Nostalgia & History > SP 1970 - Wherezit?

Though I'm still licking my wounds over my bungling of the last Whatzit contest, I nevertheless offer this new one. As usual, the first prize is a nice virtual selection of canned Bulgarian peas, or alternately, non-radioactive virtual yogurt from Belarus, should BoilingMan win again.

-E.O.

Date: June, 1970 - Wherezit?


WE HAVE MULTIPLE WINNERS! - see the bottom of the thread for winners and additional photo



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/14 18:01 by hogheaded.

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Springfield, Oregon?

callum_out Wrote:
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> Springfield, Oregon?


You've got the correct state.

-E.O.

Powers, Oregon?

That would make more sense, was there even a station at Springfield?

Out

callum_out Wrote:
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> That would make more sense, was there even a
> station at Springfield?
>
> Out


Yes, there was a station at Springfield. It was moved and now is the Chamber of Commerce office, IIRC.

No idea, but Springfield makes sense for the power but the hill is wrong and the long building on the right is unknown, the mill buildings are still there but not the ones in the photos. 70 tonners were also on the Mohawk branch, seen the trains but never saw a building.

That long building should be the spotting feature, with a TO office of course. The background looks like the Coastal foothills somewhere. I understand that the 70 tonners were pretty much captive, somebody with a decent book should be able to figure it out.

terrybaker Wrote:
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> Powers, Oregon?

Closer than Springfield, but no cigar.

-E.O.

Or on the White City Terminal in Medford

WAF Wrote:
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> Or on the White City Terminal in Medford


Nope. Powers is closer.

-E.O.

Coquille, Oregon?

wp1801 Wrote:
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> Coquille, Oregon?


I agree, Coquille.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/14 18:27 by mdo.

Coos Bay

Dick Samuels

mdo Wrote:
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> wp1801 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Coquille, Oregon?
>
>
> I agree, Coquile.

WE HAVE MULTIPLE WINNERS! Congrats, guys! Don't forget to load-up on the Bulgarian peas.

It is indeed Coquille, Oregon (see the photo below the peas), a place that I have visited many times over the years. The two 70 Tonners worked local mills and further down the branch to Myrtle Point. Between the latter spot and Powers, SP shared tracks with Georgia Pacific (ex Coos Bay Lumber) to to Powers, though the logging operation was closed by 1970, which I did not know at the time. I had first visited the area in 1963, sans camera, and I had returned in 1970 to photograph the branch's several covered bridges below Myrtle point, but they had been replaced in the interim. The closed GP mill and railroad were still at Powers, as well as one covered bridge without tracks.

I returned to the area last summer to find Powers to mostly be an unrecognizable vacant lot, and the Coquille depot area "redeveloped". I don't know when the depot was torn down. In the below photo you can spot the sawdust burner of a lumber company, as well as a railroad (? - the branch towards Myrtle Point did not use it) bridge across the Coquille River, both gone today.

The branch now ends just short of town, and after nearly six years, the Coos Bay Rail Link reestablished service to Coquille on April 29, 2013, although I can't imagine how the trains manage to stay on the tracks.

-E.O.

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