Western Railroad Discussion > Question about OCSR and income.

I got to wondering if the old SP Tillamook Branch had other ways of earning
income, such as hauling rock from any of the pits that border the line that's
still operating out of Garibaldi. I'm aware that most now is moving by truck,
but the coast hiways took quite a beating this year. It's obvious that other
than tourism, there's not a great deal of opportunity to make a dollar on the
OCSR, but has anybody given this a thought?

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

Be a pretty short haul, and you'd still need trucks for the final destination. Might be a different
story if the branch was still connected.
Out

As a purely tourist operation that is not connected to the general railroad system Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad (OCSR) is governed by a relaxed set of rules enforced by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). This is sometimes unofficially called "FRA light". If OCSR were to begin hauling rock for commercial purposes FRA would inspect OCSR as if they were a common carrier RR, which they would become. Without a connection to the "outside world" there is not enough business that OCSR could obtain to cover the costs involved.

If they could restore the connection to Banks I wonder how many carloads the two remaining mills in Tillamook could generate. Stimson and Hampton still have fairly big mills over there. They should create a fair amount of carloads. They could also haul reefers of dairy products from Tillamook Cheese. Other than that I don't see any big shippers on the line until you get to Banks.

Technically, who owns the line from Banks to Tillimook? UP., the state? How much of it is torn out?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/17 10:27 by CPRR.

Do any dairy products move by rail these days?

When I managed the railroad, we moved about 3,000 loads of outbound lumber and inbound animal feed. Were not allowed to move wood chips.

Mike Root
Madras, OR

why no wood chips?

Short haul rock is not high revenue.  Leprino Foods on UP in the San Joaquin Valley in California moves a lot of cheese by railroad reefer.  Some of it is on the ZDLCYP unit reefer train out of Delano.  I would expect cheese to move by rail from several producers.

mapboy