Steam & Excursion > Big Creek & Telocaset RR - Oregon's Rare Shortline!

Remotely located in Northeastern Oregon's Union County there once operated a very interesting common carrier shortline in the form of the Big Creek & Telocaset RR. This 11 mile long line was incorporated in 1928 to serve the logging mill town of Pondosa, OR and the interests of the Grande Ronde Lumber Co. The connection with the outside world was 11 miles from Pndosa on the UP at a station named Telocaset.

The motive power for this line was a pair of Heisler geared locomotives. The first was 2-truck #102 that had come from the Grande Ronde Lumber Co itself and was later used as back-up to the main power, 3- Truck Heisler #5.

Geared power was necesary on the BC&T because in the middle of the 11-mile line there was a summit that needed to be crossed with a 5% grade! Even the short 3-5 car loaded trains of the BC&T were split and taken up this hill in a doubling move.

In the first view we see BC&T #5 and her freight train on the way to Pondosa on September 23, 1948. Hank Griffiths was there to record this scene on one of Oregon's rarest shortlines.

The second view was taken on March 19, 1939 by Robert M. Hanft at Pondosa, OR and shows the ageing BC&T #102 at the mill waiting for her next trip.

The last view was taken aat the Pondosa mill in September 1948 and shows BC&T #5 at the enginehouse with the mill and the loading area for the box cars that provided the shipments for the BC&T.

Ownership of the line passed along with the mill to the Collins Pine Co. who in 1958 sold the operation and mill to the Mount Emily Lumber Co. of nearby LaGrande, OR. Since Mount Emily already had a mill they shut down the Pondosa operation.

With the only shipper on the line shutting down, a petition for abandonment was submitted and then approved in June 1959. There was an auction in 1960 of all the mill equipment and remaining rail equipment. The auctioneer actually stood on top of Heisler #5 calling the bids for the mill equipment. Unfortunately the only buyer for Heisler #5 was a scrapper.

This was the end of one of Oregon's most remote and little photographed shortlines. A few years ago the bell from BC&T #5 Heisler was donated to us a the Sumpter Valley RR. We quickly put it on Eccles Lumber Heisler #3. So at least the memory of the BC&T can still be heard ringing through Eastern Oregon.


Martin



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/13 07:19 by LoggerHogger.

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Here is another fine photo taken by Hank Griffiths of BC&T Heisler #5 on the mainline connection with the UP at Telocaset, Oregon. The date is October 1945.

The big 80-ton Heisler was built in 1924 of the Ostrander Ry & Timber Co. of Ostrander, WA. She was later sold to the Grande Ronde Lumber Co. of Pondosa and assigned to the mainline haul of the Big Creek & Telocaset RR. She was the last engine in service on this line at the time it was abandoned in 1959.

The next view is a rare shot of the enginehouse and fuel oit tank car with BC&T #5 at the mill in Pondosa. This is true backwoods railroading at it's finest.

The last shot shows BC&T #5 nearing the UP connection at Telocaset, OR in October 1948. This rare operational photo gives you some idea of how isolated this shortline was in Oregon's dry Northeastern country.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/13 06:33 by LoggerHogger.

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Great shots. I like number one's view of the beaten-up Heisler with a UP "Road of the Streamliners" boxcar behind it. I laughingly don't think that UP had this railroad in mind for trackage rights for a streamliner!
Bob

In the mid-1950's while the Collins Pine concern still owned the BC&T they transferred from their Almanor Railroad operations in Chester, CA their diesel #106. The engine is seen here still at Chester, CA on August 21, 1950 in a Doug Richter photo. #106 was never re-painted or re-lettered during it's years of service on the BC&T.

When the BC&T shut down in 1959, #106 was sold to the Valley & Siletz RR in Independence, OR where it served until 1985 when it was sold to the Stimson Lumber Co. of Gaston, OR. When she was finally done at Stimson she was sold to the Oregon Coast Scenic RR who has her stored today at Tillamook, OR.


Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/13 06:59 by LoggerHogger.

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Great story and photos. Love the first photo!

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

More information on this fascinating short line...

http://www.trainweb.org/highdesertrails/bct.html

There's an aerial view of the Pondosa mill complex at the following link...note especially the Heisler just arriving from Telocaset with three boxcars at the very top of the frame...and the BC&T enginehouse as shown in one of Martin's photographs is at the middle right of the photograph, just to the left of the log pond and below the sawmill building.

http://www.oregongenealogy.com/baker/pondosa/collins_pine_pondosa_oregon.htm

Finally, there's a fascinating series of photographs on Flickr of the BC&T grade today, mixed in with some remnants of the Sumpter Valley and some other landscape type views of eastern Oregon:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulspages/2691059071/in/photostream/

(Scroll to the right)

My favorite quote about the railroad came from an article about the line the NMRA Bulletin carried in their September 1973 issue ..."If the shortest distance between two points is over the hill and not around them, that's the way to go. What in the hell did we own a geared locomotive for anyhow?"

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/13 08:39 by JDLX.

Very neat photos. Judging by all the eastern road boxcars it looks like they were shipping lumber to all four corners of the country.

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What a neat picture Jeff! With the aerial shot you get to see the tail track for the mill siding runs clear in behind the general store,,,and I swear that's the longest green chain I've ever saw. Reminds me of a job I had as a kid pulling green chain,,,which was probably the worst job a teenager could ever have!

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

Green chain!?! Mill won't run without it and almost every mill I've ever been in had green chain that was
half master links from being patched eighty six times. Same with the scrap belt under the Debarker and
the Bucking Station, five hundred feet of three foot patches. Those are great pictures, nice to see them
because so many of those really funky operations closed well before my time. Thank you Martin, I
do believe we're all really enjoying your collection.

truxtrax Wrote:

> Reminds me of a job I had as a kid pulling green
> chain,,,which was probably the worst job a
> teenager could ever have!

That was a better job than off-bearing the dryer in a plywood mill (working summers when going to university) . . had to wear leather aprons and the heat and static was unbelievable.

Also worked pulling green chain at the same mill and if the full time guys wanted a break, they'd fire a piece under the belts and it would snap the belt on the rollers at the end of the line and get an immediate coffee break . .. but if you got caught, you got fired on the spot!

Craig
http://www.mcmrailvideos.com/

Was the connection to the UP at the siding or was up towards the wye?

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