 months their was a sale of railroad passenger cars that I believe were owned by this man. So maybe the locomotives will come up for sale too. Even if these locomotives can't be made operable they could be cosmetically fixed up and put in a museum.

I've never heard ANYTHING good about Fred Kepner... I saw the Sierra 2-8-0 and the Deer Creek Scenic 2-8-2 at the old Heber (UT.) Creeper location in 1987. They were charming little engines, out of service at the time awaiting repairs and lease renewal (or purchase) from Kepner, but intact and in good condition. He wanted some outrageous amount for them and would not negotiate so they went to Ogden and languished for several years just a stone's throw from the railroad museum and then went back to Oregon a few years ago. I'm sure Fred lost MUCH more in storage and transport fees getting them back 'home' than he would have lost in striking a reasonable bargain with HVRR or some other operator or museum. What a shame...

I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned that Mr. Kepner also owns the Sierra #34, which is lucky and still stored in the shelter of the Jamestown roundhouse. I believe he's not only got the 36 and the 38, but also the 18...which was the first true "Movie Engine" on the Sierra before the #3 was put back online.

By "Deer Creek Scenic 2-8-2", are you referencing to the ex-Santa Maria Valley #100? Know it was up at Heber (even ran for a time I believe) after the Arizona operation (White Mountain Scenic). The SMV #21 was last I heard being restored by a group in Astoria, OR, site hasn't been updated in awhile and haven't heard much.

I'm pretty sure the loco I saw at Heber was still numbered #100, so it was probably the ex-Santa Maria Valley #100. I'll dig out the photos from 1987.