Nostalgia & History > My three favorites from Winterail - Corvallis 1970-71

It was another fun time at Winterail, but was deceptive in thinking that there were fewer shows, when in fact, the breaks were so much shorter we got through the main shows much faster.  I did note that there was only one Winterail Short, instead of the usual three, and it seemed like there were fewer participants in the "three favorites" than there used to be.  But for only the second time, I decided to participate.

I attended Oregon State University there in Corvallis 1969-73, and I knew my three favorites had to be shots from that time period and from Corvallis, before Portland and Western, before modern power, back when the Toledo run, timetabled as 706 to the coast and 705 back was powered by F7s and an occasional GP9, and the locals stationed in Corvallis were powered by Baldwin S-12s.   And so, here are the three I shared.

Photo 1 - June 2, 1970, #706 is running on time, due through Covallis at 6:10pm, powered by F7 6430, making the turn from 6th street, and coming back around about to cross 7th Street near the SP depot, and given a roll-by from  second trick operator Bill Eddington.

Photo 2 - January 12, 1971, SP S12 2142, one of the regulars in Corvallis, sat with cupola caboose 1156 in one of the snowy mornings.  Hmmm.  That's a Tuesday.  Why wasn't I in class?

Photo 3 - February 27, 1971, the snow has returned to Corvallis, and I'm down in the yards on this Saturday when both of the S12s are at rest.  Here we have caboose 1156 this time coupled to the one S12 I considered to be "the Corvallis engine", 2138, as whenever it left for servicing in Eugene, it usually came right back.  I can't tell what the number was on its sister, as it's snowing too hard to read.  Actually, looking carefully at the frame to the right of the coupler, I think I see the unit number of 2136, an uncommon visitor to Corvallis.

Those were wonderful days in Corvallis, but like many of us, I guess, we kick ourselves for not doing more.  At the time, I was restricted as I didn't have a car, but that changed in late April 1971, but once with wheels, I was always off to Albany or Portland, and never chased the local to Monroe, Alpine, Toledo, or any of the other branches in the Willamette Valley.  Oh, if I could go back and get it right...

See you at Winterail next year!

Lee Hower - Sacramento - OSU '73
Go Beavs!

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/17 20:33 by mcfflyer.

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Great stuff! 
- Eric B.

Great stuff, Lee!  As a native Corvallis-ite I can totally relate to those images- they were definitely MY favorites at Winterail as well!
It was nice finally meeting you! 

That's a lot of power in #1.  Must have a big train that shut down all east/west street traffic in town for quite awhile.  And I wonder how many students were late to class because of it.

Nice set of pictures.

Marty Bernard

Thanks for sharing these memories. The image with two Baldwins in the snow is my favorite photo.
Bob

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> That's a lot of power in #1.  Must have a big
> train that shut down all east/west street traffic
> in town for quite awhile.  And I wonder how many
> students were late to class because of it.
>
> Nice set of pictures.
>
> Marty Bernard

Thanks, Marty, and actually there was probably little impact with the passage of the Toledo trains to people getting to class.  First, No. 706 passed through town at 6:10pm, so it was outside of normal class periods, and I don't remember many night classes back then.  And 705 came back in the middle of the night.  What's more, the majority of OSU students - then and now - live west and north of the tracks anyway, so the long train wouldn't be an impediment to attending class.  But certainly going down 6th Street with an 80 car train at 5mph did tie the town up for awhile!

As for the power, when I first went to OSU in the summer of 1968, I discovered that there was an assigned set of power that rotated only on the Toledo run from Eugene, especially in the days of the F7s.  As a matter of fact, I believe that the Toledo run had the last regular assignment of Fs in Oregon.  And on most days, regardless of how long the train was, it ran with 6 units, with always an F7 on 706, and could be any combination of F7As, F7Bs, an occasional Rio Grande F7B, and by 1970, the trailing unit would be a GP9.  So regardless if the train was 20 or 80 cars, there were always six units on it.

Lee Hower