Elizabeth and I slept in at the Days Inn in Newport and after morning preparations, we checked out and went to the Pancake Mill Restaurant. As we left town I spotted a train so we turned off the highway, went down the hill and parked.
Here before us was a Coos Bay Rail Line train.
Coos Bay Rail Line GP38-3 1916, ex. JLCX GP35 3510, exx. Northern Plains Railroad 3510, exxx. Great Smoky Mountians 210; nee Norfolk and Western 210 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1963.
Coos Bay Rail Line MP15DC 1869, ex. Union Pacific Yard 1324, nee Chicago and North Western 1311, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1969.
The power set went north with the conductor hanging on.
The train was pulling empty log cars. We left North Bend and saw a sign for Umpqua River lighthouse so we turned off US Highway 101 and followed the road down to a parking lot.
Umpqua River lighthouse inland from the Pacific Ocean.
The sign board for the lighthouse. From here we returned to US Highway 101 and took this the rest of way to Reedsport.
Southern Pacific Reedsport station. From here I drove us to Gardiner.
Longview, Portland and Northern Gardiner station.
As we drove north on Highway 101, we found this coach, which is ex. San Pedro & Southwestern 2692 "Cochise Stronghold", exx. Oregon, Pacific and Eastern 2992, exxx. Black Hills Central 2692, nee Illinois Central 3665 built by Pullman in 1918. This was the surprise of our day.
In Florence is the Southern Pacific station from Mapleton which is the Waterfront Depot Restaurant.
The US Highway 101 bridge across the Suislaw River. I then took US Highway 101 and went east on Oregon Highway 126 out to the Wildcat Covered Bridge.
Wildcat Covered Bridge built in 1925. I then drove Oregon Highway 132 to Territorial Highway south to Coyote Creek Road to the bridge.
Coyote Creek Covered Bridge built in 1922. Elizabeth drove Territorial Highway north to Oregon Highway 132 west to Nelson Mountain Road to the bridge.
Lake Creek Covered Bridge is also known as the Nelson Mountain Covered Bridge and was built in 1928. From here we took Oregon Highway 36 to Deadman Creek Road to Deadman Covered Bridge Road.
Deadman Covered Bridge built in 1932.
Moss growing on the trees here. I returned us to Oregon Highway 36 to Oregon Highway 132 to US 101 to Newport through the rain. We had dinner at Flashbacks Fountain and Grill before we checked into the Day Inn for the night.
3/15/2022 After I showered and shaved, Elizabeth and I checked the Internet before we checked out and went to the Pig and Pancake Restaurant for breakfast. I then us north up US Highway 101 past a detour sign to our first stop of the day in Garibaldi.
Rayonier Forest Products 2-8-2 90 built by Baldwin in 1926 as Polson Logging Company 90. In 1891, Nova Scotian immigrant Alex Polson joined with his brother Robert to start the Polson Brothers Logging Company. By 1900, they were well established, with a short stretch of railroad to the north of Hoquiam and a log dump on the Middle Fork of the Hoquiam River. By 1910, the company had expanded and was widely recognised as the largest logging operation in the world. Its extensive railroad network linking twelve logging and construction camps with more than one hundred miles of track, allowing an annual dump of as much as 300 million board feet of logs into the Hoquiam River for transport to Harbor mills.
When Polson sold their entire operation in 1948 to Rayonier, Incorporated, 90 continued to operate out of Railroad Camp until 1962, when it was sold to the Oregon Memorial Railroad Society. It had been on display in Lumbermans Park since 1963 and was recently acquired by the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad for cosmetic restoration.
Southern Pacific Garabaldi station built in 1936.
Southern Pacific wooden caboose 85, nee Southern Pacific 181.
Spokane, Portland and Seattle coach 215, lettered at one time as Southern Pacific and more recently as Pacific Northwest Lumbermans Railway.
The excursion train was not in use on this date.
Great Northern F7A 274, ex. Pete Replinger 274, exx. Seattle and North Coast 101, exxx. Burlington Northern 610, nee Great Northern 274B built by Electro-Motive Division in 1950. We drove north to almost Wheeler like everyone else before I turned around and took a fourteen mile detour placing us on the other side of the rockslide. I drove us to Astoria before we crosssed the Astoria-Megler bridge into the state of Washington then continued to Seaview on the Long Beach Peninsula.
Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company Seaview station.
The sign of the Seaview station.
The rail mileage on the Seaview station. I then drove us to Long Beach.
Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company Long Beach station.
The sign board on the station, We next headed to Nahcotta.
Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company Nahcotta station. The Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company operated a 3 foot narrow gauge railroad that ran for over forty years from the bar of the Columbia River up the Long Beach Peninsula to Nahcotta, Washington, on Willapa Bay. The line ran entirely in Pacific County, Washington, and had no connection to any outside rail line. The railroad had a number of nicknames, including the "Clamshell Railroad" and the "Irregular, Rambling and Never-Get-There Railroad. The line made connections with steamboats at both ends. From 1894 to 1896, the company also put the naptha launch Iris on the Astoria-Ilwaco run. In 1898, the railroad commissioned the twin-propeller steamer Nahcotta, built in Portland, Oregon in 1898 and after resolving some engine troubles, placed her on the Astoria-Ilwaco run. The last train was run on September 9, 1930.
A railroad timetable on the wall of the depot. On the way back to US Highway 101 we found a surprise.
Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company "Clamshell Railroad" coach N11 in Seaview. It was one of several carbodies sold to Peninsula residents for use as sumnmer cottages when the IR&N was abandoned in 1930. The Union Pacific put "N' prefixes to all the IR&N equipment they inherited so they would not be confused with standard gauge euquipment. Elizabeth took US Highway 101 to South Bend and Raymond where we started following an abandoned rail grade.
Two former Northern Pacific Raymond Branch bridges. Elizabeth drove Washington Highway 6 all the way to Chehalis.
A rainbow on the way to Chehalis.
The Northern Pacific Chehalis station which is the Lewis County Museum. We took Interstate 5 to Harrison Avenue where we checked into the Quality Inn. I watched my Pittsburgh Penguins lose 4-1 to the Nashville Predators. At the first period break, I went to Burgerville for a hambuger and a chocolate shake. Elizabeth had a halibut fish sandwich and lemonade before I arrived. In the evening, I worked on the story and Elizabeth watched a couple of television programs before we called it a night.
3/16/2022 Elizabeth and I slept in again and after checking the Internet, we checked out. Elizabeth drove us over to the Hometown Restaurant for breakfast and then drove south on Interstate 5 through some bumper-to-bumper traffic in Portland, arriving in Albany. We filled the car with petrol before we arrived at the Amtrak station where we found a train.
Amtrak Cascades Train 503 leaving the station for Eugene. Now we waited for the Coast Starlight with Robin Bowers aboard. About forty-five minutes later I heard a horn.
Anmtrak Coast Starlight, Train 14, arrived at Albany with Elizabeth meeting Robin as he stepped off the train. I soon joined them and we walked to our car then re-arranged our luggage so his bag would fit and Elizabeth drove the three of us back north up Interstate 5 to the Keizer exit and our first stop.
Ferrocarril Coahuila y Zacatecas, originally a 4-6-2, and converted to a 4-6-0, 6, built by Baldwin in 1904. The shortline CyZ carried copper ore from the Mazapil mines along a seventy-eight mile right of way from its main yard and shops in Saltillo, Coahuila, to a smelter in Concepcion del Oro, Zacatecas. In the 1970s, the CyZ was absorbed as a Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico branch. The NdeM standard gauged the line and it is still in use today. Within a few years, 6 was converted to a Ten Wheeler (4-6-0) and worked until 1965 when it was sold, along with two 2-8-0s and about a dozen cars, to the Early West Railway in Chino, California, a group hoping to start a tourist excursion railroad in Pomona. It was then displayed at a restaurant in Southern California before being sold privately and placed in storage near Lake Elsinore. It went on display at its current location in the car park of the Keizer Station Shopping Center in 2009.
We visited Target before Elizabeth continued the drive north on Interstate 5 then encountered traffic on Interstate 205 before turning east onto Interstate 84 to the Multnomah Falls exit and parked the car. I wanted one picture of a train and the falls. I did not have to wait long.
The scene without a train.
Union Pacific 7726 East at Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. From here we went to Cascade Locks.
The sign before you walk under the freeway. Next she drove us to Cascade Locks.
Oregon Portage 0-4-0T 1 built by Vulcan Iron Works (San Francisco) named Oregon Pony at Cascade Locks.
The display board about the Oregon Pony. Next stop was Hood River.
Mount Hood Railroad Coach 2968 "Lewis and Clark", nee Long Island Railroad built by Pullman-Standard in 1956.
Former Atlantic Coast Line 54-seat coach 239 built by Pullman-Standard in 1950. It was later acquired by Amtrak and converted to dining/kitchen car 5461. After retirement in 1979, it was sold to the Memphis Transportation Museum in Collierville, Tennessee in 1981 and was acquired in 2012 by Iowa Pacific Railroad.
Union Pacific Hood River station built in 1911. Our final stop of the day was at Cousins Country Inn and after checking in, we received a second floor room in the back building. Robin was in the front building. We had dinner in the restaurant and after doing my Internet, I wrote today's story while Elizabeth did her Internet checking and later, we called it a night.
3/17/2020 Elizabeth and I woke up at the Cousins Country Inn and after we checked the Internet we met Robin at the restaurant where we enjoyed breakfast. After we loaded the car, I drove us to Wishram and we found the steam engine.
Great Northern 4-8-2 2507 built by Baldwin in 1923, retired in 1957 and sold to the Seattle, Portland & Spokane. It was donated to the County of Klickitat and went on display at Maryhill, Washington, in 1966. After an unsuccessful restoration effort at Pasco, Washington, it was repainted in 2002 and moved to its current location in 2003. I drove us west on Washington Highway 14 to the highway viewpoint.
Two views of the Columbia River and Mount Hood. We drove west but got stopped for thirty minutes waiting for the highway to reopen after rockslides. At East Cooks we found the rear of a train.
BNSF DPUs 975 and 5188.
At West Cooks we found BNSF 7176 West.
Canadian Pacific AC4400 9809 built by General Electric in 2004 as the second unit. Our next stop for Robin was at Stevenson and the Columbia River Gorge Interpretive Center.
Spokane, Portland and Seattle F9A 802 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1956 as Northern Pacific 7013D.
The inside of the cab of Spokane, Portland and Seattle F9A 802.
Spokane, Portland and Seattle caboose 701 built by Great Northern. From here I drove through Camas and Interstate 205 all the way to Interstate 5 to the exit for Mt. Angel then drove us there.
Southern Pacific Mt. Angel station built in 1882. The clock tower was added in 1976 to house a clock from Salem City Hall.
The station board at Mt. Angel. From here I drove us to Silverton.
Southern Pacific Silverton station built in 1882. We made our way to Scio.
Southern Pacific West Scio station built in 1882.
Southern Pacific caboose 1167 built by the railroad in 1942.
A wood carving, by Milton Dodge, of a conductor beside the caboose. Next I decided that Robin needed to see some covered bridges.
A rebuilt Shimanek Bridge crossing Thomas Creek built in 1966. The original bridge was built in 1861 and there have been five bridges on this site. The Columbus Day storm of 1962 destroyed the previous one.
Hoffman Covered Bridge built in 1936 by Lee Hoffman and crosses Crabtree Creek.
Larwood Covered Bridge built in 1939 which crosses Crabtree Creek. The bridge was named for the founder of community of Larwood, William Larwood. Next we drove into Lebanon.
Southern Pacific Lebanon station built in 1906.
Pictured here are Albany and Eastern C40-8 originally Union Pacific 9252, Albany and Eastern GP9R 1750 originally Texas and New Orleans 456, and Albany and Eastern SW1200 1866 originally Pittsburgh and Shawmut SW9 232.
Albany and Eastern B20-8 5935, ex. Western Rail 5935, exx. CSX 5931, exxx. CSX B40-8 5931, nee New York, Susquehanna and Western 4022 built by General Electric built in 1988.
We then checked into the Shanico Inn and had dinner at the Apple Tree Restaurant with Robin and Steve Ferrari, the President of the Central Coast Chapter NRHS who will be on the charter tomorrow with us. I watched the Pittsburgh Penguins defeat the St. Louis Blues in a shootout 3-2 then finished the story and later we called it a night.
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