Western Railroad Discussion > Just another winter day on the Siskiyou Line

Most of the time I don't carry my camera with me on account of the railroad scene here in Medford, Oregon changes with glacial speed, however last week I took my camera to document trackwork I'm doing at the Medford Railroad Park. On the way there on Jan. 19th, I detoured through town and found GP38-3 CORP2062 departing the old "G" yard enroute to interchange with the Rogue Valley Terminal RR (ex-WCTU Railway) in White City. There's nothing unusual about the scene, but I'm glad I was there. If I tried to take the same shot all this week you wouldn't be able to see much through the fog.

Photo 1 - The train departs the old "G Yard" in Medford. In less than a mile it will enter the city limits of Central Point. That's old Highwayy 99 at left. The two columns of steam to the left, and the one to the right of the train proved there are still lumber mills in southern Oregon,

Photo 2 - The train approaches the Sage Road grade crosssing.

Photo 3 - Crossing Sage Road.

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Tony:

Nice to see they are not using those blue things down your way.

Regards, Jim Evans

Medford weather is amazing, I've been there in a snowstorm and seven months later at
105 deg F. So where are the trackwork shots?

Out

callum_out Wrote:
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> Medford weather is amazing, I've been there in a
> snowstorm and seven months later at
> 105 deg F. So where are the trackwork shots?
>
> Out

Here are a few. During our 2nd Annual Polar Express event last month, our Live Steamers club experienced several derailments on an uphill curve on our Mountain Division. It was made worse the night before from heavy rain saturating the roadbed. I decided to (1) replace the worn, outside curved rail with new steel rail throughout the 140-foot left hand curve. It was tnen I discovered that although the ties looked good, they weren't. Track screws just spun around without much of a grip. Three-hundred and eighty-two new ties later, plus the new steel rail, the curve is now like new. It was finished about two weeks ag, and today I'll finish transposing 100 feet of outside curve rail at another area of the park. Tomorrow I'll begin replacing worn aluminum rail with new steel rail inside Tunnels No. 2 and No. 3. Job security! No Pay, but job security.

Photo 1 - the curve begins at the Siburg Siding switch. Siburg Siding is the track on the right. It is now used as a bypass track, which came in handy during the Polar Express. The uneven bypass track is normal after winter frost heaves. After a hour or so of work it'll be back in alignment. The track at left is the same mainline going downgrade from the summit. That's my SP black-widow painted golf cart in the background.

Photo 2 - This image shows the new steel rail on the outside, and aluminum rail on the inside at Milepost 3.

Photo 3 - The last view shows some of the places I replaced old ties with new. In fact I left about 15% of the old ties and the rest is now all new ties. Today we take over 1,700 new ties to town for pressure treating.

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Looks like both fun and a lot of work, thanks for the shots. I think it's good that
there isn't a track near me, I've got enough expensive hobbies.

Out

Tony, is the Sage Rd. crossing at the north Central Point interchange off I-5
just south of Blackwell?

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

truxtrax Wrote:
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> Tony, is the Sage Rd. crossing at the north
> Central Point interchange off I-5
> just south of Blackwell?


Larry,
The I-5 exit south of Blackwell Road (Exit 36, I think) goes onto old Hwy 99 and follows the tracks south to Central Point. If you take Exit 33 and go west over I-5 it becomes Pine Street, which goes through downtown Central Point. You can follow Pine Sreet to the tracks. (The large Co-op grain elevator served by CORP dominates the skyline.) Exit 30 off I-5 becomes Highway 62 (Crater Lake Highway.) Again going over I-5 heading west it's less than a mile to the CORP facility. Where I took the photos is about halfway between exits 30 and 33 on old Hwy. 99.