From Florence, OR to Eugene we took State Highway 126 which mostly follows the Coos Bay line to Eugene. As luck would have it, along the way we passed the CBRL Local on its way to Eugene. We drove ahead a bit to get on the south-side of the train at Central Rd, halfway between Veneta and Eugene. I knew I was not going to get a great shot, but at least I wanted fully lighted locomotives.
In the lead was CBRL 1859, an EMD MP15DC switcher. This locomotive was built in 1982 for the Missouri Pacific, came to Union Pacific through merger acquisition, and was eventually purchased by CBRL in 2018.
CBRL 2018 is a GP38-2, built in 1965 for the New York Central and came to CBRL from Union Pacific in 2019. The train today consisted of a couple two-bay hoppers, about 10 empty log cars, and more than 20 loaded centerbeams.
l don't know how the operation on the Coos Bay line works. Based on what I'm seeing in this train, I'm guessing the log cars come loaded out of Eugene Yard and moved to the Seneca sawmill in Noti, OR, where they are unloaded, returning empty. The centerbeams would come loaded from Rosboro Lumber in Vaughn and Seneca in Noti. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of the product label of the packaging, so speculation has to suffice. I did notice that centerbeams in the middle of the train were loaded with unwrapped stacks of 2x4s, while the centerbeams in the rear were loaded with packaged wood products.
After the train had passed us, we caught up with it just as it was crossing Coyote Creek. This was an unexpected and fun chase.
2 comments:
Hello! My name is Neil Gibson, living in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I appreciate SO much, your photos and this site! I have keenly followed your account of Paper Mill construction at the club, as I am modeling a paper mill, based on mills in my home state of Maine, circa 1975-1985, via the Maine Central RR (MEC).
Regards your Coos Bay train chase, if the GP-38 was from the mid 60's, then it is an original GP-38, as the '-2's' did not appear until the early 1970's...my beloved MEC ordered 13 of the very first GP-38's in 1966-67 (the turbo-charged version was the well received GP-40)...not nit-picking, but that distinction should be made. Great Work Here!! Thank You!!
Hi Neil, thank you for taking the time to write the comment and the kind words.
I readily admit I'm not particularly strong in identifying the fine differences of American rolling stock. My source for the GP38-2 designation of engine 2018 is http://www.trainweb.org/rosters/CBRL.html which claims that 2018 started it's life as NYC 3016. Another source I found while searching for NYC 3016 is
http://rrpicturearchives.net/LocoPicture.aspx?id=240037 which also has the GP38-2 designation. Note that this engine was rebuilt multiple times and apparently had a turbo-charger for a while, hence was also tracked as a GP40.
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