Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway

The Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway (reporting mark OPE) was an Oregon-based short line railroad that began near Eugene as the Oregon and Southeastern Railroad (O&SE) in 1904. O&SE's line ran 18 miles (29 km) along the Row River between the towns of Cottage Grove and Disston. The Oregon, Pacific & Eastern Railway Company incorporated in 1912, purchased the physical assets of the O&SE two years later, and shortened their total trackage to operate 16.6 miles (26.7 km) from an interchange yard with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Cottage Grove, east to a 528' x 156' turnaround loop at Culp Creek. The last of this track was closed and scrapped in 1994,[1] and ownership of its abandoned right of way property was later reverted to the state of Oregon to become one of the first-ever Government/Private Sector cooperative partnership Rails to Trails programs in the US, forming the Row River National Recreation Trail.[2][3] A successor corporation now operates a narrow-gauge line at Wildlife Safari.

Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway
Overview
HeadquartersCottage Grove, Oregon, Roseburg, Oregon
Reporting markOPE
LocaleOregon
Dates of operation1904-1994; and–2001-Present
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
OPE train entering Dorena, Oregon, 1971. This line closed in 1987, and is now the Row River Trail.

History
Route in 1930

Industrial origins

The O&SE (locally known as the Old, Slow & Easy) was built to serve the gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead mines in the Bohemia mining district of Mid-Coastal Oregon's Willamette River Valley. Sawmills were built along the route as soon as transportation was available for the lumber they would produce, but traffic was seldom sufficient to encourage investment in new equipment. Covered bridges were built at Walden, Currin, and Wildwood to prevent rot after a train fell through the wooden bridge into the inland Row River on 5 June 1909, at Currin.

In 1912, J.H. Chambers Lumber Company was a major investor when the line was reorganized as the OP&E. The OP&E built a 6-mile (9.7 km) logging branch from Disston up Layng Creek in 1914, and in 1917, Chambers' Lumber company secured complete control of OP&E. As an economy move, Chambers built a gasoline-powered railbus to replace the daily passenger train. This "Galloping Goose" began operation on 1 April 1917 and remained the only passenger service until replaced by a thrice weekly mixed train under different ownership in March, 1929.

Post-WWI, silver screen stardom, and the Great Depression

The Anderson-Middleton Lumber Company purchased OP&E from Chambers in 1924, and built a new sawmill (today's Weyerhauser), south of Cottage Grove. The logging branch up Layng Creek was dismantled, and the rail relaid to form a new branch up to Herman Creek. Locomotive #8 and a trainload of logs fell through Walden bridge into Mosby Creek on 5 September 1924, killing both the engineer, and brakeman.[4]

In 1925, Buster Keaton used the railway for his 1926 silent film classic The General. OP&E locomotives played the parts of #3 General, #5 Texas, and a Union Army locomotive pulling "Civil War coaches" (former Pacific Electric street cars specifically rebuilt for the film by the movie company). Local National Guard soldiers were hired to wear Civil War uniforms, and filming battle scenes caused several fires including one that destroyed the Red Bridge Station. The most exciting fire was the intentional destruction of Texas scene, on a bridge the movie company built over the Row River, filming of which was scheduled on July 4 for the enjoyment of local spectators, and resulted in a rousing success.

Anderson-Middleton Lumber Company went bankrupt in 1930, and OP&E struggled through the Great Depression with only 7 employees until increasing lumber demand finally caused sawmills to resume operations in the late 1930s. The company reorganized under the same name in 1940, and resumed daily service. The "Texas" Locomotive #5 would remain in the Row River until the Japanese' military preparations in 1941 raised the price of scrap iron just before World War II.[4]

Post WWII, more film fame, abandonment, and reclamation

Damming of the Row River in 1947 to form Dorena Reservoir required the United States Army Corps of Engineers to relocate approximately 8 miles (13 km) of track above the north side of the reservoir. The Wildwood covered bridge was replaced with a steel girder span in 1948, and the other two covered bridges were similarly replaced in 1950, as Booth-Kelly Lumber Company built a 7.2-mile (11.6 km) logging branch up Mosby Creek and also purchased OP&E. Rails were removed from the track east of Culp Creek in 1954 after two sawmills in Disston ceased operations. After steam-powered excursion trains were run 18–19 July 1959 to celebrate the Oregon Centennial, Georgia-Pacific purchased Booth-Kelly (including OP&E) in 1959.

Georgia-Pacific sold OP&E in 1970 to Willis B. Kyle, who formed the Row River Investment Company (jointly owned by Kyle Railroad predecessor Kyle Railways and Bohemia, Inc.).[4] The line operated passenger excursions from 1972 until 1987. During these years, the railroad used a 1st generation self-propelled Budd Rail Diesel Car ('RDC-1'), originally built for Southern Pacific, which had spent most of its life as #10 on Southern Pacific's subsidiary Northwestern Pacific. On OP&E it was known as "The Goose".

During the Summer of 1972, 20th Century Fox's 1973 motion picture Emperor of the North Pole, starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Keith Carradine, (and also including Vic Tayback, Charles Tyner, Simon Oakland, Elisha Cook Jr., Liam Dunn, & Matt Clark) was filmed along the railroad's right-of-way using some of the company's equipment, including Kyle's 1915-built 90 ton Baldwin (Chassis #42000) 2-8-2 steam logging locomotive #19. The film was released on DVD as Emperor of the North in 2006. In 1985, Stand By Me, Rob Reiner's motion picture of a Stephen King novelette, was also filmed along the railroad's right of way.[5]

In March 1986, the company owned a total of three locomotives, 31 boxcars, and 44 flatcars. All of that fleet is gone, except for an old GE 44-ton switcher.

Bohemia Incorporated bought out the railroad in Cottage Grove from Kyle in 1987. Kyle's 1915 Baldwin 2-8-2 Mikado Steam Engine #19 was returned to the Yreka Western Railroad (another Kyle railroad) in California that same year. In 1994, Bohemia discontinued service along the entire 17 mile OP&E line, the Oregon Pacific & Eastern Railway was dissolved as a corporation on December 19, 1994.,[6] the line was then abandoned, taken up as scrap, and the right of way and easements transformed into a hiking and bicycling nature preserve, the Row River National Recreation Trail.[2][3]

The "new" OP&E railway

The Oregon Pacific & Eastern came back to life and was incorporated as an Oregon corporation in 2001 by Robert W. Larson. Larson is a long-time consultant to Kyle and a former employee of the OP&E from Roseburg, Oregon. Larson is now the president and CEO of the new OP&E. Currently Larson owns a GE 44-ton locomotive that will have the original OP&E reporting marks added. Larson worked with Athearn to produce HO and N scale models of OP&E and Yreka Western boxcars. Bowser/Stewart Hobbies also made an unauthorized version of a 50-foot 2- and 4-door tapered-roof HO scale model auto-boxcar.

In March 2007, the OP&E took over as a concession operator of a narrow gauge railroad operation at Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. Larson also owns the LP&N (Longview, Portland & Northern Railway) in Gardiner, Oregon.

Locomotives
Number Builder Type Built Notes[4]
1st #1 Baldwin Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1881 purchased from Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company in 1902
2nd #1 Baldwin Locomotive Works 2-6-2 Tank locomotive 1925 purchased from Anderson-Middleton Lumber Company in 1928
#2 Baldwin Locomotive Works 2-6-0 1871 purchased from Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company in 1902
#3 Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works 2-6-0 1872 purchased from Salem, Falls City and Western Railway in 1909
#4 Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works 4-4-0 1886 purchased from Corvallis & Eastern RR in 1902
1st #5 Baldwin Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1881 purchased from Mount Hood Railroad
2nd #5 American Locomotive Company 2-8-0 1922 purchased from Magma Arizona Railroad in 1972
#6 Baldwin Locomotive Works 2-6-0 1882 purchased from Southern Pacific in 1902
#7 Baldwin Locomotive Works 2-6-0 1880 purchased from Salem, Falls City and Western Railway in 1916
#8 Rhode Island Locomotive Works 4-6-0 1888 purchased from Dallas Locomotive and Machine Works in 1924
1st #9 Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works 4-4-0 1886 purchased from Corvallis & Eastern RR in 1902
2nd #9 Lima Locomotive Works Shay locomotive 1906 purchased from Anderson-Middleton Lumber Company in 1928
3rd #9 Richmond Locomotive Works 2-6-2 Tank locomotive 1909 purchased from Dallas Locomotive and Machine Works in 1941
#10 General Electric Diesel locomotive 1952 purchased new from General Electric in 1952
#11 General Electric Diesel locomotive 1941 purchased from Monongahela Connecting Railroad in 1953
#12 General Electric Diesel locomotive 1955 purchased from Port of Tacoma in 1973
#14 General Electric Diesel locomotive 1949 purchased from Southern Pacific in 1975
#19 Baldwin Locomotive Works 2-8-2 1915 leased from Yreka Western Railroad in 1971
#100 Budd Company Budd Rail Diesel Car ("RDC-1") 1954 purchased from Southern Pacific in 1971
#112 Lima Locomotive Works Shay locomotive 1970 Sold 1978

Notes
  1. "Western Rails: Oregon, Pacific & Eastern". trainweb.org. TrainWeb. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
  2. "Row River National Recreation Trail, Cottage Grove, Oregon". americantrails.org. US Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
  3. "Row River Trail" (PDF). cottagegrove.org. US Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
  4. Stindt, Fred A. (1978). "Oregon Pacific & Eastern Railroad". Western Railroader and Western Railfan. Francis A. Guido. 41 (455): 1–16.
  5. "Abandoned Railroads of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon Pacific & Eastern Railway". brian894x4.com. Brian McCamish. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
  6. "Employer Status Determination: Oregon Pacific & Eastern Railway" (PDF). rrb.gov. Railroad Retirement Board. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
  7. Dart, Keith. ageofsteamroundhouse.com (PDF) http://www.ageofsteamroundhouse.com/images/news_PDFs/19_arrival_release.pdf. Retrieved 27 December 2017. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-06-25. Retrieved 2015-06-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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