01-29-2014, 01:50 PM
Areas/prototypes that influenced me:
Moving to my first assignment in Coos Bay, OR (I grew up an East Coast boy), I was struck by the Blue Mountains and then the Picture Gorge area of the John Day River. The backwaters of Coos Bay and the moving of log booms became a daily treat for me. I also admired Tillamook Head, and designed a free-lance line running from Tillamook Head east across Oregon up the John Day River and through the Blue Mountains. This fictional line became my standard gauge Picture Gorge & Western Railway.
Transfers to Juneau and Kodiak, Alaska allowed me to see Dawson City, and most of the WP&Y railway. I got hooked on narrow gauge, with an interest in both Klondike Mining Co and WP&Y.
Moved to San Francisco area, and learned about the NWP, Pacific Coast logging, and dog hole lumber ports and schooners. A book about the Caspar Lumber Co, and thinking about a narrow gauge line based on the famous Gum Stump & Snowshoe track plan led to the fictional 3ft gauge Port Orford & Elk River Railway & Navigation Co.
How to integrate all these ideas into a cohesive, plausible dream? I spent a lot of time looking at the various dog hole ports in both person and on topo maps. I wanted to move it north into southern coastal Oregon, and I did not want to model an aerial high line loading of the schooners. The port would need a "shelf" close to water level to situate a dock and minimal rail facilities, with a cliff or hill to climb to get out of the waterfront. Port Orford met the basic requirements. How to justify lumber schooners coming so far north? Then I remembered Port Orford cedar from my boat building days. Did some research and found out the Port Orford cedar was used for mine shoring and ship building in California - it was considered superior to redwood and commanded a premium price compared to redwood. This justified the extra sailing time for the schooners. Searching the topo maps, I found several abandoned log ponds along the nearby Elk River which indicated there had been sawmills there at one time. Justification for the PO&ER was now complete.
Time frame was established at 1900, about 10-20 years after the operation started. Early 1890s was avoided because of the silver crash and recession of 1893. Earlier than 1890 would eliminate geared locos - and I wanted Shays on my line. Knuckle couplers would be mandated between 1893 and 1903, when conversion would be complete. By 1900, lumber schooners were rapidly being phased out in favor of steam. And in 1903, the SP standard-gauged the NWP. 1900 seemed like a reasonable compormise to get all the features I wanted.
Last issue to resolve was how to bring in a narrow gauge - standard gauge interchange. The standard gauge PG&W, as originally planned, was way too far north to ever meet up with my logging line. Then I read the history of the Oregon Pacific, which was remarkably similar to my contrived history for the PG&W - right down to the poor choice of Pacific harbor. Tillamook Bay was too shallow, and too poor an ocean entrance to ever develop into much. But Coos Bay was different. So I relocated the PG&W south to Coos Bay (Charleston, right at the entrance to Coos Bay). The eastern terminal would be Roseburg, with the railway never reaching its namesake John Day River and Picture Gorge. The route is planned, but financing never came through (just like the Oregon Pacific). At Roseburg, the PG&W ties to the Oregon & California, which was never sold to the SP in my fictional world. A fictional town of Lebanon (from the "cedars of Lebanon") was established where the narrow gauge and standard gauge met in the eastern part of the coastal mountains.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it....even though I now live in Colorado.
Moving to my first assignment in Coos Bay, OR (I grew up an East Coast boy), I was struck by the Blue Mountains and then the Picture Gorge area of the John Day River. The backwaters of Coos Bay and the moving of log booms became a daily treat for me. I also admired Tillamook Head, and designed a free-lance line running from Tillamook Head east across Oregon up the John Day River and through the Blue Mountains. This fictional line became my standard gauge Picture Gorge & Western Railway.
Transfers to Juneau and Kodiak, Alaska allowed me to see Dawson City, and most of the WP&Y railway. I got hooked on narrow gauge, with an interest in both Klondike Mining Co and WP&Y.
Moved to San Francisco area, and learned about the NWP, Pacific Coast logging, and dog hole lumber ports and schooners. A book about the Caspar Lumber Co, and thinking about a narrow gauge line based on the famous Gum Stump & Snowshoe track plan led to the fictional 3ft gauge Port Orford & Elk River Railway & Navigation Co.
How to integrate all these ideas into a cohesive, plausible dream? I spent a lot of time looking at the various dog hole ports in both person and on topo maps. I wanted to move it north into southern coastal Oregon, and I did not want to model an aerial high line loading of the schooners. The port would need a "shelf" close to water level to situate a dock and minimal rail facilities, with a cliff or hill to climb to get out of the waterfront. Port Orford met the basic requirements. How to justify lumber schooners coming so far north? Then I remembered Port Orford cedar from my boat building days. Did some research and found out the Port Orford cedar was used for mine shoring and ship building in California - it was considered superior to redwood and commanded a premium price compared to redwood. This justified the extra sailing time for the schooners. Searching the topo maps, I found several abandoned log ponds along the nearby Elk River which indicated there had been sawmills there at one time. Justification for the PO&ER was now complete.
Time frame was established at 1900, about 10-20 years after the operation started. Early 1890s was avoided because of the silver crash and recession of 1893. Earlier than 1890 would eliminate geared locos - and I wanted Shays on my line. Knuckle couplers would be mandated between 1893 and 1903, when conversion would be complete. By 1900, lumber schooners were rapidly being phased out in favor of steam. And in 1903, the SP standard-gauged the NWP. 1900 seemed like a reasonable compormise to get all the features I wanted.
Last issue to resolve was how to bring in a narrow gauge - standard gauge interchange. The standard gauge PG&W, as originally planned, was way too far north to ever meet up with my logging line. Then I read the history of the Oregon Pacific, which was remarkably similar to my contrived history for the PG&W - right down to the poor choice of Pacific harbor. Tillamook Bay was too shallow, and too poor an ocean entrance to ever develop into much. But Coos Bay was different. So I relocated the PG&W south to Coos Bay (Charleston, right at the entrance to Coos Bay). The eastern terminal would be Roseburg, with the railway never reaching its namesake John Day River and Picture Gorge. The route is planned, but financing never came through (just like the Oregon Pacific). At Roseburg, the PG&W ties to the Oregon & California, which was never sold to the SP in my fictional world. A fictional town of Lebanon (from the "cedars of Lebanon") was established where the narrow gauge and standard gauge met in the eastern part of the coastal mountains.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it....even though I now live in Colorado.