Yes, Vance and hello to you after all these years! (When was the last time I saw you? 1969?)Hop over to TO and see where Steve Gillings and I have started showing some of the slides of our visits back in the 1960s! To think the three of us met on that Fallbrook excursion back in November 1966!

Anyway, yes, this is the same trip. Matter of fact, I wrote an article about the trip in a 1990 issue of PTJ. Our trip was only two months after BN started. It was the opening weekend of the 1970 Oregon fishing season, and we had not only the combine, but also a full heavyweight coach. We were supposed to have, out of Wishram, a Burlington GP20 in adddition to the RS3 we did have. Well, the GP20 was bad order, and so we left with this long, long train behind that single RS3. We didn't even leave Wishram until the sky was getting light, and were over four hours late.

We went about 40 miles and went into a siding and waited for about an hour. Then alongside us came the northbound mixed, former OT 101, but I think was now numbered BN 1264. We were BN 1263. (I have to add, "I think", I'm not near any of my material to verify the train numbers.) Anyway, 1264 had both of the C415s as power, so it ran north from Bend with them both. At this siding, they cut off the 101, and we left with 83 leading the 101.

The trip was quite an adventure. We ended up running down to Bend all day long, and had the expected problem of spending the night in Bend. If the train was on time, we should have arrived at Bend something like 7am and then leave that night at 7pm. Instead, we arrived in Bend at 7:30pm - and we even died on the law, to be pushed into Bend by the Redmond local. Fortunately, the crew allowed us to stay overnight in the combine which was heated by the propane heater, and it was great. Since the crew had to have their off time, we ended up leaving at 6:30am, this time with the 1010 leading as BN 1268, and we pretty much flew to Wishram. Of course, we missed both trains to Portland, so Harvey called his folks and drove up from Corvallis to pick us up!

Thanks to our late departure from Wishram and the delays in route, we ended up riding down the OT both directions in daylight. Of course the fishermen, who that extra coach was for, were certainly upset we were so late! Worked for me!

Lee Hower
Sacramento