Thanks to Brian Edwards for help on this page, and to Brian McCamish - the information on this page is excerpted from and is based on Brian McCamish's web page on this line.
The bridge is over Mosby Creek and has since been converted to a bike path as can be seen.
Link to Brian McCamish's awesome web page on this line, including pictures and maps.
In Cottage Grove, OR, a logging line was built around the turn of the century to reach remote logging camps with vast timbered forests.
Surviving for over 90 years, the Oregon Pacific & Eastern was bought out
by the Bohemia Lumber Company in the 1980s, which itself was bought out by
Willamette Industries. Willamette Industries had no real use for the line as it
used it's the Southern Pacific (now Union Pacific) line and reload station in
Eugene. Willamette traded the line and right of way to the Federal Government
for erasing past timber debts with the Government. The line was then entirely
abandoned in 1994 and the OP&E dissolved.
A sad ending to a historic short line railroad that first laid tracks out
of Cottage Grove, Oregon in 1901 and was originally called the Oregon and
Southeastern. The rail line extended east 17 miles and soon much further to the
Bohemia mine district. Two main branch lines were constructed. A north and south
branch, but over time, only the north branch would remain. As mining faded in
the 1920s, the line was cut back to Culp Creek, where several timber mills and
industry were regularly serviced by the railroad. In 1970, Willis Kyle purchased
the OP&E and added the "Blue Goose" Steam Train Excursion. Around
this time, the OP&E logo that you see above was established. This excursion
line ran from 1971 through 1988. Although some sources say that a round trip
excursion train did run until just before the railroad was abandoned.
Three major movies were also filmed on this short line. "The General"
in 1926, "Emperor of the North" in 1972 and "Stand By Me" in
1986.
The Bohemia Lumber Company which owned several mills in Culp Creek at the end of
the OP&E line, purchased part of the railroad and it was joint owned by them
and Willis Kyle. Besides the passenger excursion, the line's transported lumber
and chemicals to and from the Bohemia lumber mills in Culp Creek to the Southern
Pacific line (now Union Pacific) in Cottage Grove. In its last few years of
operation, freight business was down. The line barely ran three trains a week,
not including the excursion train using the two remaining diesel locomotives it
had left. An Alco S2 and an EMD SW8. The excursion train was pulled by a diesel
on weekdays and a Baldwin 2-8-2 steam engine on weekends.
The Bohemia Lumber Company was purchased by Willamette Industries. This was the
sign of a slow death for the OP&E as Willamette Industries preferred a
reload of its freight in Eugene rather than ship by a railroad that they part
owned with Willis Kyle. Around 1987, Mr. Kyle decided to sell his portion of the
line to Willamette Industries. After that, Willamette began to let the line die
until it was completely shut down and abandoned in August of 1994. A few years
later the railroad shops were auctioned off and part of the railroad was
eventually turned into a paved bike path.
Not much of the line other than the bike path remains at all. How did a line
get erased in just 10 years, nobody knows.
In Cottage Grove, the old rail yard, or remains of it, and one of the engine
shops still exist. An old Caboose, sits on display on the last remaining section
of track that intersected the OP&E and the Union Pacific mainline. Much of
the track in the rail yard has been removed, but some does remain. The last
standing engine building appears to have turned into a private storage shop.
Tracks run nearby, but the tracks that ran into the building have been removed.
A small bridge used by the line that crossed the Row River still exists and now
allows bike travel. There was also a branch from Walden to Abrams.
It's a sad ending to a railroad that many thousands enjoyed riding and made famous by the movies, "Emperor of the North" and "Stand by Me."
