Western Railroad Discussion > Lake Ewauna Lift Bridge on BNSF's Last Oregon Branch

The line crossing the lake pictured below was GN's entry to Klamath Falls and served Weyerhauser.Now serving Collins Pine and several other cusomers it measures almost ten miles in length.Not listed as a branch but as a separate Line Segment , it still represents everything we railfans like about branchline railroading.This image was recorded  last year when the job was afternoons.We saw the job last Friday crewless heading in a homeward bound direction at the UP crossover in late afternoon so,I don't know if it was DOL  or with a schedule change.Maybe somebody knows the current status.Bill Webb

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Nice catch.
JB

Great shot and story.

Bismarck Bill 

Nice photo, thanks.
TC

I've raced rowing shells on that lake.  They still have a rowing boathouse there, too.

I wonder if that barren hillside in the background was once covered in pine forests?  If so, why hasn't it regrown??  The mills set up in KF due to an abundance of local timber, so this is a question, if anyone knows the truth?

Answer to if the hillside in the background had trees, the answer is no.  Klamath Falls lies at a relatively low elevation as compared to the surrounding mountains and is mostly in the sagebrush with some mixed juniper stands.  Most of the pine timber is in the higher elevations that get enough precipitation to support trees. 

Excellent photo, thanks for sharing!

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

So is that the engineer standing on the "front porch" wearing his RC pack?  I'll bet a bystander might look twice, trying to figure out an empty cab on a moving train.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

I've followed it on Google Maps and it is a pretty neat "branch".

TJY

Great shot!

Neat stuff. always thought it was an interesting bridge to find at such an unusual location. KF has a huge Lumber Mill history so I guess that was the best place to put it, everything else was already taken by a Mill of some sort. On the west side the branch went both north and south, but on the north end there's a town in the middle with more Mills so I guess the bridge was placed convienent.to the interchange with SP and GN, and the OC&E with trackage rghts. Klamath Falls was quite the destination back in the day.

The east side of the Cascade, the Sierra Nevada and even the Rockies exhibit the rain shadow phenomona. What vegatation that is there makes use of the higher elevation snow near the peaks that flow to the east.
t4p.