Nostalgia & History > Oregon Truck train ready to depart Vancouver B yard 1972

Ready to depart the B yard in Vancouver in 1972

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Great-looking lashup.
Bob

Oregon Trunk. 

The best looking ALCOs west of Chicago IMHO.
—Mac

Given all four-wheel power, is it possible this is a mainline (Pasco) train?

Bob Willer

Nice! Four-axle Centuries were common on the OT/Inside Gateway in '72. I have train registers from Bieber that might go to that date with that power set I could check if anyone cares. In pre-merger years they crews listed all units in a consist but not so much after the merger so may or not be listed for this train.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/22 21:09 by trackplanner.

OSWishram Wrote:
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> Given all four-wheel power, is it possible this is
> a mainline (Pasco) train?
>
> Bob Willer

Definetly bound for the Oregon Trunk. A Pasco train could easily make it with just a couple of the four motor centuries. The SP&S often ran them often in this configuration between Portland and Pasco. Coming east with mostly empties they could handle 100+ car trains. Too bad the C636's weren't as reliable as the 424's and 5's. I think every story I ever heard of an alco laying down involved a "4300". The little guys had a long life and a handful survive today.

OSWishram Wrote:
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> Given all four-wheel power, is it possible this is
> a mainline (Pasco) train?
>

The Vancouver "B" Yard was exclusively for trains to/from the Oregon Trunk. It had been built by GN to interchange traffic to/from the SP&S, which bridged the GN traffic in "contract trains" between Vancouver and Bend. BN continued the practice of using the "B" Yard for the trains to/from the Oregon Trunk, using the yard mostly for blocking southbound trains.

Best regards,

Rob L.