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To Winterail 2017 3/16/2017

I decided to put on a Pre-Winterail trip on the Albany & Eastern Railroad and would be the first trip I have ever organized. I contacted the railroad and worked with Rose to put together a trip from Lebanon to Sweethome on the old Oregon & Electric Railroad. I asked Bart Jennings to put it up on the Mileage Board then I posted it on Trainorders.com, Altamont Press Discussion Board and the Railroad Forum. Vic Neves then put it up on the Winterail homepage and tickets sales started to come in. I needed 60 pasasengers to break even and by the end of February, I had made it thanks to myself and two other riders buying four extra tickets each. Bob and Elizabeth had planned to take Amtrak to Portland but mudslides forced them to drive and would pick us up at the Portland Airport instead of me renting a car this year. Chris Parker was having ear problems and would not know until the morning of the trip if he was coming. He sent me an e-mail at 3:34 AM letting me know he was not able to make it which broke his string of attending Winterail consecutively since 2006. At least I was ready to go!

3/16/17I got up at 4:30 AM, shaved then fixed my breakfast, checked the e-mail which is when I learned officially that Chris Parker was not coming. I also had to deal with more people wanting tickets. Why do people wait until the last minute before a trip to try to get tickets? They are very lucky I am such a nice human being. My mother, who I awoke at 5:40, then drove me to John Wayne Airport where I went through TSA pre-check security without any problems. My number for boarding the plane was A2, so I had a good window seat and then a gentleman with some very interesting tattoos sat next to me for the flight to San Jose.

This would be a quick flight. We departed on time heading straight to the runway and took off into a sky that surprisingly had no fog this morning. We flew north and had clear views until we got to about Gilroy where the clouds took over. We descended through these clouds and landed at San Jose where I had to go from Gate 25 to 19 which was not bad. I called Elizabeth to let her know that the pilot knew the way to San Jose and to find out where she was. She and Bob were in Olympia so our connection in Portland was looking quite promising. I had an interesting talk with a gate agent about hockey, alcoholism and other things until I was boarded, taking the same seat I had on the other plane.

This flight started out rather weirdly as we circled twice over the same region to gain height then went east over Altamont Pass before heading directly north toward Portland. I saw all the railroads in California and Mount Lassen, but not Mount Shasta as it was shrouded in clouds. Once in Oregon, I saw my favorite cinder cone and had a view of Crater Lake before the clouds came over and stole it from me, then it was only the peaks with the sun peeking out from over them. We descended out of the clouds into Portland, where once on the ground, I called Elizabeth to find out where they were so they could meet me down on the arrival level. Bob and Elizabeth pulled up and I loaded my stuff in the back seat of their car and we were off.

We left the airport and headed out to I-84 where we quickly all realized people in Oregon do not know how to drive in dry weather. The traffic was backed up as they were clearing an accident and then there was even a man standing in the middle of the freeway talking on his cell phone, probably wondering why he was there. We got by the accident site but the traffic continued to crawl. It was not until three miles later that we noticed there was a lane closed and a big truck that all these Oregonites had to gawk at. From here we made excellent time the rest of the way to Hillsboro, our first stop of this trip.

The Hillsboro Southern Pacfic station. We left Hillsboro and started toward Forest Grove, saw a great-looking railroad trestle and said that we wished we could photograph a train on it. It was at this time that we saw a local heading from Hillsboro to the end of the line at Stimson. We quickly stopped at the grade crossing on SW 345th Street to catch the train.

The train passed by our location with Willamette and Pacific GP39-2 2301 "Sheridan" (originally Santa Fe 3600) as the power for the train. From here we went west on Oregon 8 to Forest Grove. After I remembered where the depot was on Google Earth, we found it and Elizabeth and I went to take pictures of it.

The Forest Grove Oregon Electric station. From here we drove south to Carlton.

The Southern Pacific Carlton station, now the Ken Wright Cellars Tasting Room winery.

The surprise wig-wag at Carlton. We next headed to McMinnville.

The McMinnville Southern Pacific station. From here we headed toward Perryvale Road south of Amity but we first stopped when we were on Bethel Road for our next pictures.

The Oregon Electric sub-station building, built in 1916, still stands on McCoy Lane off Bethel Road.

A surprise grain elevator in Oregon. I had never seen one in the Willamette Valley before and it seemed as though it was a scene out of Kansas. Was I in the Wizard of Oz? We then drove to Perryvale Road where there was supposed to be a Southern Pacific depot but in reality there is not one. Sometimes all my good planning goes to waste. We continued on over to Albany taking a very unique route where we actually went down a street called Parker. I called Chris Parker while we were on it but it went to voicemail. We took this unique route so we could cross the Willamette River, where if we would have been able to use the closed ferry, we could have reached I-5, but with the ferry being closed, we had to get back to Highway 20 to reach Albany, which led us almost straight to the Amtrak station. We were able to see a couple of trains so sometimes luck is with us.

The Albany Amtrak station built in 1908.

The southbound Coast Starlight Train 11 making its station stop here.

A few minutes later came Amtrak Cascades 508 which Julie (Amtrak's automated agent) said had a service disruption. We drove to the other side of the yard to see what the Willamette and Pacific had in town.

Portland and Western GP40-2 3001 "Wilsonville", originally Norfolk and Western GP40 1377.

Portland and Western RP-E4D slug 101, originally Norfolk and Western GP18 945.

Willamette and Pacific GP39-2 2313, originally Santa Fe 3612.

Willamette and Pacific GP9E 1801, originally Southern Pacific 5830, in Southern Pacific's Black Widow colors. From Albany we drove into Lebanon and when we came to the first grade crossing, the gates were on so we quickly made a U-turn and went to a grade crossing and beat the train to it.

Albany and Eastern freight train with GP38-3 2001 (originally nee Illinois Central 9502) pulling the train back from Sweethome, the destination of tomorrow's trip. From here we went over to the starting point of that trip, the Lebanon Southern Pacific station. We duly noted the Oregon Electric Burlington Northern signpost signifying this was once the Oregon and Electric's railroad to Sweethome.

The Southern Pacific station built in 1908. Afterwards we drove to the railroad's headquarters on Industrial Way to see if anyone was there and finally called the phone number, reaching the operator who informed me they closed at 3:00 PM.

Albany and Eastern B40-8 1841, originally St. Louis-Southwern 8041.

Albany and Eastern B40-8 1807 (originally Southern Pacific B39-8 8007) and Albany and Eastern SD9R 5399, originally Southern Pacific 5399. From here we checked to the Shanico Inn where once in my room, I labelled all the pictures then Bob, Elizabeth and I went to the Appletree Restaurant and I had an excellent twelve ounce steak. It had been a great way to start off a Winterail weekend. Back at the room, Elizabeth typed the story for me while I dictated and we watched some Disney Channel while we did this for a few cheap laughs. Tomorrow, the first excursion I have ever put together in my life will finally happen. I could not wait.

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