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Some thoughts about the plight of Oregon Shortlines
Author: shortline sammie
Date: 01-12-2008 - 11:02
During the past several months much has transpired with the Oregon shortlines that serve the distant markets of Dawson, Coos Bay and most recently, Tillamook. Usually as I drive around checking on various OPR projects I am focused on them; however, recently, my mind has wandered into thinking about the plight of my shortline brethren and their customers, and I keep coming back to one perhaps "goofy" solution. So, pop a "No Doz" or a strong cup of coffee to keep you awake, and consider the following:
Oregon has four branchlines that run from the Willamette Valley to the coast, described briefly as follows:
(1) The Astoria line, operated by the Portland & Western between BN-Willbridge Yard and Astoria, a distance of 95 miles; there is no traffic on the last 30 miles and the track is out of service due to a washout. ODOT, however, spent some $200,000 rebuilding this section for their Lewis & Clark excursion train several years ago, although there was no commercial justification for doing so. The line formerly went south across Youngs Bay on a long wooden trestle to Seaside. The trestle and track were removed in the 1970's. Much of the trackage in Astoria has been removed or realigned for the Astoria Trolley.
(2) The Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad, connecting with the P&W at Banks and running over the "hill" through the Salmonberry River canyon to Wheeler and then south to Tillamook, a distance of some 85 miles. Washouts in 1996 closed the line for several months which was rebuilt with FEMA and local funds for somewhere around $14 million. The latest storm has again closed the line in a different location with repair cost estimated at $24 million. GIVEN INCREASES DUE TO INFLATION, IS THIS DAMAGE EVEN AS SEVERE AS THE 1996 STORM?? I think not.
The last time I was over the line (2007) it appeared to be in quite good conditiion with large numbers of new ties and surfacing as well as heavy rail on the hill. Several years ago the right of way was leased for fiberoptic lines which parallel the track and can be seen as the blue and red conduits in the storm damage photos. POTB also has a rock quarry at Cochran. Since the POTB's SD-9's weigh around 365,000 pounds, I'm quite sure that the line handles 286K capacity cars (grain hoppers and centerbeams). Some figures say 3,000 loads a year move over the POTB; thats another 3,000 mtys. ASSUMING the loads ARE NOT 286K cars but 263K (older) cars, and it takes only 3 trucks to fill a railcar (not 4 trucks as in the 286 cars) you're still looking at some 18,000 trucks (9,000 coming in empty to load and then going out loaded at maximum GVW, it still makes a STRONG CASE for rebuilding the railroad with 2008 dollars; not later when costs are even higher. The qrarry and fiberoptic considerations make the case to save the POTB even stronger. Our dear governors' task force has suggested several options to NOT rebuilding the POTB; (1) Build trackage along the rugged coastline to connect the POTB at Wheeler to the P&W at Astoria (which would still require repairing the P&W washout) a distance of about 40 miles. The most stupid idea out of his mouth in years! (2) Barge the rail traffic from Tillamook to Astoria to connect with the P&W.
Of course, the public opinion is to give the POTB a decent burial or "death with dignity" as a local newspaper editorialized. This is great for the trail folks, but what about the shippers and all of the railcars, locomotives, etc stranded in Tillamook? The car hire clock still ticks as long as they are on the POTB until eventually the POTB will end up having to truck them out or just buy them.
(3) The Toledo Branch, owned by UP and leased to and operated by the P&W runs from Albany Yard through Corvallis to the mill at Toledo, a distance of some 75 miles. West of Philomath, there are no shippers EXCEPT the mill at Toledo. Should this mill close, there would be no use for the track west of Philomath and it would most likely be removed without any resistance.
(4) Which leaves the Coos Bay branch, running from Eugene Yard (over 3 miles of UP trackage rights) to Coquille, a distance of 138 miles (Coos Bay is at MP 120) and is owned, in pieces by the UP and CORP. This line was embargoed recently due to tunnel safety issues which were confirmed by FRA inspectors. Several shippers were affected by the short-notice closure which has had a profound affect on the local economy as well as the highways. Coos Bay has been designated as a highly desireable container port but its development is hindered by tunnel clearance issues. CORP's new owners have suggested (read demanded) a public/private partnership to repair the tunnels and give CORP a guaranteed operating profit.
SOOOOO, where does this leave us so far as rail service to the Oregon coast is concerned?
CONSIDER THIS "WHAT IF".
What if a quasi-government extensiion of the POTB acquired EXCLUSIVE control of the entire Coos Bay branch and entered into an agreement of sorts for operation by the new Port of Coos Bay - Tillamook Bay. Get the CORP venture (or is it VULTURE) capitalists completely out of the picture so as to have a level playing field with some level of trust. Arrange funding immediately through Connect Oregon or some other vehicle to begin the most serious repairs on the tunnels. If necessary, take the funding for CORP's new yard away and use it to get started. If the tunnels are really THAT DANGEROUS let's qualify a couple of death row inmates as engineers to run through the tunnels and then take them back to prison after each "sucessful" trip.
IMMEDIATELY (don't yet know where the $$$ is coming from) begin construction of a carferry (read barge) slip somewhere around Coos Bay and Tillamook (again, I'm not an expert on locating marine facilities) and come up with a tug/barge set to ploy the waters between the two points. Like the tractor ads say, "Nothing runs like a Deere" to my way of thinking "nothing FLOATS like a BOAT". You could call it the POCBTR&N Co. (Port of Coos Bay - Tillamook Railroad & Navigation Co.) EVENTUALLY, the locals can fulfill their dreams of a deepwater intermodal port and the Oregon coast will have rail service without taxing the highway infrastructure or subject to the whims of mother nature other than ocean storms. With only one Willamette Valley/coast route to maintain, th Coos Bay branch would make economic sense.
Another PLUS with operating into Eugene Yard: Corp has indicated its plans to close the lower end of the Siskyou line in the near future and route everything north into Eugene for interchange with the UP. B I N G O ! ! ! UP is able to consolidate moves into and out of the valley from Eugene Yard; we might even see a revitalization of Eugene as a railroad town once again.
My estimate of the net salvage value of the POTB track stucture (not including dismantling bridges) from Banks to Salmonberry (about 40 miles) is between two and four million dollars. I would expect the POTB trackage along the coast to remain in place as far north as Wheeler or possibly Batterson to acommodate the excursion business as well as any future industrial development. The abandoned portion could be quickly sold to a scrapper (A&K, etc.) for CASH or removed and the best material stockpiled for future shortline projects around the state, since much of the rehab was done with public money.
A prime example of reuse of the POTB material would be to rehab the "lower westside" of the P&W from Alpine Jct to Dawson where the Hull Oaks steam sawmill is located which is currently embargoed due to poor track conditions.
While the smaller, local service shortlines will continue to prosper, it is obvious that these operators are unable to maintain service to these remote areas any better than the SP did prior to abandonment or sale of these branchlines. In the early 90's when the shortline spinoff deals were being made by the SP, it was a different world. ODOT officialls bragged about their "new qualified entrepreneurs" who would be running these lines. Fuel was cheap; locomotives could be bought for under $50 grand apiece and times were good. We were busy learning how to run our "new" railroad. We learned quickly who the FRA was and that we had to inspect our track once a week. We learned what we couldn't do (haul passengers) and what we HAD to do (lots of paperwork). We became friends with the local crane cmpany who coul rerail our "misdirected" cars and a local contractor who could help us fix our track after a mishap. When lumber was moving, rail was $250 a ton (vs todays $750 a ton), diesel fuel was still $1 or less a gallon, private operation of these spinoffs was feasable; under todays scenarios they simply cannot survive without public/private partnerships which government must come to realize sooner than later, 'cause later may be TOO LATE.
The above scenarious are strictly a result of my daydreaming and may not be practical in any way, shape or form. They are worth just what I am selling them for...NOTHING!!
Shortline Sammie
Oregon has four branchlines that run from the Willamette Valley to the coast, described briefly as follows:
(1) The Astoria line, operated by the Portland & Western between BN-Willbridge Yard and Astoria, a distance of 95 miles; there is no traffic on the last 30 miles and the track is out of service due to a washout. ODOT, however, spent some $200,000 rebuilding this section for their Lewis & Clark excursion train several years ago, although there was no commercial justification for doing so. The line formerly went south across Youngs Bay on a long wooden trestle to Seaside. The trestle and track were removed in the 1970's. Much of the trackage in Astoria has been removed or realigned for the Astoria Trolley.
(2) The Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad, connecting with the P&W at Banks and running over the "hill" through the Salmonberry River canyon to Wheeler and then south to Tillamook, a distance of some 85 miles. Washouts in 1996 closed the line for several months which was rebuilt with FEMA and local funds for somewhere around $14 million. The latest storm has again closed the line in a different location with repair cost estimated at $24 million. GIVEN INCREASES DUE TO INFLATION, IS THIS DAMAGE EVEN AS SEVERE AS THE 1996 STORM?? I think not.
The last time I was over the line (2007) it appeared to be in quite good conditiion with large numbers of new ties and surfacing as well as heavy rail on the hill. Several years ago the right of way was leased for fiberoptic lines which parallel the track and can be seen as the blue and red conduits in the storm damage photos. POTB also has a rock quarry at Cochran. Since the POTB's SD-9's weigh around 365,000 pounds, I'm quite sure that the line handles 286K capacity cars (grain hoppers and centerbeams). Some figures say 3,000 loads a year move over the POTB; thats another 3,000 mtys. ASSUMING the loads ARE NOT 286K cars but 263K (older) cars, and it takes only 3 trucks to fill a railcar (not 4 trucks as in the 286 cars) you're still looking at some 18,000 trucks (9,000 coming in empty to load and then going out loaded at maximum GVW, it still makes a STRONG CASE for rebuilding the railroad with 2008 dollars; not later when costs are even higher. The qrarry and fiberoptic considerations make the case to save the POTB even stronger. Our dear governors' task force has suggested several options to NOT rebuilding the POTB; (1) Build trackage along the rugged coastline to connect the POTB at Wheeler to the P&W at Astoria (which would still require repairing the P&W washout) a distance of about 40 miles. The most stupid idea out of his mouth in years! (2) Barge the rail traffic from Tillamook to Astoria to connect with the P&W.
Of course, the public opinion is to give the POTB a decent burial or "death with dignity" as a local newspaper editorialized. This is great for the trail folks, but what about the shippers and all of the railcars, locomotives, etc stranded in Tillamook? The car hire clock still ticks as long as they are on the POTB until eventually the POTB will end up having to truck them out or just buy them.
(3) The Toledo Branch, owned by UP and leased to and operated by the P&W runs from Albany Yard through Corvallis to the mill at Toledo, a distance of some 75 miles. West of Philomath, there are no shippers EXCEPT the mill at Toledo. Should this mill close, there would be no use for the track west of Philomath and it would most likely be removed without any resistance.
(4) Which leaves the Coos Bay branch, running from Eugene Yard (over 3 miles of UP trackage rights) to Coquille, a distance of 138 miles (Coos Bay is at MP 120) and is owned, in pieces by the UP and CORP. This line was embargoed recently due to tunnel safety issues which were confirmed by FRA inspectors. Several shippers were affected by the short-notice closure which has had a profound affect on the local economy as well as the highways. Coos Bay has been designated as a highly desireable container port but its development is hindered by tunnel clearance issues. CORP's new owners have suggested (read demanded) a public/private partnership to repair the tunnels and give CORP a guaranteed operating profit.
SOOOOO, where does this leave us so far as rail service to the Oregon coast is concerned?
CONSIDER THIS "WHAT IF".
What if a quasi-government extensiion of the POTB acquired EXCLUSIVE control of the entire Coos Bay branch and entered into an agreement of sorts for operation by the new Port of Coos Bay - Tillamook Bay. Get the CORP venture (or is it VULTURE) capitalists completely out of the picture so as to have a level playing field with some level of trust. Arrange funding immediately through Connect Oregon or some other vehicle to begin the most serious repairs on the tunnels. If necessary, take the funding for CORP's new yard away and use it to get started. If the tunnels are really THAT DANGEROUS let's qualify a couple of death row inmates as engineers to run through the tunnels and then take them back to prison after each "sucessful" trip.
IMMEDIATELY (don't yet know where the $$$ is coming from) begin construction of a carferry (read barge) slip somewhere around Coos Bay and Tillamook (again, I'm not an expert on locating marine facilities) and come up with a tug/barge set to ploy the waters between the two points. Like the tractor ads say, "Nothing runs like a Deere" to my way of thinking "nothing FLOATS like a BOAT". You could call it the POCBTR&N Co. (Port of Coos Bay - Tillamook Railroad & Navigation Co.) EVENTUALLY, the locals can fulfill their dreams of a deepwater intermodal port and the Oregon coast will have rail service without taxing the highway infrastructure or subject to the whims of mother nature other than ocean storms. With only one Willamette Valley/coast route to maintain, th Coos Bay branch would make economic sense.
Another PLUS with operating into Eugene Yard: Corp has indicated its plans to close the lower end of the Siskyou line in the near future and route everything north into Eugene for interchange with the UP. B I N G O ! ! ! UP is able to consolidate moves into and out of the valley from Eugene Yard; we might even see a revitalization of Eugene as a railroad town once again.
My estimate of the net salvage value of the POTB track stucture (not including dismantling bridges) from Banks to Salmonberry (about 40 miles) is between two and four million dollars. I would expect the POTB trackage along the coast to remain in place as far north as Wheeler or possibly Batterson to acommodate the excursion business as well as any future industrial development. The abandoned portion could be quickly sold to a scrapper (A&K, etc.) for CASH or removed and the best material stockpiled for future shortline projects around the state, since much of the rehab was done with public money.
A prime example of reuse of the POTB material would be to rehab the "lower westside" of the P&W from Alpine Jct to Dawson where the Hull Oaks steam sawmill is located which is currently embargoed due to poor track conditions.
While the smaller, local service shortlines will continue to prosper, it is obvious that these operators are unable to maintain service to these remote areas any better than the SP did prior to abandonment or sale of these branchlines. In the early 90's when the shortline spinoff deals were being made by the SP, it was a different world. ODOT officialls bragged about their "new qualified entrepreneurs" who would be running these lines. Fuel was cheap; locomotives could be bought for under $50 grand apiece and times were good. We were busy learning how to run our "new" railroad. We learned quickly who the FRA was and that we had to inspect our track once a week. We learned what we couldn't do (haul passengers) and what we HAD to do (lots of paperwork). We became friends with the local crane cmpany who coul rerail our "misdirected" cars and a local contractor who could help us fix our track after a mishap. When lumber was moving, rail was $250 a ton (vs todays $750 a ton), diesel fuel was still $1 or less a gallon, private operation of these spinoffs was feasable; under todays scenarios they simply cannot survive without public/private partnerships which government must come to realize sooner than later, 'cause later may be TOO LATE.
The above scenarious are strictly a result of my daydreaming and may not be practical in any way, shape or form. They are worth just what I am selling them for...NOTHING!!
Shortline Sammie
Some thoughts about the plight of Oregon Shortlines