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Oregon California & Eastern Railroad Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad |
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A loaded Oregon California & Eastern log train during the final years of operation. Photo by and courtesy of Louis K. Thelen. |
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History Due to the lengthy and interesting history of this line, the history section has been broken down into eras and posted on the following pages: Roots and Big Dreams: 1909-1925 The Big Roads Take Over: 1925-1975 Enter Weyerhaeuser: 1975-1985 Decline and Abandonment: 1985-1993 |
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All time locomotive roster Underlined numbers indicate a link to a page of pictures of that locomotive. Klamath Falls Municiple Railway #1- Manchester 4-4-0, c/n 1099, built 1883. Built as Oregon Washington Railway & Navigation Company #1110, re-numbered to #59; to Oregon Railway & Navigation Company #59, to Union Pacific #530, to Oregon Railway & Navigation Company #65, to Klamath Falls Municiple Railway #1 1917, to Oregon California & Eastern #1 1919. Scrapped 1937. Oregon California & Eastern (Strahorn era) #1- See Klamath Falls Municiple Railway #1 above. #2- Baldwin 2-6-0, c/n 9019, built 1888. Built for Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh; to Spokane International #12; to Oregon California & Eastern #2. Scrapped 1942. #3- Pittsburgh 2-8-0, c/n 1942, built 1899. Originally P. McKay #9407, then #278; to MW&S #6 1916; to Oregon California & Eastern #3 1920; Scrapped by 1941. Southern Pacific/Great Northern era From roughly the mid-1930's until the end of 1974 the two parent railroads provided motive power to the OC&E, usually consisting of light road power. Oregon California & Eastern (Weyerhaeuser Era, 1975-1992) Weyerhaeuser initially leased SD-9s, GP-9s and SW-1500s from the Southern Pacific at the beginning of their operations before purchasing five locomotives from SP as follows: #2904- American Locomotive Company RS-11, c/n 82044, built 1956. Originally Southern Pacific #5724, then SP #2904. To OC&E 1975; returned to SP 1975. Scrapped #2950- American Locomotive Company RSD-12, c/n 83640, built 1961. Originally Southern Pacific #7000, then SP #2950. To OC&E 1975; Burned up at Olene 1975; returned to SP 1975. Scrapped. #2954- American Locomotive Company RSD-12, c/n 83644, built 1961. Originally Southern Pacific #7004, then SP #2954. To OC&E 1975; returned to SP 1975; to Chrome Crankshaft (dealer); to Metropolitan Stevedore #2 (Long Beach, CA); to Orange Empire Railway Museum, Perris, CA 1998. #2958- American Locomotive Company RSD-12, c/n 83838, built 1961. Originally Southern Pacific #7008, then SP #2958. To OC&E 1975; returned to SP 1975; to Chrome Crankshaft (dealer); to Metropolitan Stevedore #1 (Long Beach, CA); to Orange Empire Railway Museum, Perris, CA 1998. #2959- American Locomotive Company RSD-12, c/n 83839, built 1961. Originally Southern Pacific #7009, then SP #2959. To OC&E 1975; returned to SP 1975. Scrapped. The initial idea was to use the RS-11 in switching service at Klamath Falls, while the RSD-12s were to be used on the road trains. After the fire the remaining four were withdrawn from service and returned to SP. Following the failure of the Alcos Weyerhaeuser leased more power from the connecting railroads, including a quartet of F-units from the Burlington Northern. In 1976 Morrison-Knudson of Boise, ID, delivered seven re-manufactured locomotives, all rebuilt from former Union Pacific General Electric U25Bs. Five were road switchers repowered with EMD model 567 prime movers removed from ex-Baltimore & Ohio FB units, while the remaining two were slugs, locomotives with traction motors powered by one of the road units. The original plan was to use the M-K units in two sets of road switchers spliced with a slug, with the fifth road switcher used to cover shoppings and maintenance. The road never could get the slugs to work very well, and stored them at the Sycan shops after only a few years of service. Most of the operations in the last several years were handled with solid sets of three or four of the road switchers. Weyerhaeuser adopted a numbering scheme that was used on a couple of their other operations on the new units. The first two digits indicate the year built, while the last two indicate the order in which the locomotives were purchased. Weyerhaeuser had used a variation of this numbering scheme for much of the railroad equipment on the Klamath operations. #7601- M-K TE53-14E, c/n 34537, re-built 5/1976. Originally UP #639; to M-K #MK7; to OC&E. Sold 1992 to Econo-Rail; to Longhorn Railway #7601 1997. #7602- M-K TE53-14E, c/n 34239, re-built 5/1976. Originally General Electric #2501; to UP #633; to M-K #MK1; to OC&E. Sold 1992 to Econo-Rail #7603- M-K TE53-14E, c/n 34538, re-built 5/1976. Originally UP #640; to M-K #MK10; to OC&E. Sold 1992 to Econo-Rail #7604- M-K TE53-14E, c/n 34228, re-built 5/1976. Originally UP #628; to M-K #MK14; to OC&E. Sold 1992 to Econo-Rail #7605- M-K TE53-14E, c/n 34536, re-built 5/1976. Originally UP #638; to M-K #MK12; to OC&E. Sold 1992 to Econo-Rail; to Union Carbide Corp #7605. #7606- M-K S3-3B slug, c/n 34238, re-built 5/1976. Originally UP #629; to M-K #MK4; to OC&E. Sold 1992 to Econo-Rail; to Longhorn Railway #7606 1997. #7607- M-K S3-3B slug, c/n 34237, re-built 5/1976. Originally General Electric #2504; to UP #636; to M-K #MK6; to OC&E. Sold 1992 to Econo-Rail. Increasing traffic levels caused Weyerhaeuser to go shopping for additional power, and in 1979 they purchased four Baldwin RS-12s from the Seaboard Coast Line. SCL had retrofitted these Baldwins so that they could operate in multiple unit with EMD and GE power, and that plus the long experience of the Sycan shops with maintaining Baldwins made these look like a good choice. #7908- Baldwin RS-12, c/n 75475, built 1952. Originally Seaboard Air Line #1466; to Seaboard Coast Line #207; to OC&E 1979. Sold to Escanaba & Lake Superior #207 1984. #7909- Baldwin RS-12, c/n 75477, built 1952. Originally Seaboard Air Line #1468; to Seaboard Coast Line #209; to OC&E 1979. Sold to Escanaba & Lake Superior #209 1984. #7910- Baldwin RS-12, c/n 75478, built 1952. Originally Seaboard Air Line #1469; to Seaboard Coast Line #210; to OC&E 1979. Sold to Escanaba & Lake Superior #210 1984. #7911- Baldwin RS-12, c/n 75479, built 1952. Originally Seaboard Air Line #1470; to Seaboard Coast Line #211; to OC&E 1979. Sold to Escanaba & Lake Superior #211 1984. Various Locomotives Leased by the OC&E after 1975 Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad Steam Includes locomotives used on the lines west of Klamath Falls #1- Baldwin 2-8-2, c/n 37496, built 1912. Originally Twin Falls Logging Company #1; to Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #1. Scrapped. #2- Baldwin 2-8-2, c/n 37497, built 1912. Originally Twin Falls Logging Company #2; to Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #2. Scrapped. 1st #3- Lima 2-truck Shay, c/n 2671, built 1913. Originally Cherry Valley Lumber Company #3; to Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #3. Scrapped. 2nd #3 - 3-truck Heisler, c/n 1539, built 1927. Originally Shaw-Bertram Lumber Company #3; to Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #3; to Kosmos Timber Company #10. Scrapped. #4 - Baldwin 2-6-6-2, c/n 61781, built 1934. Purchased new; to Sierra Railroad #38 1952; to Rayonier, Inc. #38 1955. Put on display 1968 at Crane Creek reload after retired. To Great Western Railroad Museum 1982; moved to McCloud, CA 1985. Tender moved to Merrill, OR during the winter of 2002/2003, with the boiler and frame following in fall 2006. Locomotive conveyed to Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, Garibaldi, Oregon, along with the rest of the Great Western collection in late 2021, and has been moved to Garibaldi for display and potential restoration. #5- Baldwin 2-6-6-2T*, c/n 59701, built 1926. Originally Ostrander Railway & Timber Company #7; to Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #5 1939; to Kosmos Timber Company #11 1950; to U.S. Plywood Company #11 1953. Displayed at University of Washington 1961-1973, then moved to Northwest Railway Museum, Snoquolamie, Washington. #6- Baldwin 2-6-6-2, c/n 60412, built 1928. Originally Mud Bay Logging Company #8; to Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #6. Displayed in Klamath Falls 1960-1965, then moved to Northwest Railway Museum, Snoqualmie, WA, where it operated from 1969-1974 and remains on display today. #7- Baldwin 2-6-6-2T*, c/n 58529, built 1925. Originally Clemens Logging Company #7; to Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #7 1936. Scrapped. #8 - Baldwin 2-6-6-2T*, c/n 62068, built 1937. Originally Weyerhaeuser (Clemens Logging Company) #9; to Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #8 1940. Scrapped. * T indicates fuel and water carried on saddle tanks mounted over the boiler instead of in a separate tender. Diesel Weyerhaeuser's Klamath operations started looking seriously at buying diesels for the East Block railroad in early 1950. The company did not ballast the spur line trackage, which would limit the size of locomotive they could use. The idea at the time was to buy two units; during the days one would switch the jammers while the other would handle construction trains, then at night the two would operate together to handle log trains down to Sycan. The Klamath management reported problems finding locomotives big enough to operate effectively as road units while still being light enough to operate on unballasted track. In late 1950 they found their solution in the form of Baldwin DS-4-4-750 demonstrator units #750 and #751, which had spent most of that year working on mostly logging railroads and shortlines across the western United States. Weyerhaeuser tested them on the Klamath operations in late 1950, deemed the pair ideal for their needs, and purchased them on the spot. #101- Baldwin DS-4-4-750, c/n 74814, built 1950. Originally Baldwin demonstrator unit #750. Purchased by Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. late 1950. Retired 1983; sold to Northwest Rail Equipment #750; to Great Western Railway Museum. Currently resting on a short stretch of track in the former OC&E yard in Klamath Falls, surrounded by a fence. Deeded late 2021 to Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad Garibaldi, Oregon, along with the rest of the Great Western collection. Sold to Train Mountain Railroad Museum and moved to their grounds in Chiloquin, Oregon, in August 2024. #102- Baldwin DS-4-4-750, c/n 74815, built 1950. Originally Baldwin demonstrator unit #751. Purchased by Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. late 1950. Retired 1983; scrapped mid-1980s. John Wahl, who at the time oversaw all of Weyerhaeuser's west coast operations from the corporate office in Washington, exerted his influence at this point. Mr. Wahl had been instrumental in buying Fairbanks-Morse diesel electrics for the various operations in western Washington, and in 1950 he ordered a 120-ton switcher for the Klamath operations. Right at the end of 1950 F-M notified Weyerhaeuser of a $5,000 price increase on the unit, which would allow the company to exercise a clause in the contract to cancel the order. The Klamath management recommended this should happen, and that the company should instead purchase two additional Baldwin S-8 switchers (successor to the DS-4-4-750), which Baldwin promised could be delivered within five months. The corporate office concurred and diverted the F-M switcher to its White River operations in Washington. Weyerhaeuser signed the contract for the two additional Baldwins by the end of January 1951, and Baldwin shipped the pair west from the factory in Pennsylvania by early June. #103- Baldwin S-8, c/n 75254, built 1951. Purchased new; retired 1983, scrapped mid- 1980s. #105**- Baldwin S-8, c/n 75255, built 1951. Purchased new; retired 1983, scrapped mid- 1980s. Weyerhaeuser usually operated the Baldwins in combinations of two or three units on each train, with three being the most common by the middle to later 1970s. The OC&E also leased and extensively used the switchers in the first several years of operations after Weyerhaeuser bought that railroad, usually in switching service at Klamath Falls or in line haul service between Sycan and Bly. The Baldwins hit the end of their useful life in the early 1980s and started experiencing increasingly frequent mechanical failures. Weyerhaeuser replaced them in the early 1980s with another M-K U25B rebuild transferred from Longview, Washington, plus RS-12s borrowed from the OC&E. Around 1983 Weyerhauser bought three EMD GP9s from Burlington Northern; the log trains initially ran with two of the Geeps spliced by two of the RS-12s until the OC&E sold them, at which time the Sycan shops rewired the Geeps so that they could run with the M-K slugs. Typical motive power assignments in the last years of the Woods Railroad generally saw two of the Geeps operating with both of the slugs. #310- M-K TE-53-1-4E, c/n 34535, re-built 1975. Originally Union Pacific GE-built U25B #637; re-built by M-K with EMD model 567 prime mover. Purchased by Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. for their logging railroad at Longview, WA; transferred to the Woods Railroad 1979. Operated into the mid-1980s when a crew let the water in the engine block get too low, with the result that the engine fried itself. Stored behind the Sycan shops until the end of operations; scrapped. #311- EMD GP-9, c/n 24016, built 1958. Originally Northern Pacific #347; to Burlington Northern #1757; to Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #311. Transferred to Longview 1992; sold to private individual by 1997; stored on the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad, Mineral, Washington. Sold to Webb Asset Management unknown date and used on Eastern Idaho Railroad, Rupert, Idaho, at least until 2005; to Greensport Terminal, Houston, Texas; subsequent disposition unrecorded. #312- EMD GP-9, c/n 21092, built 1956. Originally Northern Pacific #247; to Burlington Northern #1870; to Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #312. Transferred to Longview 1992, where it was re-numbered 2nd #305; to Inter Rail Transport, Fontana, CA circa 1995; to Cargil #305, Devore/Verdenmont, CA; moved late 2011/early 2012 to Stockton, CA; may have been conveyed to Dieselmotive Company. At last report in service at Ardent Mills, Stockton, CA. #314- EMD GP-9, c/n 24085, built 1957. Originally Great Northern #723; to Burlington Northern #1796; to Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. #314. Transferred to Longview 1992, where it was re-numbered 3rd #308. **Note that #104 was skipped in the numbering of the diesels. Weyerhaeuser crews tended to refer to the locomotives with only the last number, which meant that the #101 was the #1 and the #102 was the #2. The steam locomotive #4 was still active when the diesels arrived, and as a result the #104 was skipped to eliminate any possibilities that the diesel could be mistaken for the steam locomotive. |
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Photos of the OC&E/Weyerhaeuser Woods Railroad Equipment pictures Timetables and Train Orders Photos by Jack Bowden Photos by Louis K. Thelen Photos by George Landrock Photos by Jimmy Bryant Klamath Falls yard in December 1994 |
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References Books "Railroad Logging in the Klamath Country". Jack Bowden, Oso Publishing, 2004. "Steam Echoes". Glenn Beier, Timber Times, 2004. "Backwoods Railroad of the West". Richard Steinheimer, Kalmbach, 1963. "SP's Shasta Division". John R. Signor, Signature Press, 2000. "The Modoc: Southern Pacific's Back Door to Oregon". Jack Bowden & Tom Dill, Oso Publishing, 2002. "Main Streets of the Northwest: Rails from the Rockies to the Pacific". T.O. Repp, Trans-Anglo Books, 1989. "Baldwin Diesels In Color- Volume 2- Owners H-P". Jim Boyd, Morning Sun Books, 2002. "Baldwin Diesels In Color- Volume 3- Owners Q-Z". Jim Boyd, Morning Sun Books, 2002. "American Shortline Railway Guide- 2nd Edition". Edward A. Lewis, The Baggage Car, 1978. "American Shortline Railway Guide". Edward A. Lewis, 3rd Edition (1986); 4th Edition (1991); 5th Edition (1997); Kalmbach. Periodicals "Oregon, California & Eastern RR" by David F. Myrick, Issue #222 (April 1958) The Western Railroader: Pgs 3-9. "Requiem for a Relic" by Dale Sanders, February 2002 CTC Board (Issue #280): Pgs 32-35. "Remembering the Oregon Loggers" by Dick Dorn, October 1992 Pacific RailNews: Pgs 14-19. "Oregon's Last Loggers" by Dick Dorn, August 1977 Railfan: Pgs 18-27. "Tough Times in Timber Country" by Greg Brown, November 1990 Pacific RailNews (Issue #324): Pgs 24-34. "Diesel Logging Locomotives" by John Taubeneck, Pete Replinger, Patrick Hind and John Henderson, August-October 1996 Tall Timber Short Lines: Pgs 10-31. "Oregon Rail Location Survey" Compiled by Kenneth M. Ardinger, et al., The Short Line #72: Pgs 3-8. "Weyerhaeuser's 500 Transfer in the 1970's" by Jack Bowden, Summer/Fall 2003 Tall Timber Short Lines: Pgs 34-37. "Oregon California & Eastern Railroad" by Donovan Gray, June 1990 CTC Board: Pgs 20-31. "Weyerhaeuser Longview Logging" by C.G. Heimerdinger, Jr., Issue #221 (March 1980) Pacific RailNews: Pgs 6-11. "Closing the Lumberman's Frontier: The Far Western Pine Country" by Thomas R. Cox, July 1994 Journal of the West: Pgs 59-66. News Articles from the following: Pacific RailNews CTC Board |
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More on the Web Rob Jacox's Oregon California & Eastern Page Ed Gibson's OC&E Page. Photos from the GN years and the early Weyerhaeuser years. Western Shortline Rosters Page for the OC&E Official Oregon State Parks OC&E Trail Page Abandoned Railroads page on the OC&E. Craig Bass's OC&E Page Lots of contemporary pictures of the former grade. An OC&E Trail Page Follow the links, lots of pictures. |
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