Western Railroad Discussion > Recent activity near Eugene, OR

Some shots from the past few weeks around the Brooklyn Sub.

1. A northbound manifest making the turn out of Junction City.  It was raining pretty good so I used a monopod and my 200mm telephoto inside the car.

2. Another northbound manifest, this time south of Springfield near Jasper.  Train had hit a tree that had fallen on the tracks - there does appear to be a little damage to the front cow catcher.

3. The Coos Bay Hauler rolling into the Eugene Yard at Garfield Ave.

More to come.

Tom



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/17 08:47 by CBRL.

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4. This is a northbound near Crale, OR along Lookout Point Reservoir.  Was going for the backlit old telegraph wires.

5. Amtrak 14 rolls over the Willamette River on the old SP triple truss bridge at Hampton, north of Oakridge.

6. A meet at Dougren siding this morning.  The conductor was checking out a fluid leaking from the lead unit that was reported by a maintenance crew member when they went through Springfield.  Trying out my new-to-me classic 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5 D Nikkor zoom and am pleased so far.

Thanks for looking - see everyone at Winterail.

Tom Trent
CBRL

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Tom,

Any additional info you can share on CBRL? When are they running etc.

J.

J. - all I know about are the runs to and from the mill at Noti to Eugene.  According to a thread a while back, they alternate running M-W-F one week and T-Th the next, and this seems to be the pattern.  Most of the time they leave the yard in Eugene in the early afternoon and head west.  Apparently the trains between Noti and Coos Bay run at night, so no shots of the Siuslaw River drawbridge, but I don't get out that way much.

Tom

You caught UP 9470, a Dash 8 in new paint! 

Coalca,

Awesome!  I wondered about that unit but wasn't able to find any information on it.  Nice to see some repainted units.  I think the lower amount of smoke from the Tier 4 units will allow the paint to stay nice longer.

This fella could use a little TLC.

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Great series of photos. I especially like photos 1 & 2.

Ronda Thomas

CBRL Wrote:
>
> 3. The Coos Bay Hauler rolling into the Eugene
> Yard at Garfield Ave.
>
Any idea where CBRL power lays over?  I've been on the Coos Bay Branch, but not since it was CORP.

BobE

Looks like a healthy sized train on the CBRL, good to see that.

I believe the Coos Bay power lays over somewhere in Coos Bay but not sure where exactly.  Search the archives as I remember someone posting more detailed information on the line sometime in the past couple of years. Wish there were more locations to shoot the train from the south side of the tracks, since that's where the best light is in the afternoon. 

Tom, thanks for sharing the photos, I always enjoy seeing what you post.  My son lives in Eugene, we get out there a few times a year for visits and I've been to most of the locations you posted.  In fact, back in September of last year I was out working for a week while we were doing some PTC testing on the Cascade Sub, running out of Eugene to Klamath Falls and back.  Here's a few cab views I took of the locations you just posted.

1 - we're headed south just past Jasper, at the location of the former Fall Creek Jct.  You can see the r/w to the left where the original line via Fall Creek used to go prior to the construction of Lookout Point reservior.

2 - here's the same CBR power while interchanging to the UP in the yard at Eugene

3 - here are some of those line wires, this at Minnow near the Lookout Point Dam.  You can see the greatly reduced water level because of the work on the dam.  You could also see a lot of the old SP roadbed on the opposite side of the river that was normally flooded.  Have they started refilling the reservior yet?

 

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4 - here is the bridge over the river south of Hampton

5 - a meet at Dougren

Keep posting the Eugene area photos!

MAB

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The other end of the original mainline from Fall Creek Jct is just across the steel bridge from Hampton. When Lookout Reservoir is low you can see the old road bed for some distance. I point this out when riding 14 as a docent.,

Steve Panzik
Chiloquin, Or

MAB,

Wow!  Very cool pictures from a different perspective.  I knew the old line branched off near Dougren somewhere but seeing your first picture it is obvious.  I will post some more pictures of that area when I get some time - like that area and not too far from my work in Springfield.  Give me a shout when you are up here again and I will buy you a cuppa! 

Tom

mopac1978 Wrote:
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> 3 - here are some of those line wires, this at Minnow near the Lookout Point Dam.  You can see
> the greatly reduced water level because of the work on the dam.  You could also see a lot of the
> old SP roadbed on the opposite side of the river that was normally flooded.  Have they started
> refilling the reservoir yet?
>

​While I can't say whether they were working on the dam or not this "low" lake level is normal every year. They deliberately drain the lake to these low levels to make room for run-off for the next winter and this lake will become full again in the Spring.
 

You may be right about the reservoir level, I know Fern Hill is drained each fall to handle spring runoff. The train crew I was with said they were doing some repairs to the dam. 

CBRL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> J. - all I know about are the runs to and from the
> mill at Noti to Eugene.  According to a thread a
> while back, they alternate running M-W-F one week
> and T-Th the next, and this seems to be the
> pattern.  Most of the time they leave the yard in
> Eugene in the early afternoon and head west. 
> Apparently the trains between Noti and Coos Bay
> run at night, so no shots of the Siuslaw River
> drawbridge, but I don't get out that way much.
>
> Tom

​Followed the line last summer to Coos Bay.  There are many great photo locations besides the drawbridge.  The lack of daytime trains, though would make photography challenging.  Beautiful area!

When I started working at Eugene I was told how the stub of the line at Fall Creek Jct. had been used by the local for car storage.  One time they shoved too many cars in and one or more went off the end of the track.  This location used to be a trestle over a highway crossing.  The car went down the slope and resulted in the death of (I believe) a woman drving in her car.  Supposedly to avoid discipline in this, the conductor informed the company how they could avoid paying deaheads to the Springlield jobs by instead putting the jobs on duty at Eugene and using a carryall (Chevy Suburban) to transport them to Springlfield.  According to the story he was even the Local Chairman of the union at the time.  That notwithstanding, it was a great place to work with many fine, highly qualified people and has a trmendous amount of opportunities for both photos and exploration.  K Falls as an away-from-home terminal is an entirely different matter.  Roseburg and Coos Bay made up for that---I even talked my way into the bridge operator's good graces and got to experience Reedsport and Coos Bay.  The branch had it's own B&B gang for good reason.   

Spladiv,

Thanks for that story.  Unfortunate that a motorist was killed like that - that is not a busy road now but may have been in the past.  It must have been great to work on those various lines in south west Oregon - I remember reading about places where crews could even get in some hunting and fishing!  I am very happy to live in such a beautiful place (when it is not snowing, that is).

Tom
CBRL
spladiv Wrote:
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> When I started working at Eugene I was told how
> the stub of the line at Fall Creek Jct. had been
> used by the local for car storage.  One time they
> shoved too many cars in and one or more went off
> the end of the track.  This location used to be a
> trestle over a highway crossing.  The car went
> down the slope and resulted in the death of (I
> believe) a woman drving in her car.  Supposedly
> to avoid discipline in this, the conductor
> informed the company how they could avoid paying
> deaheads to the Springlield jobs by instead
> putting the jobs on duty at Eugene and using a
> carryall (Chevy Suburban) to transport them to
> Springlfield.  According to the story he was even
> the Local Chairman of the union at the time. 
> That notwithstanding, it was a great place to work
> with many fine, highly qualified people and has a
> trmendous amount of opportunities for both photos
> and exploration.  K Falls as an away-from-home
> terminal is an entirely different matter. 
> Roseburg and Coos Bay made up for that---I even
> talked my way into the bridge operator's good
> graces and got to experience Reedsport and Coos
> Bay.  The branch had it's own B&B gang for good
> reason.