Railroaders' Nostalgia > From on high - no drones involved

Although this is a look back, it doesn't look very different from today.
We walked the trail to the top of Bald Hill west of Corvallis on July 28, 1999, and waited for the daily Toledo Hauler. Back then, it was on duty at noon every day and made the round trip in twelve hours or less...unless the engineer was dragging feet, which they didn't back then. There was a mood of 'get it over the road' back then, to the point that we'd often see better than 30 mph on the section in these photos, at least once you pulled the train out the the dip east of Larson and over the little hump west of there. Once the rear of the train was clear of the curve off 6th Street and the head end was at 35th street, it was run 8, let's get going! I remember gliding down the hill into Philomath with the speedo resting on 35, getting ready to go into dynamics to slow a bit through town and then down to 20 just west of Flynn. The good old days!
And that reminds me of a story:  I got my student engineer card in November, 1996, 6 months after being hired.  Our RFE Ken Nichols handed it to me when he relieved us on the Westsider just north of Corvallis Junction.  With card (and hope) in hand, I asked if I could get some running time with him on that train, both of us knowing I was dead-on-the-hours in an hour or so, to which he kindly agreed.  The track was bulletined for 30 mph with one hill, Parker Hill, just south in Independence.  The train was fairly heavy, with three engines and 32 loads of scrap metal for the steel mill behind us, along with a mess of other cars. Coming up Parker Hill, Ken asked if I was going to use air or dynamics down the hill and I chose DB.  Cresting the hill and feeling the train tip over the top and start shoving, I was in dynamics, watching the speed inch up.  It stabilized at 38 mph, with me getting a bit worried but Ken calmly said, "It'll slow down."  I remember that moment well, more than twenty-eight years ago, at the beginning of my 21 years and 10 months with our wooden axle railroad. The better part is that I still see Ken now and then since he retired. He stepped out of management and ran the commuter rail until he retired, during which he was our Division 416 President and I was either Alternate S/T or S/T.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/25 20:29 by roustabout.

---

---

---

"The good old days".

Outbound through Corvallis about 1 PM, and usually back by 11 PM or thereabout. There was a 2nd job (don't know the name) that ran to Philomath, I think, and picked up the cars out of the Corvallis yard on the way back from there. It ran a little before the Hauler came back. I lived at 7th and Adams at the time in bachelor programmer (and foamer) heaven. In the mid to late 70's the SP ran seven SD-9's on this train. A couple of other options were tried, but always seemed to come back to the original plan.

I also remember that the posted speed on the west side just north of Corvallis was 40 mph. Now 25.

-dc

Great views and backstory, Lou.   Thanks!

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ