Southern Oregon Chapter, NRHS

It’s obvious that our collection of cabooses, locomotives and other rolling stock gets the most attention from the public and chapter members alike, but there’s so much more that is often overlooked and ignored. Many of the smaller pieces in our collection are just as rich in history and interest as the larger pieces. These are some of the smaller items in the chapter’s collection.

THEN

We have an A3 motorcar that we acquired from the White City Terminal Railroad. It was in "terminal" condition, but look at it now! Chapter volunteers rebuilt it from the ground up. (Literally. It was sitting in the dirt when we got it!) It's now used to give rides at the Medford Railroad Park.

Click here to see it in action.
(9.3MB .avi file.)

NOW!

Southern Pacific wigwag signal – A visitor to the park will notice our wigwag moving back and forth as a Live Steamers club train passes by. Our wigwag came off SP’s Coast Line, just south of San Luis Obispo, CA. We hope to get one of the very few remaining wigwags in Oregon as they’re being replaced.

Southern Pacific Griswold signal – There are very few Griswold signals remaining in the country, and we have one of them. When activated the Griswold protects railroad crossings with ringing bells, flashing lights, and a stop sign that pivots to face vehicle traffic. Our 1926 built Griswold also came from SP’s Coast Line at a crossing to Camp Roberts, CA.

Southern Pacific H-2 “target” signal – We currently have a working H-2 signal at the Medford Railroad Park. Our H-2 came from the ex-SP Siskiyou Line in Medford where it was one of two in operation next to the Bear Creek Corporation office. The other H-2 went to the Rogue Valley Model Railroad Club and like ours it is in operation at the Railroad Park.

Southern Pacific Style “B” semaphore signal – The favorite signal for railfans are the semaphore style of signals. There are upper quadrants and lower quadrant semaphores and we have several of SP’s more famous lower quadrants, all of which came from their Siskiyou Line. The semaphore on display next to our engine house came from Hilt, CA (near the California-Oregon border). We have one that came from Gold Hill and another from Siskiyou, CA, where it guarded the south portal to Tunnel 13. Over by the Live Steamers crossover tracks is their semaphore. It came from a spot between Bellview and Ashland, Oregon. We also have many extra signal parts in our storage area and inside the OC&E caboose.

Southern Pacific concrete telephone booth – This odd-looking structure does receive attention from visitors when the park is open. Inside this 3,000-lb structure we have an ancient, hand crank, railroad telephone mounted inside for the public to play with. Although no longer in use today, if you look around you can still find abandoned concrete phone booths along the former SP tracks. Donated by Dallas Chronister, Rogue River, OR.

Southern Pacific block indicators – Our chapter owns many of these block indicators. Resembling a “mini semaphore”, a block indicator was used to alert track crews when a train was approaching their area. The little semaphore would flip into the up “occupied” position and track crews would have anywhere from 6 to 10 minutes to clear the tracks for a train. In the days before railroads had two-way radios the block indicator was one of the ways for work crews to keep out of the way of approaching trains.

Woodville Depot – Prior to 1912 the town of Rogue River was named Woodville. In the 1880s the Oregon & California Railroad built the depot. When SP took over the O&C, they continued to use the Woodville/Rogue River depot until it became surplus. After acquiring the structure, an individual in Rogue River, OR disassembled it and used about half of it to build other out buildings; the rest he stored on his property. In August 2005 the chapter acquired the remaining portions of the depot. We now have most of the disassembled sections stored at the Railroad Park, with a few more pieces still awaiting movement from Rogue River.

Our collection of books, hardware and paper ephemera continues to grow. We welcome donations of railroad related items. We are storing most of them until a location can be found to make them available to the public for their research and enjoyment. Some are on display in our cabooses and the SP Flanger.

TOP