The Modoc line is entering a new era. After suffering decades of defered maintainance, discontinuance as a through route has and being operated by a succession of operators plagued with derailments, poor financials and low traffic levels, is entering a new chapter in it's colorfull history. Recently UP has been sinking big money into this line that miraculously has avoided the grim reaper time and time again. No, it is not being re-built as a trrough route, but what is left of it (150 miles between Lakeview Or.; Alturas, Ca.; and Klamath Falls Or.) seems to be rising like a Pheonix.
HOW IT CAME TO BE (a brief early history)What became known as the Modoc line never should have existed in the first place. It evolved from a narrow guage line from Reno,Nv. to the frontier wastelands of northeastern California, Barely entering Oregon. It took some 30 years to build to that point (Lakeview) and before it was even compleet, both the Southern Pacific (CP at the time) and the Western pacific were encroaching on it's southern territory. The Nevada California & Oregon (NCO) intended to reach the Columbia river and connect with the UP's OSL but stalled out in Lakeview. With the exception of a few years in the teens it was never profitable. With outright abandonment denied before the 20's and no real traffic or potential for future traffic things looked bleak. That should have been the end, but it continued to limp along. Eventually it did get to abandon the southern end when SP built the Westwood branch and was able to sell many miles to the Western Pacific to use as there Reno branch.
Meanwhile the Southern Pacific had long desired a shortcut from Oregon to the overland route. What would become the Westwood branch from Fernley,Nv. to the vast timber holdings of the Red River Lumber company around Westwood was thought to be the beginning of that shortcut, but it was not to be. After EH Harriman gained controll of the SP (CP) it seemed the shortcut would be a moot point as Union Pacific already had a direct line to Oregon (Harriman planned on a shortcut to southern Oregon from Boise,Id. through Burns,Bend and over Santium pass). Then all plans stalled out as SP faced well over a decade of anti-trust litigation to seperate UP and SP interests, then to seperate CP from SP. Herriman was forced to divest the SP from the UP. The SP was not forced to seperate from the Central Pacific (SP's portion of the original transcontinental), although the Santa Margurita Agreement did force SP to solicit traffic for the Overland route rather then for their longer haul on the Sunset route. This made a shortcut even more desireable.
With all that setteled it was time to move on. The Natron was compleated (stalled out in Klamath Falls since the beginning of the litigation) and the Oregon shortcut was needed. The original plan was to build a line north directly between Klamath Falls and Westwood to complete the route but Jim Hill had set his sights on invading California from the north and that was his route (This is now the BNSF inside gateway route).
Instead SP decided to buy the remaining NCO and standard guage it, Then build 90 miles of new line (original Modoc Northern) from the NCO in Alturas to Klamath Falls, Thus compleeting a through route that avoided the major grades of Shasta and Donner. Thus was born the Modoc Line (named after the main county it traversed and before that the Modoc Indians) in 1929.
SP OPERATIONSThe timing was bad. Not only was it the last peice of the western transcon puzzle but it was completed just before the great depression. The beginning saw very little traffic and passenger service was gone before it's first decade (30's) ended. Large mills (and logging lines) were built simultaniously to feed local traffic to the line were never to be used. But during WWII thing began to pick up and vast amounts of lumber poured over the line from Oregon (as well as from the Lakeview branck) to points east. By the late 50's and early 60's there was so much traffic that there were plans to install CTC but that never happened and by the end of the 60's the glory years were already over. SP started to re-trench. The southern 60 miles were bypassed with track rights on the WP between Flannigan and Winnemucca, Nv.. Diesels had rendered steam facilities obsolete and 2 crew districts became one. But into the 70' the Modoc still saw 3-4 long heavy eastbound lumber drags every day of which all required helpers (westbounds were always outnumbered by eastbounds by about 3 to 1).
By the time the 80' rolled around lumber traffic had declined to the point that the SP filed to abandon the Lakeview branch between Alturas and Lakeview. Still good for a 20 car daily local, trucks were siphoning off what was left and deffered maint was taking it's toll. Though the mainline still saw 2-3 trains a day, the writing on the wall said it's days were numbered too and the Suthern Pacific's very existance came into question. The failed SPSF merger seemed like the last hope and when it was denied through traffic came to a halt. The center 90 miles between Alturas and Wendel (jct. of the Susanville branch,original Westwood line) was embargoed. Crossing gates were removed, defect detecters deactivated and even a road crossing or two paved over. Fortunatly Lake county depended heavily on the railroad to transport there lumber products. With several sawmills still shipping wood chips and finished lumber, loosing the railroad was not acceptable. Through Oregon state funding they were able to purchase the track in Oregon and lease the track in California from the SP. Thus a portion of lhe line was saved (barely). The Great Western railroad (of Loveland, Co.) began operating between Lakeview and Alturas while SP continued to run a bi-weekly train down from Klamath Falls to exchange cars with the GW (mostley wood chips).
Enter the Denver and Rio Grande Western. When DRGW bought the SP from the SPSF corp. They had big plans for the Modoc line and one of their first moves was to re-open the Modoc as a through route. They had plans to use the port of Coos Bay, Or. as an export outlet for coal destined to Pacific Rim countries. They also intended to compete on some level with UP for intermodal traffic to the Pacific Northwest. The Modoc would have been key for both plans. Intermodal did run in the DRGW era but never more then a couple dozen trailers tacked on to the end of manifest trains. The Coos Bay bulk port never came to be, and the few coal trains that did run (to were I'm not sure) just beat the hell out of the track. As the reality of it all set in the Modoc's future again became questionable.
Not even a decade after the DRGW re-opend the Modoc, the SP was merged into the UP. The UP didn't know what to do with the line. It served as a re-route for several weeks in the winter of 97' as California got pummeled with bad weather and other routes were disrupted. It also saw many loads of pipe for a pipeline project (I'm not sure where but not related to the one mentioned below). Beyond that , most of the traffic left could be re-routed on superior routes that were not as costly to maintain. Again the middle section of the Modoc was embargoed, then abandoned. The tracks were pulled up between McAurther (8 miles south of Alturas) and Flannigan (exWP connection) in the mid 2000s.
BACK TO THE NORTHERN ENDWhen Up abandoned the Modoc as a through route that should have been the end in my opinion. What was the Lakeview branch was still hauling wood chips. Great Western would bring them to Alturas and meet the UP Copic local from Klamath Falls once a week. Most of the mills shipped the finished wood products by truck to a re-load in Klamath Falls. But how long could a 150 mile branch that only hauled about 1500 cars a year last? Great Western was loosing interest in operating it's portion of the line and UP lost interest in all but the traffic on the north end through the Tulelake basin (about 30 miles worth) and even that was barely worth it without the Beet traffic. Even Lake county was ready to give it up. Two things changed that though.With a 'use it or loose it' directive the mills started shipping finished lumber again and Cornerstone Minerals started shipping Perilite from a re-load in Lakeview.
Traffic started growing again and soon the perilite loads outnumbered the lumber traffic (both chips and finished). By the turn of the century the weekly train was exchanging well above 50 cars a week. UP ,as expected, was rapidly loosing interest in marginal branchlines altogether, and Great Western had no interest in taking over the whole line. In the mid 2000s the new Modoc Northern took over operations of the whole line and based their operations in Tulelake, Ca.Modoc Northern inherited a line that had long suffered defered maintainance though, and it was quickly catching up. They tried to make a go of it though and aquired some 1st generation locomotives painted in a uniform sharp green with yellow striped livery and even a fresh painted caboose to match. Plagued with derailments and low revenus. things did not go well. Eventually (2009 I think) UP pulled the plug. in the end they could not even pay their phone bill let alone their fuel bill.
After that things changed again. A new operator took over (Frontier Rail I believe) operating under the name Lake County Railway, and UP took back over the northern end in the Tulelake Basin. The interchange was moved to Perez. Two newer locomotives (exAlaska RR GP49-2s) were brought in and the old rattletraps went away. shortley after that a construction base was set up in Lakeview for the Ruby mountain pipeline project (Wy. to Or.) and many loads of pipe were delivered by the railroad. The revenue from that allowed them to invest in track repairs. With that and grant money the tracks were fixed up enough that derailments became rare. But later customers became dissatisfied with Frontier and the line faced abandonment once again.
Enter Goose Lake Railway (a Cornerstone Co.?) a new company. They took over operations and brought in their own locomotives (sharp looking red HLCX leasing GP38-2s). Other then that, things seemed about the same. Once a week they would run through Alturas, from Lakeview one day and back a couple days later (tue & fri usually) hauling finished lumber, woodchips and perilite in 20-35 car trains.
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RECENTLY:Red Rock Biofuels is building a plant in Lakeview. This plant will not be like a typical midwestern cornfed plant. It is a different process that will convert biomass to fuel. It will be run on forrest waste like trees from forrest fires and sawmill waste (woodchips). It will ship an estimated 10 cars of biofuel per week. They estimated a start date of april, but I have not seen anything shipped out yet (probably because of covid-19).
Since the beginning of the year this line has been a behive of activity. Decades of defered maintainance is vanishing before my eyes.In January the interchange point changed to Alturas and the UP now comes down on fri or sat to meet the Goose Lake RR. Ties are being replaced by the trainload. Bridges are being repaired / rebuilt. Surfacing gangs have been repairing & leveling rail to standards this line has not seen since the heyday of SP. Trainloads of balast has been brought in and miles and miles of track looks like new (although still jointed). Where trains could barely do the allowed 10 mph the track is now good for 25 mph or more. The old yard office (not used in years) has been leveled and a new foundation is being installed for either a new building or a office trailer. The paper says several grade crossings in town will be replaced very soon also (the highway crossings were replaced a few years back). I believe the track detectors and the mountaintop PBX repeater have been reactivated too.
For a line that never should have been built, and seemed to have seen the end at several points in time, the future looks as bright as it has since the post war years........we'll see.
NOTE: All this is from memory. I take all responsibility for errors.
Tanks, I always wondered what appened to this line. Also the Rio Grande plan was a revelaton to me.
Thanks, Chad. There has been very little on the Modoc line in recent years.
For a while, there was a through Pullman from Chicago to Portland on this line, running between Fernley and Klamath Falls during the day. It is shown in the January, 1930, issue of the Guide.
Johnny
Deggesty Thanks, Chad. There has been very little on the Modoc line in recent years. For a while, there was a through Pullman from Chicago to Portland on this line, running between Fernley and Klamath Falls during the day. It is shown in the January, 1930, issue of the Guide.
The Coos Bay line was for a time subject to stories and and the odd photos. The same fate seemed to have befallen the Modoc line [shortcut?]. Appreciate the update.
Hope you are doing ok? I recall that you had mentioned some health issues.
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