Nostalgia & History > Union Railroad of Oregon

Anyone know what became of Union Railroad of Oregon? I believe it was near Baker City and connected with Union Pacific. Photo taken March 8, 1980.

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Stopped running in early 1989 when the lumber mill it served shut down. I heard the tracks were still in place as of the last 2000s, but not sure if that is still the case.

Z

Back in 1991 I photographed thier little Plymouth #2 stored on what was the old mill site. There was a tag on it saying ot was to be auctioned off (or already was). The next time I was there was in 2000 and all the trackage was still in place.

In 2003 I saw what I'm pretty sure was the old #2 stored on a spur on the Siskiyou Line near Riddle, OR.

Tony J.

All the Union Railroad of Oregon Track is gone except the track at the tail of the wye at the juction with U.P.

That railroad went through a whole lot of nowhere to get to not much of a place.

Actually, I love Eastern Oregon .... but there wasn't any need for the RR once they stopped mining wood in that part of the state.

I worked for the USFS in John Day (north of there) one summer long ago... at that point the RR still ran up to Silvies, up in the woods north of Hines.

dcautley Wrote:
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> That railroad went through a whole lot of nowhere
> to get to not much of a place.
>
> Actually, I love Eastern Oregon .... but there
> wasn't any need for the RR once they stopped
> mining wood in that part of the state.
>
> I worked for the USFS in John Day (north of there)
> one summer long ago... at that point the RR still
> ran up to Silvies, up in the woods north of Hines.

Different RR that died for pretty much the same reasons. You're talking about the Oregon & Northwestern. Owned by Hines Lumber.

They were talking about the Union RR of Oregon, a much shorter line just serving the mill in Union, OR in the Grande Rhonde Valley.

Best regards,

Rob L.

Everything you'd ever want to know about the Union Railroad of Oregon:

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

Skonk Wrote:
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> All the Union Railroad of Oregon Track is gone
> except the track at the tail of the wye at the
> juction with U.P.

Actually around 2+ miles of track still remains. It's buried in the brush and really hard to see. The portion from the edge of town and the remains of the yard to the UP still exist fully intact. The section between the edge of town and the mill, which appeared to be mostly in street track, was removed.

Here's some photos taken last fall. Lucky for us, they mowed recently when we were there.

It's not a lot of track, but if you had a speeder or a small lokie, it could make for a fun afternoon of running back and forth. Too bad nobody can use it. But then if not for the brush, it probably would have been scrapped out a line time ago. Otherwise, out of sight, out of mind.

Brian McCamish
Oregon Pacific Railroad
http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/14/10 01:00 by Brian894x4.

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Brian, You could find - and document - a stretch of rail under 4 feet of mud and downed trees!

Thanks for the history lesson!