Southern Oregon Chapter, NRHS

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Caboose #14446

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This red caboose is the second oldest piece of railroad rolling stock at the Medford Railroad Park and the first piece of rolling stock you see when driving into the parking lot. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (part of today’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad) built this NE-6 class caboose at their Aurora, Illinois shops in June of 1910. The CB&Q referred to their cabooses as “waycars”. It is believed that the origin of the term “waycar” used on the Q to describe their cabooses, originated around the turn of the last century when the cars were called “way freight rider cars” or “way freight cabooses.” As most railroaders do, the Burlington employees shortened these terms and began using the term “waycar”. The term caught on, and from that time until the BN merger, Burlington cabooses have proudly been called waycars.

There were 70 of these cabooses built with steel underframes and classified as NE-6 (numbers 14407-14476). Because of their large size many from this group of 70 were also used in Drover Service. Drover Service goes back to the days when whole trainloads of livestock were shipped to packing plants back east. The drovers (cowboys) would ride, sleep and eat in the caboose while accompanying their livestock to market.

In the 1970 merger that created the Burlington Northern Railroad, CB&Q caboose #14446 was transferred to the Burlington Northern under the assigned number BN 11125, but it never was painted as such. In June 1975 it was sold to the Oregon, Pacific & Eastern Railway (OP&E) of Cottage Grove, Oregon. The OP&E was a logging railroad between Cottage Grove and Culp Creek, Oregon that also ran excursion passenger trains.

Many years before the OP&E closed down for good in 1995 this caboose was sold again to become a part of the Station House Restaurant in Medford. The Station House was located on Jacksonville Highway next to Bi-Mart. The restaurant cut in an entrance doorway into the side of the caboose and made it their lounge. When the restaurant closed it was then purchased by the late Ed Krahel of Ashland. The Krahel property was purchased at auction by Ted Clay of Ashland in 1994, who donated the caboose and three other railroad cars to our Southern Oregon Chapter.

After the car was transported to the Railroad Park, the exterior was restored to original condition and the interior was cleaned up and turned into an interpretive center for the Chapter. Today it houses some of our many railroad related artifacts.

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Pacific and Eastern Two-Bay Hopper Car #74735

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Pacific and Eastern Railway Two-Bay Hopper Ore Car #74735, formerly from the Great Northern Railway, is the oldest piece of rolling stock we own. It was donated to the Chapter by Medco prior to 1982. This is the only known surviving piece of rolling stock from the Pacific and Eastern Railroad. It was known to have been in service between Medford and Butte Falls as early as 1910.

The Pacific & Eastern (P&E) was organized by James Hill interests after acquiring the bankrupt Medford & Crater Lake Railroad in 1907. Hill intended to extend the former Medford & Crater Lake Railroad from its Eagle Point terminus to Klamath Falls by crossing the mountains between them. Upon reaching Klamath Falls the new line would connect with his Oregon Trunk Railway, which at that time was building south from Bend, Oregon. Hill named his new railroad from Medford, the Pacific & Eastern Railway.

Besides securing the potential revenue that could be generated from the timber business, Hill figured by having a new railroad serving the Rogue Valley, Southern Pacific’s monopoly would be broken by giving customers an alternate way to ship goods. Between 1908 and 1911 the P&E extended the line 21 miles to Butte Falls. Operations began with a trial train on March 11, 1911, and the first excursion passenger train ran on April 9.

In April 1911, the P&E main office assured the public they planned to continue the line to Klamath Falls to join the Oregon Trunk Railway and make it one railroad line. President William Gerig reported, “The Pacific & Eastern has been surveyed and located to the Narrows near the head of Klamath Falls and passed over the divide with an elevation of 5300 feet, on a maximum grade of 3 percent; the average grade being about 2 percent, and the greatest curve is a 10 degree.”

In addition to the Oregon Trunk Railway, James Hill is better known for building the transcontinental Great Northern Railway from St. Paul to Seattle. Of the many commodities handled by the Great Northern, one of the largest was the movement of iron ore from the mines in Minnesota to the docks on Lake Superior. To help move this traffic the Great Northern used a large fleet of ore cars. P&E 74735, built by the Pressed Steel Car Company in 1900, is one of these iron ore cars. It was probably transferred to the Pacific & Eastern for work train service as a ballast car. The original Great Northern lettering is still barely visible beneath the current layers of paint, almost a hundred years later!

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Defense Logistics Agency Boxcar #44015
Defense Logistics Agency Boxcars #53208 & 53209

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One of the long term goals of this chapter is to construct and operate a tourist train railroad in Jackson County. If we ever are going to do this we must have additional rolling stock to transport passengers and/or to store chapter parts and equipment currently in storage in rolling stock we already own.

In 1996 our Southern Oregon Chapter had an opportunity to acquire government surplus boxcars that were stored at Ogden, Utah. Chapter member Jerry Hellinga traveled to the military base and chose three of the best for purchase in 1997.

All three boxcars are examples of 40-foot-long boxcars that were once the standard car of American railroads, especially for hauling finished timber and paper products from the Pacific Northwest. All three cars were in almost “like-new” condition, having seen very little use by the military.

The price was right ($600 each) but because the axles on all three were still equipped with solid “friction” bearings, they could not legally be transported by rail. We would have to transport them by special low-boy trailers. Because the cars were in such good shape the decision was made to purchase the cars and transport them by truck at a couple thousand dollars each.

Two of the three boxcars arrived for unloading in Central Point on October 9, 1998. The two boxcars unloaded at Central Point and placed with #8 are:

DLA #44015 (capacity 80,000 lbs.). It was built in December 1944 and has riveted seams. It appears to be an AAR (Association of American Railroads) 1937 type car.

DLA #53208 (capacity 100,000 lbs.) was built in February 1953 and seems to be a PS-1 (Pullman-Standard) type boxcar. It's builders plate shows “United States Army, USAX #26529 - Department of the Army”.

The third boxcar, DLA #53209, was unloaded in Albany, OR at the Willamette & Pacific Railroad (W&P) diesel shop. We used the car to store diesel parts for our Medco No. 8 while we were repairing it. After we moved No. 8 to Medford, as a thank you for allowing our chapter to use their diesel shop and tools, we donated the boxcar to the W&P. W&P relettered it WPRR MW with the original DLA number. A few years later it became surplus to their needs and was donated back to the Chapter. It was moved to White City with our dining car and placed in storage there.

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