This is my first post here so bear with me: I recently retired from the construction and timber industry, though after serving in Vietnam, spent my GI Bill on an education in journalism. I'm now doing some freelance writing, including putting together some stories of my late Dad's tales of working as a brakeman out of the Eugene, Oregon yard, riding freights over the Willamette Pass and back.
He often told of the large articulated Locomotives used climb the mountains, but with his passing, I'm lacking some details of Locomotive type or even whether the Union Pacific, Southern Pacific or Northern Pacific was his employer.
I hope to write of some of his exploits of that time, possibly for "Classic Trains" magazine if they'll have me, but I need some factual details..... (I try to keep my lies and tall tales to a minimum)....and would appreciate your help.
Meanwhile, in Coos Bay, near where I live, groups of volunteers continue to devote endless hours to the restoration of a 1922 Baldwin 2-8-2 that was used to transport logs from woods to mills here, from 1923 thru 1956.
A website describing their efforts is www.orcorail.org
Thank you!
Common power for this district was the 2-10-2 or deck in Southern Pacific parlance, articulated cab forward locomotives (unique to the SP) were restricted to operations between Ashland and Eugene, steep grades (exceeding 3%)and tight curvature south over the Siskiyous into California deprived the crownsheets of these cab forwards of water, and one was implicated in a tunnel cave-in when it pulled the timber lining down due to inadquate clearence. SP was the sole operator at Eugene, SP had a infrequently used interchange at Klamath Falls with the Great Northern on the Natron Cutoff which reduced the Siskiyou route to a backwater operation when opened in 1929, it was designed with moderate grades and had specific helper districts as required but with no restrictions on motive power assignments and a more generous profile for curves..
It might be noted that personal assigned to the Siskiyou crossing were some of the best in the industry, delivering safe, efficient operations in spite of weather, landslides, washouts, snow or terrain conditions year in-year out, always expensive to operate and maintain, SP devested the line to private ownership in the eighties.
Dave
Dave;
Thanks so much for your information....like what happens so often is that details such as you provided create a trail for more research, once one has the nomenclature handy. I was able to dig up all kinds of train info and photos last night, thanks to your reply.
The line that came over the Siskiyous ran through the town where I grew up south of Eugene (Creswell). It was pretty active in the 50's when I was a kid and the crossing in Creswell, which was guarded only by those wig-wag signals, was the site of some pretty horrific fatal vehicle/train collisions. I was in the back seat of my Grandfather's car one day when he crossed the tracks right in front of a train doing probably 50 mph. I remember looking up at the front of the locomotive as we squeaked by by mere inches....gave me a fear of trains for a long time! (And a reluctance to ride with Grandad!)
Dad was on the run that went over the Willamette pass and he described the locomotives as articulated Mallets....they were pretty massive....not Big Boys, but I don't know that they were cab-forwards. Dad was with the railroad from 1940 'till he joined the Navy and the War in 1943.
I may have some old photos of Dad's train days and if I can dig them out, I'll share them here; I seem to recall some locomotive photos, taken on the Pass during a snow storm. In the SP Yard in Oakridge, they used to keep a big rotary plow parked in site of the highway....pretty mean-looking machine!
SP did borrow some UP 2-8-8-0's in 1947 for use on the Shasta Division during a critical motive power shortage, they were put to good use mainly on the Weed local and in helper service. Of SP's 280 or so articulated locomotives less then a dozen or so were of rear cab design and they were confined to lines outside of California and Oregon in the forties, your dad no doubt operated the cab forwards which were produced in the 2-6-6-2 (later rebuilt to 4-6-6-2) 2-8-8-2 and 4-8-8-2 wheel arraignments. Although the term Mallet remained in common use, in truth they were simple articulateds and not Mallets in the true design sense.
SP also maintained a fire fghting train at Oakridge as per Department of Forestry regulations for many years in addition to a rotary and support equiptment such as flangers/spreaders, it once bosted a complete wye to turn helpers and assorted maintaince of way equiptment.
I would reccommed "Rails in the shadow of Mount Shasta" as a good starting point for more details. long out of print, you might locate a copy online or through a used book retailer.
Picture of the Eugene yard in 1943
http://spcascades.railfan.net/photos/DILL/272B.jpg
Eugene roundhouse
http://spcascades.railfan.net/photos/DILL/259.jpg
Cab-forward on the Eugene turntable
http://spcascades.railfan.net/photos/DILL/246-4225.jpg
A few more Eugene pics at Peter J. McClosky's SP
http://www.sphts.org/pmcclosky/spwebresources.html
Your grandfather was crazy. Hope you didn't inherit that eugene.
Mike
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