Ed Immel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is more to the photo than meets the eye.
> The track the engine is sitting on leads to the
> wood chip facility. The operation had a track
> mobile to spot the cars for unloading. The chips
> traveled over SP rail to the reload and then were
> headed for a Crown Zellerbach paper mill at Camas,
> Washington. It was apparently cheaper and faster
> to reload than interchange with the BN.
>
> Some chips went to a paper mill up river at West
> Linn. This mill did not have rail service but
> depended upon tug and barge service. The finished
> product would be barged down to a large warehouse
> facility just to the south of the currentg
> Gunderson rail car facility for reloading onto
> rail.
>
> The track just to the front of the engine leads to
> Oswego Portland Cement's facility. Those hopper
> cars on the upper level are probably filled with
> cement. The cement plant had a small GE 25 ton
> engine to spot the cars. The plant's raw material
> came from Texada Island in British Columbia and
> traveled to Lake Oswego by large ocean-going
> barges.
>
> Eventually, the Camas Mill got their chips from
> non-SP sources and the cement plant cloased down.
> Today the area is condos and apartments and
> virtualy no signs of the former rail activity are
> event except for the Portland and Western's
> mainline.

Boy does this photo bring back memories!

To elaborate on Ed's post...the cement plant had track on two levels; the track directly below the units split off and the left leg went to the chip facility and the straight leg went to the lower cement plant.

There was a small two-track yard for switching purposes and storage of cars. The track on which the hopper cars are sitting is now the Willamette Shore Trolley main line. The Tillamook branch was rebuilt on the alignment of the yard track where the single hopper car is sitting and is the present P&W alignment through Lake Oswego. This realignment was necessary to avoid litigation as the result of a hastily conceived sale of the Jefferson Street Branch in order to allow the Trolley access to the former SP depot in Lake Oswego, and, as I understand, cost Southern Pacific more than they realized from the sale of the branch.

This location is called Wilsonia and the switch to the Jeff Street Branch would be just behind the photographer.

I vividly remember a couple of chip cars getting loose from one of these yard tracks and going over the derail and landing upside-down on the lead to the cement plant. It was shortly after this incident that rail skates were supplied to prevent a repeat occurence and were locked to a post with a switch lock at the clear point of the yard tracks.

Dick Samuels