Anyone have more information about this developement, such as where in Oregon ? http://www.northwestrails.com/OPE/ope.html
Bill- The original OP&E ran east from Cottage Grove, Oregon. It was a logging line. Last operated by Kyle if memory is correct. I believe that this web page was from an attempt to reactivate the tourist/dinner trains. I'd not looked at their page in a long time. Seems to me that with no news in a year and one half, the effort must have fizzled? Otherwise we'd have heard the good news! Boxcab E50
I kinda felt the same way Boxcab. I work for what was once part of the Kyle shortline empire (the last of his holdings that was not sold until 2000). I thought that the original OP&Es' rail had been torn out. If there's any substance to the article above, it would have to be somewhere else in Oregon.
Bill & Boxcab: Oregon Pacific & Eastern was initially built towards some promising looking mines in the mountains east of Cottage Grove, but it didn't quite make it to the mines before they folded. The railroad survived on the logging operations that started exploiting the forests that the new road opened up. The railroad was then owned by a long string of lumber companies. The railroad was actually owned only one half by Kyle...Kyle and Bohemia (largest shipper on the line) jointly purchased the road in 1970...this was Kyle's second operation (the YW was his first). Kyle transfered the #19 from Yreka to Cottage Grove in 1972, and from then until about 1988 the #19 was used on excursion trains that ran the length of the line (Cottage Grove-Culp Creek). However, about 1988 Kyle sold it's half interest in the line to Bohemia, the excursion program ended, and the #19 came back to Yreka. The OP&E continued as a freight only affair until 1990, when Bohemia shut the Culp Creek sawmill complex down. The closure left only one customer on the road, a small sawmill located about one mile from the SP interchange in Cottage Grove. The OP&E stored new freight cars for Gunderson and others on the old mainline while maintaining very limited operations to serve the remaining customer. The railroad finally suspended all operations in the Spring of 1995, and the entire mainline was scrapped. The right-of-way was converted to a trail. The former shop was used for a while by Central Oregon & Pacific...I do not know what the current status is now. According to a very recent discussion about this very topic on the CORP fan Yahoo list, the "new" OP&E (the subject of the NWR website) is the creation of someone named Bob Larson. Bohemia let the OP&E name drop after they shut down, and Mr. Larson filed on the name. Apparently Mr. Larson owns several hundred feet of former railroad right-of-way somewhere on the Oregon Coast (no idea where) that for now is the "home" of the railroad. Mr. Larson actually paid Northwestrails.com to become his official website. The "new" OP&E did announce on the website that they would be the operator of part of the ex-Union Pacific Joseph branch between La Grande and Joseph in extreme northeastern Oregon (this branch was most recently operated by the Idaho Northern & Pacific, which will retain the first few miles of the branch to serve some still active customers), but the balance of the railroad has seen little operation in the past 5 or so years. This part of the branch was sold to the Wallowa-Union Rail Authority late last year. I saw some advertisements for a new excursion train operation on the line last year, but apparently the "new" OP&E is not the operator. A person on the CORP group that knows Mr. Larson says that he still has some plans for future operations using the OP&E name, but he does not share his ideas or plans with many people. One final note...Mr. Larson has some sort of a deal struck with the McCloud Railway that will allow him to use their #25 (Alco 2-6-2, built new for the road in 1925) on his operation, whenever or wherever it ends up being established. That's what I know, if I find out more I will be sure to post it. JD Moore Elko, NV http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails
Ahh ... that makes more sense ! Thanks for setting me straight on that question JD. I know that McCRRs' #25 is still sitting in the shop in McCloud waiting to be retubed and brought up to the new FRA specifications. After Jeff Forbis, (owner of the McC) received #25 back from a gentleman by the name of Mr. Fred Kepner, (after a protracted legal action to regain custody / ownership of the locomotive) he found #25 to be greatly disassembled. Jeff called me and asked me to ramrod a crew of his employees in order to put it back together. We rebuilt the boiler and after most of the summer the locomotives' Form 4 was completed and inspection passed. Mr. Kepner, along with is aging mother have aspirations to build a railroad museum, and acquire a great deal of railroad equipment and rolling stock by Federal grants. For some reason, Mr. Kepner feels compelled to dismantle the equipment after he buys it. For example, there's a sweet 2-6-6-2 Sierra he owns that he kept at the east end of the McCloud RR yard. He took it all apart and then just left it sitting for years, exposed to all weather. Every time I saw it, it was deteriorating more and more. If you ever go to Merrill, Oregon, you can see at least 8 to 10 steam locomotives lined up on a siding in various degrees of rot that belong to him. It is really sad.
After reading of the "OP&E" plans, and seeing the time that web site has been stale, I am rather skeptical about anything ever happening. I'd heard of that fellow with the rusting locos. And I've met several others of similar mind. It always makes me very sad. While the equipment was originally saved from a scrapper, often, that ends up being the result. It's frustrating to think of what could have been. If only........ Boxcab E50
Mr. Kepner also had a lot of equipment on display next to the Cottage Grove depot on the original OP&E; I believe that most of the locomotives in Merrill came from here. The Kepner's museum was officially known as "The Great Western Railroad Museum". They first got involved with the McCloud in 1981. The #25's last operation before Fred's involvement was in 1975 for the movie Bound for Glory, which saw the McCloud send it and a crew to the Modesto & Empire Traction for the actual filming of the movie. Itel Rail purchased the McCloud River in early 1977 and ordered the road to dispose of the #25 by any means available as quickly as possible (they were not big on steam engines). Bill Herndon, president of the McCloud at that time, balked at the order and got Itel to agree to put the locomotive on public display in McCloud, but before this was accomplished Fred advanced a proposal for the McCloud to lease the locomotive to him for operations. Itel approved of that idea, and Fred and his crew had the #25 back up and running by May 1982. The locomotive operated on the McCloud until 1986; again, it's last use was in movie work, this time Stand By Me. Fred liked what he saw in McCloud and he was able to acquire the old Champion International truck maintenance shop, which is located adjacent to the McCloud main on the eastern edge of town. Fred then moved quite a bit of his collection to McCloud, including a dozen or so passenger cars. However, the McCloud was not living up to promises made to Fred, and Fred took the railroad to court. That's how Fred got the #25 in the first place (along with a couple cranes and some other equipment). I was told quite a bit about the litigation between Mr. Forbis and Mr. Kepner that resulted in the return of the #25 to railroad ownership in late 1995. Most of the litigation involved the failure of Fred to pay storage fees to the McCloud for the equipment he had on McCloud rails. About the time of the litigation Fred moved the Sierra #38 (in pieces), an ex-NP bunk car, a tank car, and his two ex-McCloud cranes to a narrow strip of land between the McCloud mainline and the truck shop. He still has a dozen or so passenger cars and some other equipment stashed on McCloud rails, but I do not know what is to become of those. Fred has started moving the stuff adjacent to the truck shop from McCloud to Merrill; the tender of the #38 moved last winter, and by this past September the frame and running gear were all set to be moved as well. The truck shop is now owned by a company that specializes in re-claiming and re-manufacturing used lumber. One interesting side note...the Siskiyou County tax assessor's office siezed Kepner's equipment in McCloud last fall and was only a day or two away from holding an auction to sell the equipment for unpaid property taxes when Fred paid up and lifted the county's lien on his equipment. Fred also submitted three bids for all or part of the old Oregon California & Eastern railroad after it shut down in 1990, but Weyerhaeuser rejected all three bids and scrapped the railroad. Interesting situation. The #25 doesn't need all that much work before it can operate again, but I am not optimistic that we will see it run again (at least on McCloud rails) at any point in the near future (Bill, I wonder if Jeff would be amenable to a "tit for tat" swap, the #19 for the #25...would give you guys a smaller, but more modern engine, and would give Jeff another mike to run...just speculation...). JD Moore Elko, NV http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails
Good info there, again JD. Thanks. I have not been over the the McCloud for awhile and I'm glad that Mr. Kepner was able to move that Sierra. Wow! Sounds like he dodged an assessors bullet though. You write as though you know Mr. Kepner personally. I have never met him but he sounds like and interesting person ... a little excentric perhaps .. but I'd like to meet him sometime just to learn what sort of equipent he actually has in his stable and to offer my help in restoring them. I do not think that #25 would ever be swapped for #19. Number 25 has difficulty pulling the McClouds' passenger train because it's too light. That's why Jeff bought #18 from the YWRR. The YW has a couple of grades of approximately 2.5% and we need it's tractive effort to pull the Blue Goose over them. Number 25 is a very nice locomotive though and looks beautiful when it doubles up with #18.
I have only met Fred incidently, but one cannot hang around with the McCloud veterans for too long without learning more than one probably should...
