Steam & Excursion > What's left?

After posting on the western board, about OCSR
I have no idea how much of the old Tillamook Br.
is still usable,and how much is beyond repair.
I'm sure that somebody knows (probably right down
to the foot) how much was destroyed and whats left.

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

It's not many miles of track that need rebulding (8-10) but it is REALLY rough terrain along the river canyon up towards the Coastal Range summit. The minimum price considered for rebuilding was 50 million back in 2009 when the Port of Tillamook Bay decided NOT to spend that kind of money. In this day and age the price might be up around 100 million dollars. It sure was cheaper to build a railroad back in the early Nineteenth Century. Kind of like the Scotia Bluffs that doomed the Northwestern Pacific line to Eureka, just too expensive to fix.

Ed

The OCSR volunteers were rebuilding the railroad but got stopped by the state when they got into Salmonberry Canyon. There was a Rail to Trails group is trying to make the line a trail from Banks to Tillamook. I can't say what the current status is. Martin may know.

First, a couple quick corrections. The issue in 2009 had nothing to do with POTB not wanting to spend the money, the issue was that awarded FEMA disaster relief funds required something like a 25% match. The state of Oregon had provided matching funds in previous years, but by 2009 recession induced budget shortfalls dried up any available funds from any source, along with any political will to pump more money into the line, especially in light of how much had been invested in previous storms. My understanding is POTB got the money but used it to improve some of the Port's other operations rather than rebuild the railroad. I seem to remember the post flood assessments at the time being that the work done in previous years generally held, but the extensive damage lay on other parts of the line.

I don't remember now specifics on how far the work done by OCSR extended, I know for a while they were open to a point just shy of a road crossing, which eventually was repaired. The State of Oregon did attempt to shut the railroad work along the Salmonberry down, they issued a cease and desist order over concerns of materials being dumped into the river harming salmon and steelhead spawning, OCSR filed a lawsuit against the state at that point claiming interstate commerce rules and interests trumped the state's order. A Federal judge initially sided with the state, the 9th Circuit then overturned that ruling and decided in favor of OCSR, that was about a year ago. I don't know what has happened since. OCSR did have to do a fair amount of work on their lines south of Wheeler after the December 2015 floods, I cannot say how much they were affected north of there or how far they can go today. There are a number of OCSR staff and volunteers on this board, hopefully one of them can provide specifics as I'm curious as well.

OCSR was actively working with the trail groups on a rails with trails up the Salmonberry, they do have some news stories about those efforts on their website, but the last updates are from around three years ago.

Finally, I'd have to disagree with the assessment of Scotia Bluffs causing all of NWP's problems, that ignores many dozens of miles of track built on essentially liquid subgrade south of there that caused far more problems than the bluffs ever did.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Posted from iPhone

Here's the TO discussion and a link to an article about the FEMA funds:

Date: 08/19/11 11:49
Tillamook Bay: FEMA money but no railroad repair.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2544571,2544618#msg-2544618

It would be interesting to hear what the money went to, besides the Hooley Digester of course.

Oregon Coast Railroad is currently operating about 20 miles of track between Garibaldi and Batterson. The line between Batterson and Salmonberry, about 10 miles, is currently out of service due to storm damage suffered about 3 years ago. There were several new mud slides and a bridge near MP823, a couple of miles east of Batterson, was severely damaged by a debris flow that came down a creek. This was quite devastating as OCSR had opened the line between Batterson and Salmonberry about a year previous and ran a few charters to the end of track.

OCSR was working on restoring the line between Salmonberry and Enright, about 5 miles about 5 years ago when the difficulties that Jeff mentioned in his post occurred. Between the legal problems and the storm from about 3 year ago this segment was put on the back burner.

West of Garibaldi the line runs about 10 miles to the Hampton Lumber Mill in Tillamook and two or three more to the Port of Tillamook Bay's industrial park. This segment is complete with two bridge projects completed in the last couple of years. Currently the Oregon Coast Railriders are using the portion of track between Bay City and Tillamook for pedal powered tours. OCSR can still use this stretch as needed, however with the Railriders using the line regular tourist runs probably won't happen in the near future.

Spent some time in vacation mode in the area this recent summer and came to realize that there is a huge...huge tourist market in the area that is not likely to be supported entirely by rail no matter what repairs would be made, no matter what transportation purist politics a person has. The Oregon coast tourist market is simply huge, lots of Real Estate action, lots of roadside markets, lots and lots of tourism market for miles and miles up and down the Oregon Coast. Mostly supported by rubber tire vehicles in the form of rental cars, tourist busses and the fabled private family automobile as well.

The RR would do well to support that market, perhaps get some extra rail in operation but they need to be attentive to the general market that's already there. Upsetting the political apple cart for a tunnel or bridge project in the mountains may not be a good idea. Of course it would be great to have a route to the outside world, perhaps one cross-tie at a time if neeeded.