Western Railroad Discussion > CORP South End - Klamathon Fire Drive by

A week or so after the fire along the CORP railroad in the Hornbrook California area I drove through the area not knowing what to expect after all the media info on the Klamathon Fire. To my surprise the fire avoided the CORP in the Hornbrook area, although the part of town closer to Interstate 5 was hit pretty bad. Moving towards Oregon I found the Bailey Hill area had been burned out pretty bad but the RR seemed to have survived quite well, possibly due to the heavy amounts of ballast along the line. The small town of Hilt was unscathed, no visible burn areas but has a new bulldozed fire line on the south end of town.

Surprisingly the CORP turn from Weed was seen trundling across Shasta Valley near Gazelle, the turn from Medford was heard on the repeater. So both turns were running today. It happens that I had made a brief photo stop at Hilt a few weeks before the fire, it made sense to make a few comparison photos.

#1 Looking compass north from the grade crossing at Hornbrook before the fire, the turn had just dropped off the cars to be picked up by the Medford crew;

#2 Looking north from the grade crossing at Hornbrook after the fire; there are some signs of the burn in the middle area of the photo which is where Interstate 5 is located;

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#3 shows the CORP Weed power moving to the compass south end of the Hornbrook yard to make up it's return train;

#4 is the after photo, once again the hill across the middle of the photo shows the burn area and the bare dirt trails from the Fire crews; the tall hill is called 'Black Mountain' and was used as a landmark in the early stages of the fire. The Klamath River would be in the valley between the burnt hill and the RR, Interstate 5 is far to the right side of the photo.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/18 18:46 by TCnR.

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The old road that follows the Cottonwood Creek between Hilt and I-5 had minimal damage, many of the older homes surrounded by old RV's and old horse barns complete with old horses are still in place, the upscale RV park along the river looks good. The major burn area is alongside I-5 and into the small valleys and canyons to the sides. Of course also over the ridge tops to the north where the acreage was racked up.

#5 Moving to the Bailey Hill off ramp the burned area is much more visible, the sidehill location is pretty obvious from the freeway, one of those 'how did they do that' locations. In the center of the photo is the RR and the sidehill embankment, I noticed many of the old SP code line poles had burned. This area has many large no trespassing signs which somehow survived the fire.

#6 A grab shot of the approach to the concrete I-5 overpass, note the straight line across the photo is the RR.

So basically the damage hasn't prevented CORP from continuing to run through northern Siskiyou County. It's as safe as ever to visit and spend your hotel money in town, just don't bring those fruits and nuts through the Agricultural Inspection Station, which survived unscathed.

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/18 19:14 by TCnR.

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Thanks. Good work!

Here's what the general Bailey Hill area looked like long before the fire ...and the merger, mostly dry grass and a few scrub trees. The remaining code line poles look like tall burned out toothpicks today.

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Thanks for the photos I was wondering how things looked up there after the fire.

Your pictures were worth many thousands of words. Thank you!

Nice report for us here.  Thanks for sharing.

Looks like it was not a super hot fire so most trees should survive as the fire cleared the grass off below.  Absent heavy rains, I suspect the are will look pretty normal this time next year.  

Thanks for the update. I'm headed in that direction next Saturday and will check it out.

TJY

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> Thanks for the update. I'm headed in that
> direction next Saturday and will check it out.
>
> TJY


CORP very rarely works on the weekend. The Weed power ties up on the old wye between 'town' and the mill.

TCnR Wrote:
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> icancmp193 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Thanks for the update. I'm headed in that
> > direction next Saturday and will check it out.
> >
> > TJY
>
>
> CORP very rarely works on the weekend. The Weed
> power ties up on the old wye between 'town' and
> the mill.

Well I knew that. I'll be in transit to Bandon, Oregon, not really on a railfan excursion :-(
But I will be back through there on the 25th!

TJY

 

Outstanding!