Cost of quiet

This newspaper article by Anthony Roberts was originally published in the Oregon City News on September 26, 2007. I originally posted in on my website on October 2, 2007; I had very closely replicated the original layout of the article, but it didn’t translate well into this new format.

Oregon City News
LOCALLY OWNED BY PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP     LOCALNEWSDAILY.COM

Serving Oregon City & Clackamas County Since 1916
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 • VOL. 87, NO. 38

Strong support from residents will likely lead to $285K in

improvements at railroad crossings, and a quiet zone

photos by ANTHONY ROBERTS
Two views of the Harrison Street crossing with Purdy's Car Wash, above, in the background.

By Anthony Roberts
editor@clackamasreview.com

The Milwaukie City Council is close to approving new barriers at railroad crossings, a move that would make the city a designated “quiet zone” where trains cannot blow their horns, at a cost $285,000.

About 30 people showed up last week for a council work session – typically a sparsely attended affair – in support of the new barriers at three city railroad crossings. City staff said they've received more questions and input from the public on the train crossings than they have on any other transportation issue in the past several years, including the controversial light rail project.

“This issue really emerged ... by a margin of two-to-one, as the issue that carries the most creedance in this community,” Milwaukie Transportation Liaison Gavin Hales told council.

Council cannot take formal votes during work sessions, but the councilors who attended the session supported the project. There were reservations, however, including the funding source, and the fate of one local business that could be hurt by the project.

The project

Prior to the year-long study into creating a federally designated quiet zone, Milwaukie had been planning pedestrian improvements at the Oak Street and 37th Avenue crossings. Harrison Street is the third crossing affected. The city already secured federal Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) for those projects, and that money can already be used for a portion of the total cost of the project.

In order to become a quiet zone, the city has the choice of installing more costly four-quadrant gates that would prevent cars from swerving between the current gate arms, or building traffic barriers that prevent cars from crossing over into the other lane near crossings. The latter would be accompanied by pedestrian improvements, and is the choice staff recommended to council.

After using the CDBG funds, the city will still need $285,000 to install the crossing barriers. Staff proposed taking that from a combination of system development charges, the “fee in lieu of” fund collected from developers in place of street improvements, and the state gas tax, which is different from the 2 percent city gas tax. With the current budget already passed, all of the necessary funds won’t be available until the next city budget cycle, which starts July 1, 2008.

Council agreed that the cost was worth it, but there was debate as to where the funds should come from. Councilor Joe Loomis said he was opposed to taking the money from the state gas tax. The money is allotted for transportation improvements, and Milwaukie uses it to pave streets.

“We need to keep that gas tax money putting gas tax on the roads,” Loomis said. “Everything else [concerning the quiet zone] I’m fine with.”

Council directed staff to continue looking at funding sources for the project.

Car wash conundrum

Mayor Jim Bernard identified another problem with the project. Waid Fetty, owner of Purdy’s Car Wash on Harrison Street, said he stands to lose 60 percent of his business under the current plans. The new barriers at the crossing would prevent drivers from taking a left turn into the car wash while traveling west on Harrison.

City staff and the Fetty’s worked out a traffic plan that would still allow a left hand turn, but involves a driveway that wraps around a currently vacant office building beside the car wash. The Fetty’s lease the land, however, and Bernard said the landowner hasn’t agreed to allow unrestricted access to the driveway in front of the vacant lot.

“If we can’t get a hold of Mr. Murphy, how are we going to say, ‘OK, that’s the driveway we’re going to use,’” Bernard asked staff, referring to the landowner.

The mayor said he supports the rail crossing improvements, but expressed concern over the Fetty’s situation. He suggested that the city might want to consider using the more expensive four-quadrant crossing rails that meet federal quiet zone standards without necessitating traffic barriers, but cost significantly more.

“How can we wipe out a business,” Bernard said about Purdy’s.

Installing the four-quadrant gates would add a significant cost to the project.

Community support and safety

Whatever the cost, council seems to have the support of the public, which is driving the movement for the quiet zone.

City Manager Mike Swanson said the quiet zone is the issue he gets the most inquiries about. "It's a livability issue," he said. "Our challenge on this project has always been balancing safety against cost."

The city manager noted that the three crossings in such a short distance create a noisy situation.

"The engineers are just doing what the federal regulation requires," he said, "It means almost a continuous horn as they go through. It's just a function of the number and the distance apart."

While the livability issue is apparent, proponents of the new crossings also point to safety concerns.

In the past year, a pedestrian was killed at the Oak Street crossing, and another was struck about a quarter mile away on an open area with no crossing. There was also a car that tried to drive around the gates that was struck. The driver survived. Despite the recent problems, the crossings have not historically been an issue, according to Milwaukie police.

"Prior to the car being hit we hadn't had one in our section of the tracks for quite some time," Milwaukie Police Officer Kevin Krebs said, "and we hadn't had any pedestrians hit in quite a long time either."

PUBLIC SAFETY

Man killed by train in Oregon City

A man was hit and killed by a train near 7th Street and Railroad Avenue in the early morning hours of September 24.

Oregon City Police said they responded to a call at 3:05 a.m. that someone was hit by a train on the tracks that run parallel to Railroad Avenue. Union Pacific said the man was on the tracks and failed to move when the train came through. The subject was pronounced dead by medical personal on scene. The medical examiner took custody of the man. He is a 34-year-old white male. No further information is available until next of kin is located. Visit Oregoncitynewsonline.com and Clackamasreview.com for updates.

Related Links:
Oregon City News
Clackamas Review
Union Pacific Railroad
City of Milwaukie
Purdy's Carwash

The call of the steam locomotive

This newspaper article by Amy Martinez Starke was originally published in the Sunday Oregonian on April 22, 2007. I originally posted in on my website on October 2, 2007; I had very closely replicated the original layout of the article, but it didn’t translate well into this new format.

The Sunday Oregonian
APRIL 22, 2007

OBITUARIES

A CHRONICLE OF NATIONAL AND LOCAL LIVES

Life Story │ Jack Albert Pfeifer

Jack Pfeifer of Beaverton worked for the railroad for 43 years, starting in Omaha, Neb., and moving west, and along the way he took thousands of slides of steam trains. The best of them appeared in "West From Omaha, a Railroadman's Odyssey," a book published in 1990.
THE OREGONIAN/1990

The call of the steam locomotive
Railroading "was my life," claims agent said, and it was also his photographic love

By AMY MARTINEZ STARKE
THE OREGONIAN

Jack Albert Pfeifer
Born: Sept. 1, 1921, Council Bluffs, Iowa
Died: March 11, 2007, Portland
Survivors: Wife, Betty; son, Larry; daughter, Michele Dietl; five grandchildren
Service: Private
Remembrances: The Salvation Army Cascade Division

Jack Pfeifer grew up listening to Union Pacific steam locomotives, hotblooded fire-breathing creatures trailing billowing clouds. His father and uncle worked for the railroad, and Jack aspired to work for the railroad, too, as he looked down from atop Council Bluffs, Iowa, west toward the Missouri River.

But Jack never wanted to ride the rails as a career. He was content to be a railroad personal claims agent for more than 40 years, a job for which his meticulous nature was perfectly suited.

"Railroading was not a job I hated to face each Monday morning," he said. "It was my life."

With the Eastman Retina camera he used in his claims work, he also took color photos of trains, impeccably documenting the time, date and place. He would find the ideal locale, then photograph them in different weather and lighting conditions -- the smoke spiraling up, playing against the blue sky.

On an ideal day, he would get a prize shot: a rainbow framing his train.

Because he used color film -- uncommon in the 1950s -- his photographs were on railroad calendars, and eventually he was approached by a publisher, producing a book in 1990 that is a veritable encyclopedia of steam trains.

When the steam trains gave way to diesel, Jack was not interested. He shifted to ships, and almost every day in his later years, he would be down at the Portland terminals, watching ships come and go. Jack died at 85 on March 11, 2007.

 

Jack served in the Coast Guard for 39 months during World War II aboard a tank landing ship and participated in invasions in New Guinea and the Philippines. He attended reunions of his unit for years.

 

Jack took this photo of the Southern Pacific 4449 sitting at Portland's Union Station. It appears in the book.

His love of photographing trains began early. At 12, Jack, the only child of stolid German parents, got a $1.50 box camera and started to take pictures of trains at every opportunity. Soon he had a Kodak 616 camera, better suited for train photography.

During World War II, he enlisted in the Coast Guard and served as a storekeeper on a tank landing ship in the South Pacific.

Every time his ship pulled into a port that had a church, he sent home a bulletin to his home church back in Iowa. Betty Ethington, a young woman also from a railroad family, wrote back. He appeared at her door during a transfer to officer school in New London, Conn. Then the war ended, and so did his military career.

He and Betty married in 1946, and he went to work at the railroad. They had two children.

He was not an affectionate "kid dad"; he was the guy to depend on. He had a great sense of propriety -- once going to extreme measures to return a $1 bill someone had dropped in a depot. Cautious and analytical, he wouldn't make millions, but he would never lose a dime. He wrote personal letters to corporate big shots to describe his experiences with bad customer service -- something that bothered him greatly as a point of honor and integrity.

He held politicians in low regard.

Jack worked first in Omaha, Neb., then Green River, Wyo., then in Salt Lake City. It was in Wyoming that he found his favorite place -- Sherman Hill. He spent maybe five years of his life on a desolate hill there -- "Home of the giants of the rails," he wrote, "Challengers, turbines and the ultimate -- the double-headed Big Boys!"

A promotion brought him to Portland in the mid-1960s, as far west as he could go, he figured. Jack mostly worked out of the Pittock Building in downtown Portland; Betty worked there, too, for about 10 years.

The family rode for free around the country on Union Pacific Pullman cars -- first-class, with white linen and silverware.

On his days off, Jack went down to the Portland train yards to see what Union Pacific was up to, and he photographed trains in the Columbia River Gorge.

Jack retired in 1982 after more than 40 years with the railroad.

Naturally, he had a model train. But a train going 'round and 'round wasn't stimulating enough. So his took up the entire basement, one of the largest HO gauge models in the Northwest.

He meticulously laid the tracks, anchored with tiny rail spikes. It took seven men to run it, operating it like an actual railroad.

Once a month he held "ops-sessions" (operational sessions), or meets. Hundreds of people came and went through his basement, and just as many others hoped to be invited to see or participate.

He and his wife also went on about 15 cruises, all over the world, something she enjoyed after all those trains. After he developed the new hobby of photographing ships, he would get up at dawn, taking photographs, looking at ship's funnels.

For years, he used a log to keep track of the ships that came in and out of Portland. He would see ships in port that he had seen on his cruises.

He was always looking for a great access or vantage point, just as he did for trains. After Sept. 11 security measures, he couldn't go down to the ships so much. They sent him e-mails of ship arrivals and departures, but that wasn't the same -- there was something about going out and seeing it for himself.

Still, whenever he heard a train on nearby tracks at his Beaverton home, he would race downstairs and see whether he could catch sight of it, remembering when . . . .

•
Amy Martinez Starke: 503-221-8534
amystarke@news.oregonian.com

Related Links:
The Oregonian
West from Omaha, as listed on Amazon.com
Union Pacific Railroad

Caboose in Scappoose

This newspaper article by Ruth Mullen was originally published in the Oregonian’s Homes & Gardens of the Northwest section on Thursday, January 26, 2006. I originally posted in on my website on October 2, 2007; I had very closely replicated the original layout of the article, but it didn’t translate well into this new format.

Thursday♦                                                                            ♦January 26, 2006

The Oregonian
HOMES&GARDENS
OF THE NORTHWEST

PHOTO BY MARV BONDAROWICZ
ON THE COVER: Darril and Jennifer Clark's grandchildren, Allison, 8, and Trevor, 7, look forward to spending nights in the caboose that Darril restored.

CHARMING
the 'snake wagon'

A leaky old caboose becomes a coveted hideaway By Ruth Mullen ♦ Photos by Marv Bondarowicz THE OREGONIAN

PHOTO COURTESY OF UNION PACIFIC HISTORICAL COLLECTION

Rescued from oblivion on a Tualatin Christmas tree farm, the newly restored caboose (above right) was named for Clark's wife, Jennifer, who shares his passion for trains. A historical photo shows how closely his handiwork resembles an actual working caboose, once used by the conductor and his crew as a cozy rolling home.

Darril Clark spent four years restoring and refurbishing and a dilapidated 1970s-era caboose he discovered in a classified newspaper ad. Today, the spiffy oak-lined interior (above) is a testament to his self-taught carpentry skills. Now, it’s a favorite hangout for grandchildren Trevor and Allison as well as swanky sleeping quarter for out-of-town guests.

Most folks would have considered the battered old caboose little more than a heap of scrap metal.

Not Darril Clark. The retired truck mechanic from Scappoose has a penchant for projects and can't seem to turn away a good challenge.

Four years ago, he spotted an especially daunting one buried in a classified newspaper ad, and he drove out to take a look. He found the windows and wood floors of the leaky '70s-era caboose so rotted that the interior would have to be completely gutted. If the frame had been wood, Clark would have considered it a total loss. But his wife, Jennifer, 57, insisted they come to its rescue.

"I felt sorry for it," she says. "It was really dilapidated."

For train buffs such as the Clarks, cabooses are rare symbols of a golden age, when almost every city and town in America was serviced by rail.

Once derided with affectionate nicknames such as "doghouse," "bone-breaker" and "snake wagon," cabooses date back to the 1830s and initially were little more than converted boxcars for crews to use as shelters. In later years the accommodations were improved, and crews added such finery as lace curtains, easy chairs and family photos to their rolling homes. Each caboose was assigned to a specific conductor, for use by him and his crew, and parked in a rail yard between that conductor's trips.

The multipurpose car also served as an office, a kitchen and a lookout post for the brakeman and flagman in an age before automatic air brakes. The cupola, a lookout post on top of the caboose, appeared in the 1860s to help conductors keep an eye out for smoke from overheated wheel bearing and other problems.

Railroads began phasing out cabooses in the mid-1980s, and only a couple hundred remain in use today.

The Clarks didn't want to miss a chance to own a piece of railroad history. Charmed by its vintage looks, the Clarks had visions of transforming the 9-by-30 foot caboose into a guesthouse and hideaway for their grandchildren, Trevor, 7, and Allison, 8. The airy cupola, ringed by windows, is just 9 by 10 feet, a perfect spot for sleeping quarters.

	A retired truck mechanic, Clark also put his metal welding skills to the test with a custom spiral staircase to the cupola’s cozy bedroom.
	Rescued Clark used leftover oak flooring to create built-in seating and storage in the bathroom (left) and glass block (below) to keep the tub out of sight. Finishing touches, such as this railroad crossing sign (above), come from the Clarks’ never-ending scavenger hunts. “Everywhere we go, we’re looking for something that will fit,” Darril Clark says.

 
For $10,000, it was theirs. Unfortunately, they discovered that the cost to move it from its former home on a tree farm in Tualatin to their 2-1/2-acre property in Scappoose was more than what they'd paid for it.

So Darril Clark, 55, got on the phone to his old trucking buddies and tracked down one who used to rebuild old railcars. Soon, he had all the help he needed. He jacked the caboose up, welded log-truck axles to the back, attached a kingpin to the front and towed it onto the freeway.

Since the cupola made the railcar to high to fit under power lines and traffic lights, Clark (who also happens to be a skilled metal welder) burned it off with a cutting torch and set it aside for a separate trip on a flatbed trailer. All told, the preparations took four days, and during that time, more than a few folks slowed down to watch.

"It's amazing how many people used that old caboose for a landmark," says Clark. "People stopped me and wanted to buy it."

Many shared the Clarks' vision of a cozy guesthouse or romantic summer retreat. But even cash offers couldn't dissuade the couple. They set off down the freeway, hauling the battered 28,000-pound metal caboose that was once the pride of the diesel-powered Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.

Back in Scappoose, Darril Clark laid the metal tracks and built a stone-wall foundation to help anchor it to the property. Then the real work began.

First, he gutted the interior, stripping it down to bare metal.

"There wasn't a stick of wood in it after we stripped it," he says.

Then, he replaced all the windows and rebuilt an all-wood interior: oak bead board on the walls and 7-foot-high ceiling, hardwoods on the floor, and cove and dentil molding. A gas stove bought for a song at a local auction keeps the interior toasty, thanks to the new windows and foam-insulated floors and walls. Clark put his welding skills to work by crafting a spiral metal staircase to the cupola (yet another space saver), which he turned into a loft bedroom complete with a full-size memory-foam mattress and flat-screen TV. On a clear day, this sunny nook provides a stunning view of Mount Hood and the Cascades.

"I like to come out here on a clear day," Clark says. "At night you can see the lights of Vancouver and North Portland."

Finishing touches included sandblasting off layers of red and chipped green paint, then repainting it cherry red with the words "Jenny's Railroad Express." The serial number on the caboose, 10348, is all that remains of its Burlington Northern heritage.

Four years later, Clark says, the caboose is finally near completion. He didn't keep track of the time or money he spent restoring it, he says, because that would have taken all the fun out of it.

"Nothing really worked out the way I thought it would," says Clark. "All the unusual curves and angles were really challenging."

But certainly not insurmountable. A curved glass-block wall created privacy for the bath without sacrificing space for a doorway, while a radiant-heated tile floor, claw-foot tub and built in cabinetry provide first-class amenities. Add a stereo, DVD player and refrigerated wine cooler, and you've got a snake wagon those old time conductors could only dream about.

Out of town guests, on the other hand, might just move in for good.

"Their eyes just light up," says Jennifer Clark of her grandchildren. They were out here last night wanting to spend the night." ♦

Ruth Mullen: 503-294-4059;
ruthmullen@news.oregonian.com

Webmaster's Note: This caboose, former Burlington Northern #10348, was originally built in 1960 by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in their Havelock, Nebraska shops as NE-12a class caboose #13577. A number of these cabooses survive today, including sister car CB&Q #13572 (later BN #10343), which is preserved in CB&Q colors at the Illinois Railway Museum.

Related Links:
The Oregonian
Union Pacific Railroad
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway

Model Train Club Keeps Local Rail Fans On Track

This newspaper article by David Bell was originally published in the Columbia River Reader’s December 15, 2005 – January 14, 2006 issue. I originally posted in on my website on October 2, 2007; I had very closely replicated the original layout of the article, but it didn’t translate well into this new format.

COLUMBIA RIVER

DEC 15, 2005 - JAN 14, 2006

On the cover: Cliff West (left) and Al Belanger, both of Rainier, enjoy their hobby at a meeting of the Longview-Kelso-Rainier Model Railroad Club. Photo by: DIMMICK photography

Keeping track of Trains

Twenty years ago, Cliff West heard on the radio there was a model train show at Longview’s Triangle

Mall and hustled over to see it. The Columbia & Cowlitz Model Railroad Train Club’s four members were there, manning their lone train layout. When West, who lives in Rainier, asked about joining, they said they didn’t want any new club members. By chance, however, two other men happened along, also curious about the club.

“We all three wanted to join ‘em and they turned us down,” West recalled. Instead of feeling dejected, they went to a nearby coffee shop to get acquainted and, soon after, formed what is today the Longview-Kelso-Rainier Model Railroad Club.  Over the years, West estimated, about 30 people have been involved in the club, which welcomes new members and is eager to share the hobby.  Not surprisingly, the Columbia & Cowlitz Model Railroad Club is long since defunct.

Since he was “old enough to know what a train was,”  – about age 5 — West, now 60, has been a rail fan. “From where we lived (in Astoria),” he recalled, “you could see the railroad bridge across the bay.” As a little boy, he would watch from the window. “It came just before dinner time.” West was also drawn to railroad photography and some-times used his Dad’s camera — without permission — while his Dad was at work. Later, when the film was developed, “half the roll was pictures of trains,” taken by young Cliff.

“I got in trouble for it,” he recalled, chuckling.

The timeless allure of trains is based on many things, said Longview resident Rob Painter, 33, current president of the club. Some people are looking for friends to “talk trains” with, while others are attracted by the model-building aspect, or a simple fascination with machines and moving parts.

The cost to get started in model railroading is $100-200, West said, which “will get you a basic locomotive, a few cars, some track and a power supply.” You also need some space. Cliff West’s train room is 13 feet square, with a 16-inch wide shelf along all four walls, four feet above the floor. Not everybody has a spare room, however. What do train enthusiasts do if they live in a small house or apartment?

“That’s where the club comes in,” he said. Members each have a key and  can visit the club layout on their own any time, not just on Tuesday evenings. “You can bring your toys and play.”

“At malls,” he said, “people want to see the trains going  ‘round and ‘round.” But rail enthusiasts take train travel to the next level. “It’s fun to run it like a real railroad,” switching engines, sending locomotives to the engine house and re-arranging cars, based on where the train might be headed.

“If you like doing things with your hands,” West noted, “it’s a very rewarding hobby,” much like the theatre, with carpentry, wiring, scenery and track work. There is also the nostalgia of what some people consider a “bygone era,” he added, despite the fact that trains are changing with the times and constantly evolving. “Trains are not going away,” he said. When all is said and done, there’s a simple appeal for all ages, said Painter, whose 6-year-old son, Jimmy, has a Lionel set.

It’s fun to run the train.”

•••

The Longview-Kelso-Rainier Model Railroad Club's 14- by 24-foot track layout is based on "HO" scale, 87 times smaller than actual trains.

Photos by Dimmick Photography

They choo-choo-choose to share their hobby

By David Bell

The Longview-Kelso-Rainier Model Railroad Club, open to anyone 16 and older, collects dues of  $5 per month. After a 6- month probation and approval by the board, you will be a key-carrying member.  Children under 16 can join if mature and accompanied by a parent. The club’s impressive  14' x 24' HO scale (87 times smaller than real trains) layout  is a project that is never quite finished. Each week, members add to it, modify it, admire it, repair it, and talk about it. The  layout is constructed so it can be disassembled and taken to  shows and conventions.

Meetings are every Tuesday at 7 pm in the basement of the Riverside Church (former elementary school), 3rd and West “C” Street, Rainier. Visitors are welcome.

Model railroading is a hobby enjoyed by over 300,000 Americans and many thousands more throughout the world. A good book is Playing with Trains: A Passion Beyond Scale, by Sam Posey.

For more information, call Rob Painter, 360-577-8319 or Cliff West, 503-556-2407.

Pictured are five of the club's 12 current members; left to right: Cliff West, Al Peffley, Rob Painter, Doug Markhart and Al Belanger.

A Christmas Memory

By David Bell

‘Twas very early, the morning of my eighth Christmas. My younger sisters and I were peeking around the door frame into the living room, trying to be as quiet as possible, to see if Santa had actually made it down our chimney. Much to our glee, there were colorful packages where none had existed just the night before.

After what seemed like eons, Mom and Dad finally got the movie camera and the movie camera lights set up so they could record our choreographed and orderly entrance into the room. Mom handed out the presents as Dad filmed our reactions. I remember being handed the special present, which of course, was always the last one.

I had no idea what might be lurking just a few millimeters beneath the colorful wrapping. I grabbed the bow with the deftness of a samurai warrior, and in one motion, breached the wrapping, revealing the word Lionel.  I sat in stunned silence. The look on my face must have made Dad smile.

We were a family of modest means and I did not let myself wish for something as wonderful as train set. I spent the rest of Christmas setting up the six-foot oval. I remember laying my head on the rug so I could look down the track as the huge locomotive bore down on me, only to turn at the last second to follow the track. I fell asleep listening to the wheels making their click-clack noise. I loved playing with that train.

It is 50 years later, and somewhere along the way I transferred my fascination with trains to airplanes, which might explain 20-plus years in the U.S. Air Force. You never lose your fascination with things, they just move into the background.

Note: David Bell retired from the U.S. Air Force after more than 20 years as an engineering technician and now works as a manufacturing technician for Intel in Aloha, Ore.. He has seven grandchildren, including 3-year old David in Portland, who will receive a wooden train set this Christmas – a gift from Grandpa Bell, whom we’re betting will find plenty of opportunities to join him in playing with it, perhaps allowing his fascination with trains to return to the foreground.

Related Links:
Longview, Kelso & Rainier Model Railroad Club
Columbia River Reader

Celebratory Ride Starts Last Season of Lewis & Clark Train

This newspaper article with photos by Deborah Steele Hazen was originally published in The Clatskanie Chief on May 26, 2005. I originally posted it on my website on June 1, 2005; I had very closely replicated the original layout of the article, but it didn’t translate into this new format.

The Clatskanie Chief
MAY 26, 2005

Celebratory Ride Starts Last Season of Lewis & Clark Train

A SPECIAL START OF THE SEASON AND VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION RIDE on the Lewis & Clark Explorer Train, especially arranged by State Senator Betsy Johnson and Astoria Mayor Willis Van Dusen, was enjoyed by about 40 volunteers and community leaders from around Columbia and Clatsop counties Saturday morning. The train loaded in Clatskanie, with passengers from out of the area arriving via bus. With the buses in the background, Sen. Johnson is shown chatting with some of the volunteers prior to boarding the train.

Dan Orr, of Astoria, dressed as one of the members of the Corps of Discovery has met the trains as they arrived in Astoria over the past two summers, and enjoyed the scenic ride from Clatskanie to Astoria in his buckskins armed with his mock muzzle-loader.

Johnson, who was instrumental in securing funding for the train during the Lewis & Clark bicentennial celebration, presented plaques of appreciation to the various volunteers when the "Explorer" arrived in Astoria. The volunteers included those who turned the railroad bridges across the Clatskanie River and Blind Slough.

The celebratory ride was also a bit bittersweet for the train's supporters. Ridership was down last year over its first year, and the train has not made a profit. The Oregon Department of Transportation Rail Division does not plan to fund it beyond this year's season which will end Oct. 3. Unless another party steps forward to continue it, it appears that passenger rail service - gone for half a century before the establishment of the Lewis & Clark Explorer Train - will disappear once more from the Lower Columbia region.

Additional information about the Lewis & Clark Explorer Train, including ticket information may be obtained by calling Lewis & Clark Explorer Train Marketing & Operations Manager Susan Trabucco at 503 325-7909 or email susan@trabuccoconsulting .com.

The train normally runs from the Linnton Station, west of Portland, but self-organized groups of 20 or more passengers may get on and off the train in St. Helens or Rainier. To make arrangements for that opportunity, interested groups should call Sundial Travel Agency in Astoria, 1-800-433-1164.

Chief Photos by Deborah Steele Hazen

Related Links:
The Clatskanie Chief
Lewis & Clark Explorer Train
Sundial Travel
Oregon State Senator Betsy Johnson
Oregon Department of Transportation - Rail Services
Genesee & Wyoming

Railroad Ties that Bind

This newspaper article by Brenda Blevins McCorkle with photos by Pam Hanson was originally published in The Daily News on May 26, 2005. I originally posted it on my website on June 1, 2005; I had very closely replicated the original layout of the article, but it didn’t translate into this new format.

THE DAILY NEWS

Thursday
May 26, 2005

AREA NEWS
Model train fanatics celebrate 20 years of making tracks – Page B3

This view was taken by a club member from the Weyerhaeuser train during the club’s recent ride. Photos Courtesy of Pam Hanson

RAILROAD
TIES that BIND

By Brenda Blevins McCorkle
THE DAILY NEWS

Area train enthusiasts celebrate 20 years 

Members of the Longview Kelso and Rainier Model Railroad Club lined up recently to celebrate the group’s 20^th anniversary with a ride on the Weyerhaeuser train.

A 20^th Anniversary is traditionally associated with delicate china or – for the more modern – platinum.

The members of the Longview Kelso & Rainier Model Railroad Club commemorated their recent milestone with another durable substance – cold, hard steel.

The group celebrated its 20^th anniversary with a train ride to the Headquarters area and back. The trip was provided compliments of Weyerhaeuser Co. The club was founded in April 1985 by James Davis, Cliff West and Donald Stanton. The eight members meet at 7 p.m. Tuesdays as Riverside Community Church (the old elementary school) in Rainier. They fix up their meeting space and work on their railroad layout, which is less than three years old. The layout is a model railroad scene, complete with switching yard and other common elements.

“We had an original layout,” says West, one of the founding members of the group. “When we would move it from place to place, it was about a four-and-a-half or five-hour job to set up and a three hour job to take down. This isn’t supposed to be work, it’s supposed to be fun.”

The group sold that layout, then went on to work on their new one.

Their meeting area is in the former band room in Rainier’s old elementary school.

“We ended up with this room that had blackberries growing in it,” West said. “The lights didn’t work, and we had to cut a second door to get the layout in here.”

The room now houses the layout at its center and has storage space at the rear for members’ gear and work supplies. The church lets the group use the room and club pays the utilities.

But it’s not all work and no play. Club members take their railroad layout to local events, such as the Stella Remnants of the Past festival, and they also have a smaller layout for short events such as school carnivals.

Part of their fun included the recent adventure on the Weyerhaeuser train.

Club member Travis Martin of Kelso said he got some great aerial photos of his house, which sits near the former wooden and now steel train trestle at Cowlitz Gardens in Kelso.

“My wife and I went up,” he said. “It was interesting.”

The trip lasted about three hours, West said, and Weyerhaeuser did it for free to help the group celebrate.

“We really want to thank them and the woods railroad,” West said.

He said the group is hoping some new blood will join.

“We’re all getting king of old now,” he said, then added, chuckling, “We need some 20-year-olds in this outfit, to do some of the lifting.”

Club member Rob Painter, who has been an avid train enthusiast since he was a kid, said the best part of the group is just getting together and talking about their hobby.

“It’s nice being part of a club,” he said. “We talk trains. It’s just fun to get together and play.”

Anyone interested in joining the Longview Kelso & Rainier Model Railroad Club is invited to attend a meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesdays at Riverside Community Church in Rainier. For details, call Cliff West at (503) 556-2407 or Rob Painter at 577-8319. Dues are $5 a month.

Related Links:
Longview, Kelso & Rainier Model Railroad Club
The Daily News
Weyerhaeuser

No. 700

This newspaper article by Elaine Shein with photos by Mark Rozin was originally published in the Capital Press on May 20, 2005. I originally posted it on my website on June 1, 2005; I had very closely replicated the original layout of the article, but it didn’t translate into this new format.

Capital Press

MAY 20, 2005

 

Historic Steam Engine Makes Tracks

 

The historic 67-year-old No. 700 steam locomotive passes Schreiner's Iris Gardens in Brooks, Ore. Visitors in Salem, Ore. had a chance to tour and learn about the locomotive, one of the largest ever built. Its history included transporting crops throughout the region. Photo by Mark Rozin/Capital Press

 

No. 700

Third-largest steam locomotive draws a crowd

Dale Birkholz, left, and Jim Abney check over the Spokane, Portland and Seattle 700 steam locomotive during its visit to Salem last weekend. Birkholz is the vice president of the Pacific Railway Preservation Association and helps as a mechanic and machinist to keep the historic engine in running condition. Abney was the train engineer for the day. The locomotive, built in 1938, is the third-largest operating steam locomotive, and the second-most-powerful operating steam engine in North America. It could haul 2,000 tons of freight, or 1,000 passengers, and could reach speeds of 100 mph. With roller bearings in the wheels, this locomotive has one of the smoothest rides in any locomotive, according to the engineers who operate it.

 

Story and photos

By ELAINE SHEIN

Capital Press Editor-Publisher

 

SALEM - Sitting in the warm cab of the third largest operating steam locomotive in North America as it sat on the tracks in Salem, rain drizzling behind him through the open window, Jim Venderbeck shared his passion for trains and this one in particular.

 

Occasionally leaning forward to turn valves to adjust the steam pressure, Vanderbeck explained why he has volunteered so much of his time since 1985 working on the Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700 steam locomotive.

 

Jim Vanderbeck and his wife, Linda, have served as volunteers for the SP&S 700 since 1985. Vanderbeck is president of the Pacific Railroad Preservation Association, and Linda is also a board member. Both help with the firing of the engine.

 

Most of the time the locomotive is stored in the roundhouse in Portland, away from public eye and admiration. Occasionally it gets special attention at state fairs or gets an invitation such as this one from the Salem Downtown Association to appear.

 

"Sometimes I really wonder what I'm doing with my life," said the accountant who spends his days working for the State of Oregon, but most of his spare time working on the train. He is in his fourth year as president of the Pacific Railroad Preservation Association. He admits there area days when volunteers like him get burned out as they spend many hours each week, often weekends and vacation time, maintaining and preserving the 1938 locomotive.

 

Last weekend, as the steam locomotive slowly chugged its way toward Riverfront Park in Salem for the first time in more than eight years, Vanderbeck got his answer.

 

"When we came around the corner and there were the people standing there or sitting in lawn chairs waiting for us, like a parade going down the street, it means a lot to us but also to them.

 

"There were little kids and people who were grandparents or former railroad workers. A day like yesterday makes all the rest of the days seem worthwhile," he said of the day before, when more than 3,000 people showed up.

 

Vanderbeck shared another lasting memory of when the locomotive visited Billings, Mont., two years ago. There were excited kids seeing a steam locomotives for the first time but also a man in his 80s with tears in his eyes who approached him and the other volunteers there. "These are people you've never seen before, they walk by and say thank you."

 

This means a lot to the non-profit organization "that doesn't have a lot of money," Vanderbeck said. With a core volunteer group of perhaps 20 people, and modest membership dollars, the organization has helped raise over $1 million to restore and keep the locomotive operational. Companies have donated steel, ball bearings and other materials to help restore the train over the last 15 years.

 

Jim Vanderbeck's wife Linda wears an orange safety vest and gloves as she helps in the cab. She has also worked on this train since 1985. When they first met, Linda realized that she would need to be involved with trains because of Jim's love for trains. They both help with the firing of the locomotive.

 

Dale Birkholz, vice-president of PRPA, works for a Portland television station as a cameraman in his regular job but volunteers every weekend including his last two years' vacation time to work as a mechanic and machinist on the locomotive.

 

"I'm not a train freak. I love how this machine works," he explained, as he stood by the large train, steam swirling around him.

 

Matt Baccitich is a fireman and helps with the start-up crew on the SP&S 700 and has worked for nine years with this locomotive. He helps light the fire and ensures the right steam pressure. The controls he monitors with constant attention include the water level and fuel level. In 2002, diesel power was also added to the locomotive as an option over steam to help it travel over larger mountains such as the Rockies to get to Montana.

 

Birkholz stressed how everyone working on the train is a volunteer. "None of us get paid for anything we do." He expressed his gratefulness for the skills the volunteers provide, such as Tom Weisner who has contributed such specialized skills on parts of the train, such as the wheels, that Birkholz believes "If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be here today."

 

Fireman and start-up crew member Matt Baccitich has worked on the locomotive for nine years. Wearing safety goggles as he keeps a constant eye on the various gauges in the cab, he said he loves his job because it's unique. "I love trains, I love steam. Trains are fascinating, dirty and loud ... I love them."

 

He still recalls the first time he saw this engine in Portland.

 

"I was overwhelmed by the size of it, the scale of it."

 

While it's the third largest operating steam locomotive in North America, it is the second most powerful one still operating. Weighing 879,700 pounds, more than 110 feet long, the locomotive could haul 2,000 tons or 1,000 passengers; it could reach speeds of up to 100 mph. The train was built in Philadelphia but spent its working life in the west mainly to carry passengers between Spokane and Vancouver through the Columbia Gorge. It was also used to carry freight including agricultural goods, until it was retired in the 1950s.

 

One of the items carried in the cab of the locomotive is a lemon.

 

Baccitich explained that Ken Praeger, a former railroad worker wrote in his book "That Reminds Me of Another Story" that anyone who wanted to be a hoghead (an engineer) needed to suck on a lemon first before a shift. That was because so many engineers were known as sourpusses to everyone else. In his honor, a tradition began to bring a lemon along in the cab when the SP&S 700 was making a run.

 

Jim Abney is someone who has even a deeper tradition.

 

Serving as the engineer of the steam locomotive last weekend, he said he was the third generation of a family involved in trains. "Being an engineer today is a real treat," Abney said. "My father ran this same locomotive in the 1950s." He said when he grew up beside the railroad tracks in Wishram, Wash., the trains were like part of the family. "Everyone worked for the railroad."

 

Working for the railroad "was just what I wanted, and that's just what I did, and I've never regretted it," he said, now in his 39th year of being involved.

 

For most of the week Abney runs trains for Amtrak, but his fondness for this locomotive is evident. He loves running the train, and swears he's "never had a smoother ride than on this one." The roller bearings on the wheels make the difference.

 

Jim Abney, who works during the week for Amtrak, was an engineer for the SP&S 700 when it visited Salem recently. Abney is following his father's footsteps: his father operated the same locomotive in the 1950s.

 

Valerie Sovern, marketing director for the Salem Downtown Association hopes to encourage the train to visit Salem more often in the future, perhaps as much as once a year. She said the best part about the locomotive is it appeals to "entire families: grandparents, parents, that was what was really cool ... it was wonderful to see so many people out."

 

As families admired the glistening black locomotive hissing steam, Vanderbeck and the other volunteers continued to carry oilcans, rags and gloves and they lovingly prepared the locomotive for its return voyage to Portland.

 

For more information or to contribute to the non-profit organization see www.sps700.org or contact the Pacific Railroad Preservation Association at PO Box 2851, Portland OR 97208.

 

Elaine Shein can be reached at eshein@capitalpress.com.

 

Related Links:
The Capital Press
Pacific Railroad Preservation Association
Salem Downtown Association

Still chuggin' at 75

This newspaper article by Bonnie J. Yocum was originally published in The Daily News on Saturday, October 14, 2000. I originally posted it on my website on June 1, 2005; I had very closely replicated the original layout of the article, but it didn’t translate into this new format.

THE DAILY NEWS
Saturday, October 14, 2000

COLUMBIA & COWLITZ
Still chuggin' at 75
Since 1925, Weyerhaeuser's little railway has been moving millions of tons of timber goods through area

Godfrids Ositis, 81, of Longview, says that in all his 28 years with C & C, he never missed one day of work. 'No accidents, nothing,' he said. Born in Latvia, Ositis immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1950. He retired from the railroad in 1981 as a section foreman. Photo by Roger Werth / The Daily News

Riding the C & C:
'It gets in your blood'

By Bonnie J. Yocum
THE DAILY NEWS

8:31 a.m.

I'm in the front seat, high in one of two 2,000 horsepower locomotives pulling 32 cars of lumber, empty chip bins and rolls of newsprint.

"This is where I sit all day," says engineer Daryl Greer, 49, of Castle Rock. Two black consoles with red high-voltage warning stickers stand in front of him.

"As far as our job goes, I think it's the best," says conductor Gordon Jones, 47. "Because you're not standin' in some machine. You're moving all the time."

Weyerhaeuser Co.'s C & C Railway is celebrating its 75th anniversary, and still trundling strong. It moves more than a million tons of cargo every year, linking up with bigger trains that distribute local products across the continent. It's a little railroad with broad shoulders, moving more freight per mile than most rail lines in North America.

The C & C runs from the plant site up to Ocean Beach Highway and then to the northeast, snipping a corner of West Kelso before running over the Cowlitz River and terminating at Rocky Point, north of Kelso.

Long lured to trains, I rode the C & C Thursday to see what 75 years of railroading feels like.

This 1925 historical photo looking west toward Beacon Hill shows a wooden trestle and the beginnings of a steel bridge, still in use today, across the Cowlitz River.

8:35 a.m.

Gordon hops off the train with flares in his fist to flag the crossing at Industrial Way. Someone had crashed into the red striped warning gate early that morning and knocked it out of whack.

Yellow and blue earplugs shaped like lollipops poke out of our ears. The engine shudders every few minutes as we roll alongside the Mint Farm toward Ocean Beach Highway. Tssssssss.

Robed in smoky October mist, Mount Solo looks farther away than it is.  Evergreens and poplars alternate on one side of the tracks. Blackberries bramble along the other.

Logging by railroad was in its prime in the 1930s.

8:42 a.m.

School buses, moms, dads wait as the arm goes down and we cross Ocean Beach, 30th Avenue, Pacific Way. Whoooo whoooo whoo whoooo. Two long, one short, one long at every crossing.

The C & C line is a ribbon of Longview's secrets. The dingy back sides of apartment buildings. Fenced backyards, patio umbrellas folded up from the wind and white plastic chairs tipped against a table to spill the rain.

A homeless man dressed in green and gray awakens from his cardboard bed and waves soberly, a half-salute, as we pass. Two empty shopping carts tilt in the dirt near him. Somber Catlin Cemetery slopes above the tracks.

8:55 a.m.

We turn north and skirt Columbia Heights in a stretch the trainmen call "Milco." It looks like someone has uprooted a couple colorful trees and slapped them against the tracks, leaving thick sprays of yellow and orange leaves.

Beavers from a nearby pond have been felling trees over the tracks recently. "There was one a week there for a while," Daryl says. Luckily this morning, the trainmen don't have to play lumberjack.

9:14 a.m.

At the Rocky Point switching yard, pigeons flutter over the tracks. The trainmen's lingo is foreign. "Oh-two and four coal off of three, or one, wherever they're at," Gordon calls into his radio.

Tied at their tails, C & C engines 701 and 702 chug back and forth, slotting the cars away until the paper, the lumber, the empties are all on different tracks. Crashes ripple from the engine on down the train, a domino effect of sound.

After a morning snack of Pepsi and corn dogs at Talley's Pacific Avenue Market across the street, the crew heads back to the tracks. They hook up 36 new cars, mostly fresh-smelling pine chips and coal bound for Longview.

9:41 a.m.

It doesn't seem fair that of all the people who pass this way, I'm the one who found a dollar out here on the tracks.

We're walking the train, checking brakes and counting cars before leaving Rocky Point. Gordon tells me about the transients, mostly Mexicans, who occasionally call out from the open boxcar doors. "Hey! Got a cigarette?" or "Which way is this train goin'?"

Graffiti on the cars, which travel all over North America, mark time and distance.

The Texas Madman 7-'90.

Ed Says: The Shadow Knows, 1841.

And my favorite, next to a drawing of a jumbled little train: Alone in the hard blackness, a line is coming in. Freight life continues. 7-8-98.

10:04 a.m.

We head back over the slatey Cowlitz, our thousands of pounds supported by a weathered brown trestle built in 1925 and still holding strong. My face against the glass, I watch white flotsam slipping down the river far below.

As we pass Westside Highway Produce, I look back to see the yellow caboose rolling over the bridge.

10:28 a.m.

As school kids at Northlake Baptist run waving alongside the train, Daryl lets me pull the black whistle handle and signal the crossing at Pacific Avenue.

Looong. Looong. Short. Looooong. I may have held it a little too long at the end.

"That one gave me goose bumps," Gordon laughed.

Tell me about it.

Workin' on the railroad

TOM BRACE, 76, of Longview.

19 years with C & C. Retired in 1984 as vice president and general manager of the railroad.

"I love (railroad work). I listen to the locomotive whistles every night, even if it's four o'clock in the morning. I listen to see if the engineers are blowing the whistles the way they're supposed to by law.

"It gets in your blood."

NOEL DAVIS, 63, of Kelso.

40 years total with Weyerhaeuser, 27 with C & C. Retired in 1995 as trainmaster.

"Anyone who works for a railroad is romantic. It's something you're always proud of.

"You gotta have a train, you gotta have a truck. You gotta have 'em both."

WAYNE KEEGEN, 65, of Longview.

38 years with C & C. Retired in 1994 as general manager of the railroad.

"It went by so fast."

"I really enjoyed working here. ... I really enjoy what I'm doing now, too. Nothing."

BYRON WILLIAMS, 67, of Castle Rock.

29 1/2 years with C & C. Retired in 1989 as train master and terminal superintendent.

Used to "cut" string of cars from the back of a 20 mph train to relieve the locomotives on tough uphill pulls: "You had to jump off the train in the dark."

GAIL CRANDALL, 57, of Castle Rock.

32 years with C & C. Retired in 1998 as accountant.

Remembers when the City of Longview tested sewers by filling them with smoke. "Well, they did that down in our business one day." Smoke rose out of a toilet and Crandall says all her co-workers thought it was a fire. "Well, those guys all took off and left me sitting there. They didn't even tell me."

- The Daily News

C & C railway: The hardest-working 6.5 miles you'll find

It takes a luggin' and keeps on chuggin' - even after 75 years. It's the Columbia & Cowlitz Railway's diamond jubilee, and C & C workers old and new gathered Friday to celebrate.

At the old air shack next to the tracks at the Weyerhaeuser Co. plant in Longview, dozens of workers, some wizened and retired, some green and limber, munched burgers and cake as Rail Services Manager Art Mahlum spoke about the grand old C & C.

The 6.5 mile route is one of the shortest of 16 "short lines" in Washington, Mahlum said. But the railroad carries more than a million tons of cargo every year, giving it one of the highest tonnages hauled per mile of any railroad in North America.

About 15,000 cars a year travel each direction on the C & C line, which runs from the Weyerhaeuser plant in Longview across the Cowlitz River over one of North America's largest wooden trestles to Rocky Point, north of Kelso. There, C & C rail workers drop off cars full of finished product for the big boys (Union Pacific and Burlington Northern-Santa Fe) to haul all over the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The C & C trains then return to Longview's industrial area with loads of raw materials, and the process starts over again. The train runs two times a day, six days a week.

The railway has 16 employees, three bright blue locomotives, 1,500 cars and one caboose.

Aside from Weyerhaeuser, the C & C serves NORPAC, Solvay Interox, Maverick Steel, Northwest Freight Car Shop, SMI Chemicals, and Pacific Lamination.

Source: Weyerhaeuser Co.

Related Links:
The Daily News
Weyerhaeuser