Northbound Cab Ride

On a lovely fall day, Model Railroad News publisher Mike Lindsay and I caught the train headed north. It normally runs at night, but summer fire conditions forced it to run by day. We head north on the mainline to pick up the north end of our train which has been assembled beyond the overpass. We have five GP38 units to do the job and face some 2.2% grades with a 2500 ton train.

Three GP38s remain behind to do the local work. The nice thing about the GP38 is their versatility. With a 2,000 hp normally-aspirated engine, they aren't as demanding about maintenance, but they go into lashups of almost any number until they break the drawbar coupler!

Today, we would be taking one of the units north to be transferred to the maintenance facility in Roseburg, Oregon, the location of CORP's central offices. The Medford office is the humble, white, metal building just in front of the overpass. The large metal buildings to the right are part of a wood products company next door.

Mike and I have been assigned to ride in the second loco in the lashup because all three seats in the cab are taken, two by the regular train crew and the third by a new employee out for his first CORP ride.

This is our train that we are passing from the south. It's a fine mix of empties and loads, lumber products, mineral products, and general freight. The tank cars are HazMat rated but I don't suppose I knew what they contained.

Headed south over the Siskiyous, a GP38 is rated for 500 tons of train each. Roughly the same number is applied going north, even if the railroading is some easier. Medford is seeing more railroad freight traffic under CORP than it did during the last twenty years of SP's operations. CORP is a division of RailAmerica and is quite aggressive about rounding up shipping to haul.

When CORP first took over the trackage, they had numerous derailments related to the neglect suffered during the last two decades of Southern Pacific maintenance. Since then, CORP has progressively improved and modernized the track. Many areas that were barely certifiable as being Category 1 track (10 mph freight, 15 passenger) have been upgraded to Category 2, (25 mph freight, 30 passenger.)

The run north send us through much more densely populated areas, requiring extra vigilance on the part of train crews. I was unable to get a successful shot of one, but there are three grade crossings protected by the old "wig-wag" signals. CORP is also home to a declining number of semaphore signals.

This interesting old character is a Baldwin S-8 diesel switcher, once the pride and joy of the Medford Logging Railroad, a division of Medco Corporation. She's the only Baldwin switcher ever built with dynamic brakes (notice the hump just in front of the cab). This Baldwin was #8 on Medco's roster until they ended railroad logging operations in 1959. She worked sporadically down at the Medford sawmill until she was sold to the Magma Arizona mining operation.

The Southern Oregon Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (SOC-NRHS) purchased the loco from Magma in July 1995 and she finally found her way home to Medford on July 11, 1997. I am proud to belong to the Chapter and look forward to the day when we can use her to pull excursion traffic.

Coupled to the 8-Spot is one of two donated U.S. Army boxcars. The Chapter is also in the process of restoring Medco's 4-Spot, a 1923 Willamette geared steam locomotive. It is very much like a Shay (only better!) and is listed as a Class C, 70 ton unit. Medco's #3 is a Baldwin 2-8-2 and survives on the California Western RR. #7, another Willamette, is preserved on display at Railroad Park just south of Dunsmuir, California. Of eight locos to work for Medco, half survive and two of them are currently operational while another is just a few years away from joining them.

On a back check, I not only found our train back there, but also the Gold Ray Dam across the Rogue River and Table Rock behind it. The scenery that day was just beautiful. Fall was in the air and the trees were turning colors. It wasn't the blazing reds of New Hampshire, but greens and blues were mixed with bright yellows as the air was filled with the spicy smell of turning leaves.

This stretch of rail line goes back to the 1870s when the Oregon & California RR built south from the Willamette Valley and the state capital of Salem, OR. This was hard, rugged railroading that brought the builders to the edge of bankruptcy. To make the line really pay off, it needed to connect with the California & Oregon RR at the city of Ashland, OR in 1884.

The O&C arrived on time while the C&O was purchased by the Central Pacific RR. At that same time, the Great Northern was being built into Portland, OR and Union Pacific was trying to establish a link from Utah into Portland. Charles Crocker of the CP made an incredible gamble. He came north and told the stockholders of the O&C that there was no workable route from Weed over to Ashland and then he offered to buy them out for 10¢ on the dollar. Enough of them panicked and sold that he wound up owning the O&C, hustling to finish the line by July 1887. As a result of the railroad into the Rogue Valley, suddenly timber and fruit could be shipped to Eastern markets, and the real estate rush on the Rogue Valley began.

On the left, we approach the bridge across the Rogue River leading into the little town of Gold Hill. This combination trestle/span would be fun to model. Right, engine crew member Jim Armstrong comes forward after an inspection of the locos behind. Running trains in this country is a lot like work! All members of the crew are extremely safety conscious, a trait we appreciate!

Entrance to Tunnel 16 looms before us. This is not a shortcut through some geological fold in the blanket that could be daylighted if times got rough, #16 plunged right through the hillside and comes out in a completely different valley. Mike Lindsay leans out the cab window, enjoying the day as much as I.

Me and my shadow! That's not the side of a hill; that's the floor of the valley about 150 feet below. In the lower left-hand corner, you can see a telephone pole reaching up for us. Original O&C crossing here was a wooden trestle, later replaced by this steel structure. Tunnels, trestles, rock slides, frost heaves, and grades steeper than 2% all provide job security to the Maintenance of Way division.

You sense the pride in the people that work for CORP; they are the biggest railroad in the area and they aim to do it right. A run like this is a real pleasure on a day like this; it becomes something else on a cold, snowy night in December with the wind blowing and rocks bouncing down on the tracks.

We saw quite a bit of wild life along the way, mostly deer. Trees reach out to touch us on both sides and nature is never very far away. I feel that our passage at 25 mph moves the most freight with the least intrusion into the forestland on each side.

Our trip will take about four hours to go from Medford to Glendale and, after about an hour to switch trains, another four or so coming home. It makes for a nine hour day and the shadow says it's about 1:30 with a lot of day left to go.

We approach Tunnel 17, another valley puncher. We sneak up on it, around a corner. This is a longer tunnel, and there is an upgrade through it, keeping those 2,000 pony diesels throbbing! The second shot shows just how close we are to the roof and walls of the tunnel. There really isn't any room for a person to stand in the tunnel while the train passes through. That means hiking through tunnels is an extremely dangerous gamble.

Slugmotther #4000 and her slugson slide by as we pull into Glendale. We leave our drawbar GP38 connected to the the Northbound and slip down to take the Southbound which has a replacement unit coupled to it. #1 going up will be #4 going home. We, who were #2 going up, will be #3 on the way home. #4 going up will be #1 going home, and it has dynamic brake problems, so the crew spends some time fooling around with it.

Meanwhile, the Slug family hooks up to our old #5 and they head north to Roseburg while we all turn out to check them over, looking for anything hanging down or not working properly. Slugs are a good choice for CORP service, since they are fairly useless above 25 mph but nothing on CORP ever exceeds that speed. #4000 is a GP40, having 3,000 hp and plenty of surplus juice to share with the slug. This is not territory for six-axle diesels, since they tend to spread the rails on tight curves. I'm only surprised that CORP doesn't use more slugs.

Glendale seems to be a nice little town, snuggled into the hills of the Umqua Mountains which separate the Rogue Valley from the Umpqua Valley. Like the Rogue, the Umpqua River is known for fine salmon fishing. The area abounds with wood products industry and some shipping originates from Glendale.

Guess what railroad originally owned this GP38? I sat on this Norfolk Southern logo for several hours before my backside had polished it sufficiently for photographs.

The same trestle that gave us a nice shadow going up gives us this view coming home. In early October before the rains of Autumn, this little pool is all that is left of the stream. By midWinter, this becomes a roiling, brown torrent rushing away to the Umpqua River.

The low angle rays of the setting sun provide dynamic lighting for this shot of the Rogue River, between Grants Pass and the town of Rogue River. In another ten minutes, the sun will have broken over the hills and photography will be over with for the day.

Mike got off in Merlin, home for both the Lindsay clan and Model Railroad News, so I have the cab to myself. The engines aren't working particularly hard, the air is sparkling fresh, and I am at complete ease. A cab ride is not like riding in a passenger coach. First of all, the ride is not as smooth. Second, the accommodations are much more utilitarian. Third, locomotive cabs are rarely clean. I came home looking like a raccoon!

So my hat is off to the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad and its parent company, RailAmerica. Thank you for a wonderful day!