When discussing the Modoc Line, it's important to keep in mind that the Ogden Gateway agreements requiring SP to turn a good proportion of its eastbound Oregon lumber traffic over to the UP at Ogden was the real force behind the Modoc line's construction and operation. D&RGW tried for years to break the Ogden Gateway agreement and finally succeeded in 1966; however, while that allowed SP to start interchanging traffic to the D&RGW at Ogden, it also freed SP of the requirement to deliver traffic to Ogden, which allowed SP to start routing the eastbound traffic via the Sunset route and thereby substantially increasing SP's division on the rates- and driving the first nail in the Modoc's coffin. Had the Ogden Gateway not been in place, the Modoc line may very well never had been built in the first place.

SP closed the Modoc as a through route in January 1987. One of the first acts of the "new" SP after the merger with the D&RGW was to reopen the Modoc Line to through traffic. The railroad heavily marketed service over the line and started running two trains each way per day; however, despite the efforts they never generated enough traffic to fill even one of those two trains per day, and service quickly got cut back. When it came down to it, after the UP merger what little traffic the Modoc handled could easily be absorbed by the other available routings, and the Modoc line simply did not make economic sense to keep intact and maintain even as a potential relief valve in case other lines got closed- they simply have too many other routing options.

I find it hard to believe that a combined route as Jon described (Siskiyou line, Modoc line, one of the Nevada lines, plus some others) would have ended up being any sort of a self sustaining railroad- it simply goes too far, with too many grades, and into places with too little traffic potential in today's economy. Unless something big came along like a coal export terminal in Coos Bay- and witness how well that has been working over the last couple months- I don't see how even if Dennis had been successful in putting together a route like that how it would have been successful. The only traffic I see it could have generated is whatever scraps UP allowed to fall off its table, and I don't think it would have been enough.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV