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Re: Progressive Rail Closing More Of Their Rail Lines ?
Author: Shortline Sammie
Date: 07-04-2020 - 17:16
It doesn't surprise me that the Clackamas Valley operation in the Clackamas Industrial Park is on the block. OPR has looked at this operation for the last fifteen years and every year it gets less viable as a business unit.
Ten years ago we looked at it when it still had the paper mill at Oregon City which was good for three to five cars a day. An Oregon City regulation prohibited operation on Main street (from the old Portland Traction days) between 6:00 am and midnight which would have required us to hire another two-man crew. A "handshake agreement" with the Oregon City switcher said we would not make any kind of move to acquire the operation until "Cowboy Bob" Harris (the conductor who "owned" the job due to seniority) retired. Our promise held true, Cowboy retired, the UP took over and things went to @#$%& FAST.
The paper mill closed several years ago and the only "real" traffic was twice-weekly from the OPR at Canby. Didn't take long for UP to abolish the OC Switcher and put the Clackamas Industrial Park out to bid which Progressive Rail bit on. OPR traffic was then handled by a mixture of jobs (MPDEU; MEUPD and various special purpose locals that just worked Canby. Latest wrinkle is having the MPDEU set out during the week at Salem and having the Salem Switcher spot and pull on Sunday afternoon which seems to be working well!
If Progressive bails out OPR would possibly be interested in handling the business with our existing crews on the way to / from the Canby operation but any agreement with UP will be on OPR's terms and NOT UP's as the track needs a LOT of work and OPR is not into leasing anything that they put money into outside of normal maintenance to maintain track classs.
Dick Samuels; General Manager
Oregon Pacific Railroad
Ten years ago we looked at it when it still had the paper mill at Oregon City which was good for three to five cars a day. An Oregon City regulation prohibited operation on Main street (from the old Portland Traction days) between 6:00 am and midnight which would have required us to hire another two-man crew. A "handshake agreement" with the Oregon City switcher said we would not make any kind of move to acquire the operation until "Cowboy Bob" Harris (the conductor who "owned" the job due to seniority) retired. Our promise held true, Cowboy retired, the UP took over and things went to @#$%& FAST.
The paper mill closed several years ago and the only "real" traffic was twice-weekly from the OPR at Canby. Didn't take long for UP to abolish the OC Switcher and put the Clackamas Industrial Park out to bid which Progressive Rail bit on. OPR traffic was then handled by a mixture of jobs (MPDEU; MEUPD and various special purpose locals that just worked Canby. Latest wrinkle is having the MPDEU set out during the week at Salem and having the Salem Switcher spot and pull on Sunday afternoon which seems to be working well!
If Progressive bails out OPR would possibly be interested in handling the business with our existing crews on the way to / from the Canby operation but any agreement with UP will be on OPR's terms and NOT UP's as the track needs a LOT of work and OPR is not into leasing anything that they put money into outside of normal maintenance to maintain track classs.
Dick Samuels; General Manager
Oregon Pacific Railroad
