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Re: Hillsboro, Oregon area photos
Author: SP5103
Date: 01-08-2014 - 14:16
It has been 25 years now - but I do seem to recall their being some kind of boxcars of feed at North Plains. I remember there being a small mill, but don't recall if they used rail. There were also the remains of some kind of small wood treatment plant, no doubt a later toxic cleanup site.
At the time the POTB only had four customers, the three mentioned plus Bob Steele & Associates doing private passenger cars in the hanger that has since burned down. I did run an engine into the hanger to switch his cars, the SD9 seemed like just a toy in that building. We normally only worked weekedays and it was rare for us to work a weekend or nights. Everyone met each morning around sunrise at the Port shop, our boss, four man track crew, train crew of two, myself and two for industrial park maintenance. Depending on the project, we all might work at the Port or borrow the Port guys to work with us. I was one of the last hired, and could work almost any job as needed. After getting our assignments, we would all head out for the day. The basic schedule for the train was five round trips a month. The assigned train crew would get a ride into Tillamook to the engines, run down to Front St. and pull the grain empties, pull Hampton Lumber and spot any leftover empties back. The train was always blocked for BN and SP leaving Tillamook with empties on the rear. Depending on the train and weather, if the train had more than 5 or 6 loads per engine they would have to double to Cochran somewhere above Enright. The train would arrive at Banks where a vehicle would be left for the crew to drive themselves back to Tillamook. The next weekday morning, four of us would go back to Banks. One crew would grab the BN interchange with one engine and make a turn to North Plains. The other crew would grab the other engine(s), pull the loads from Banks Lumber, and make a turn to Mahan to interchange with the SP. After both trains got back, Banks Lumber would get respotted with SP empties, any grain loads would be put on the front of the train and one crew would head for Tillamook. We usually had just enough time to spot Hampton Lumber and maybe the creamery before tying up. The train would then layover for two working days before making another trip over the hill, might do a little switching if needed. It wasn't unusual to run an extra train for something Steele had coming in or going out, since he was always late in whatever he was doing. If Banks Lumber was busy, we would often leave an engine at Banks and deadhead over to run a turn to Mahan between trips over the hill.
Business was poor at the time, at least in what was needed to support the railroad. Hampton Lumber would have maybe 10-15 cars per train, plus we averaged a couple cars of grain per week. The grain and Hampton cars could come from either SP or BN, but Banks Lumber was strictly SP that I remember. Banks Lumber was a far easier customer to work with and sometimes would outship Hampton. Some minor repairs to the engines were done at the Port, but FRA inspections were done at Brooklyn by SP. The Port leased the track from Tillamook to Hillsboro from SP at the time, and our trackage rights actually ended between Mahan and the Hillsboro depot. SP gave the POTB $250 per car plus several days of free car hire, plus the Port collected another $250 surcharge for cars to the coast. I assume BN did something similar.
The Port still had their two GE 80 tons left over from when they switched the industrial park and hauled cars into town, but sold those to Bob Steele. Ironically POTB used to handle more cars with the 80 tons when L-P leased the two hangers for a sawmill and a plywood plant than they had running the whole railroad. The 80 tons hadn't been used in years since POTB leased a SD9 from SP when they first ran to Batterson, later buying the SP 4368, 4381 and 4414 from Helm when they leased the whole line. Needing more power, I found Chrome Crankshaft had the SP 4419 for sale. The boss and I flew down to the San Berdoo B-yard and made a deal to buy it. By the time we got back, the Port Commissioners had already made the deal with Bob Steele to jointly buy the Columbia & Cowlitz C415s and slug, one of which was supposed to become the Banks engine which never happened to my knowledge. CC later sold the 4419 to Kerr-McGee/Trona for more money!
Hampton and Banks Lumber had to order their SP empties from us, mostly "slicks" 53-6 FB5 plain flats with the occasional FB6 or FB7 bulkhead. The WCRC centerbeams off the BN were leased to Hampton Lumber, so we always picked them up from North Plains and almost always brought them back loaded on the next trip. The Port Commissioners had a big meeting with Hampton to try to pressure them into resuming shipping woodchips by rail, but came out of the meeting in even worse shape. It turns out those WCRC centerbeams were hauling lumber to somewhere around Chicago where Hampton had a distribution yard. It was taking almost as long to for the cars to make the trip between Portland and Chicago as Portland to Tillamook. POTB ran the schedule that Hampton wanted, which worked fine for SP cars since the switcher out of Hillsboro promptly supplied us with empties and pulled the loads out of Mahan. But the BN/OE local only worked North Plains three times a week, and I only remember bumping into them at North Plains maybe once. The worst case scenario was BN would deliver on Monday, we would pick the cars up on Tuesday and spot them for loading that afternoon, pull them Friday morning and tie up at Banks, not interchanging the cars until Monday for BN to pick up that afternoon. The amount of Hampton traffic to the BN began to drop sharply before I left as Hampton began trucking to a BN reload.
Looking back, it is amazing no one got hurt. We had no formal track authority, and the curves and tunnels really precluded restricted speed. We derailed several times, and I had my share of scary near misses the short time I was there. One of the engines on the Hauler always had a 36" chain saw under the cab, and this was often too small. Most of the track inspections were done from the office, and we were expected to "run hot" on the light rail. I dared try to do an initial terminal air test once, spent a couple days on the track gang for my efforts on that one. There was nothing like running an SD9 long hood forward across a curved trestle with nothing visible under you, or saying a prayer that Wolf Creek bridge was still there as you came out of the curved tunnel that immediately dropped onto it.
At the time the POTB only had four customers, the three mentioned plus Bob Steele & Associates doing private passenger cars in the hanger that has since burned down. I did run an engine into the hanger to switch his cars, the SD9 seemed like just a toy in that building. We normally only worked weekedays and it was rare for us to work a weekend or nights. Everyone met each morning around sunrise at the Port shop, our boss, four man track crew, train crew of two, myself and two for industrial park maintenance. Depending on the project, we all might work at the Port or borrow the Port guys to work with us. I was one of the last hired, and could work almost any job as needed. After getting our assignments, we would all head out for the day. The basic schedule for the train was five round trips a month. The assigned train crew would get a ride into Tillamook to the engines, run down to Front St. and pull the grain empties, pull Hampton Lumber and spot any leftover empties back. The train was always blocked for BN and SP leaving Tillamook with empties on the rear. Depending on the train and weather, if the train had more than 5 or 6 loads per engine they would have to double to Cochran somewhere above Enright. The train would arrive at Banks where a vehicle would be left for the crew to drive themselves back to Tillamook. The next weekday morning, four of us would go back to Banks. One crew would grab the BN interchange with one engine and make a turn to North Plains. The other crew would grab the other engine(s), pull the loads from Banks Lumber, and make a turn to Mahan to interchange with the SP. After both trains got back, Banks Lumber would get respotted with SP empties, any grain loads would be put on the front of the train and one crew would head for Tillamook. We usually had just enough time to spot Hampton Lumber and maybe the creamery before tying up. The train would then layover for two working days before making another trip over the hill, might do a little switching if needed. It wasn't unusual to run an extra train for something Steele had coming in or going out, since he was always late in whatever he was doing. If Banks Lumber was busy, we would often leave an engine at Banks and deadhead over to run a turn to Mahan between trips over the hill.
Business was poor at the time, at least in what was needed to support the railroad. Hampton Lumber would have maybe 10-15 cars per train, plus we averaged a couple cars of grain per week. The grain and Hampton cars could come from either SP or BN, but Banks Lumber was strictly SP that I remember. Banks Lumber was a far easier customer to work with and sometimes would outship Hampton. Some minor repairs to the engines were done at the Port, but FRA inspections were done at Brooklyn by SP. The Port leased the track from Tillamook to Hillsboro from SP at the time, and our trackage rights actually ended between Mahan and the Hillsboro depot. SP gave the POTB $250 per car plus several days of free car hire, plus the Port collected another $250 surcharge for cars to the coast. I assume BN did something similar.
The Port still had their two GE 80 tons left over from when they switched the industrial park and hauled cars into town, but sold those to Bob Steele. Ironically POTB used to handle more cars with the 80 tons when L-P leased the two hangers for a sawmill and a plywood plant than they had running the whole railroad. The 80 tons hadn't been used in years since POTB leased a SD9 from SP when they first ran to Batterson, later buying the SP 4368, 4381 and 4414 from Helm when they leased the whole line. Needing more power, I found Chrome Crankshaft had the SP 4419 for sale. The boss and I flew down to the San Berdoo B-yard and made a deal to buy it. By the time we got back, the Port Commissioners had already made the deal with Bob Steele to jointly buy the Columbia & Cowlitz C415s and slug, one of which was supposed to become the Banks engine which never happened to my knowledge. CC later sold the 4419 to Kerr-McGee/Trona for more money!
Hampton and Banks Lumber had to order their SP empties from us, mostly "slicks" 53-6 FB5 plain flats with the occasional FB6 or FB7 bulkhead. The WCRC centerbeams off the BN were leased to Hampton Lumber, so we always picked them up from North Plains and almost always brought them back loaded on the next trip. The Port Commissioners had a big meeting with Hampton to try to pressure them into resuming shipping woodchips by rail, but came out of the meeting in even worse shape. It turns out those WCRC centerbeams were hauling lumber to somewhere around Chicago where Hampton had a distribution yard. It was taking almost as long to for the cars to make the trip between Portland and Chicago as Portland to Tillamook. POTB ran the schedule that Hampton wanted, which worked fine for SP cars since the switcher out of Hillsboro promptly supplied us with empties and pulled the loads out of Mahan. But the BN/OE local only worked North Plains three times a week, and I only remember bumping into them at North Plains maybe once. The worst case scenario was BN would deliver on Monday, we would pick the cars up on Tuesday and spot them for loading that afternoon, pull them Friday morning and tie up at Banks, not interchanging the cars until Monday for BN to pick up that afternoon. The amount of Hampton traffic to the BN began to drop sharply before I left as Hampton began trucking to a BN reload.
Looking back, it is amazing no one got hurt. We had no formal track authority, and the curves and tunnels really precluded restricted speed. We derailed several times, and I had my share of scary near misses the short time I was there. One of the engines on the Hauler always had a 36" chain saw under the cab, and this was often too small. Most of the track inspections were done from the office, and we were expected to "run hot" on the light rail. I dared try to do an initial terminal air test once, spent a couple days on the track gang for my efforts on that one. There was nothing like running an SD9 long hood forward across a curved trestle with nothing visible under you, or saying a prayer that Wolf Creek bridge was still there as you came out of the curved tunnel that immediately dropped onto it.
