OREGON’S PINE FOREST LUMBER HAULER
Tom Wood crunches along the ballast checking cars and performing an air test. It will be another half hour before the sun crests over the stands of pine trees in the central Oregon town of Gilchrist. The sweet smell of fresh lumber and wood chips hangs in the air. The sounds of a mill coming to life are evident, with the buzz of trucks, tractors, and loaders bustling about. The distant exhaust of steam reveals that the mill’s boiler is up and running. This is just another day in
Klamath Northern A
BY ROBERT W. SCOTT/PHOTOS AS NOTED
S THE SKY TURNS FROM PURPLE to orange, there is a chill in the winter morning air as conductor
the woods and the first hours of work for a small but busy shortline railroad. At just over ten miles in length, what
the Klamath Northern Railway lacks in size and scope it more than makes up for in character and drive. Situated in central Oregon on the east side of the Cascade Mountain range, the railroad calls the small town of Gilchrist home. Founded by the Gilchrist family in 1938, Gilchrist was the last “company town” in Oregon, situated at the north end of Klamath County alongside the Little Deschutes River. The area is known for its endless stands of Lodgepole and Pon-
derosa pine trees. This is the arid and drier side of the Cascades, with much less rainfall than expected for the Pacific Northwest. Set at an elevation above 4000 feet,
the Klamath Plateau stretches from Bend, Ore., south to Klamath Falls and into northeastern California. The local populations of deer and coyote outnumber the people in many of the smaller towns. When the hot and dry summers are complete, this region settles in for a cold, long, and snowy winter. The railroad was built in 1938 as the Gilchrist Timber Company, and
OPPOSITE: Klamath Northern No. 207 pauses briefly outside the engine house at the mill in Gilchrist, Ore., as seen between stacks of lumber awaiting shipment. ROBERT W. SCOTT ABOVE: Just into its trip with a loaded train, the KNOR slowly tracks it way along the line through the Deschutes National Forest towards the Union Pacific interchange. JOEL HAWTHORN
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