it provided an outlet for timber to be delivered from the mill at Gilchrist to the Southern Pacific interchange at aptly named Gilchrist Junction ten miles south. The name was changed to Klamath Northern Railroad Company in 1940, then Crown Pacific purchased the mill from the Gilchirst family in 1991, and the railroad was shut down. Operation resumed in 1993 and it was renamed Crown Pacific Railroad. The name change was brief, as the following year the line and the Klamath Northern Railway Company returned. After filing bankruptcy in 2003, Crown Pacific sold the mill and railway to Canadian-based International Forest Products (Interfor), which is the current owner and operator. The Interfor mill is a state-of-the-art facility, but it also has a nostalgic feel in how it operates. Drawing water from the Gilchrist Mill Pond adjacent to the mill, boilers provide steam to the dry kilns. Fuel for the boilers, known as “hog fuel,” is a combination of local bio-mass from area forests and by-products of the mill operations. The mill currently can cut up to 50-
inch diameter logs and can produce 124 different products from dimensional shop grade stock to radius edge deck- ing. The newest product of the mill is called “Reserve Pine,” which is used in high-end moulding and door and window frames. Pallet stock is also shipped by rail to manufacturers to build shipping pallets. Another byproduct of the mill is wood chips, which are hauled out by rail. In 2014, the mill produced 352 center
beam flatcars of finished lumber and an average monthly car total of 120 cars of wood chips. The total shipped finished lumber stock was over 32 million board feet. This all traveled over the 10.6-mile railway.
Unusual Motive Power During its 77 years of existence,
the Klamath Northern has rostered only four engines. Starting in 1938, 2-6-2 steam locomotive No. 204, built by Baldwin in 1901, held the duties until it was scrapped in 1955. The tender still remains on property as a converted snow plow for winter duties. A new GE
BELOW: It’s just about quitting time as the crew pulls No. 207 into the single-stall engine house at the end of the day’s operations. The facility dates from the railroad’s original construction in 1938. JOEL HAWTHORN
BOTTOM: The size of the Klamath North- ern’s sole locomotive can be appreciated as it crosses the Crescent Cut-Off road at Crescent, Ore., just outside the mill property. At about 45 feet long, the GE SL144 it is just about the length of an SW1500. ROB JACOX
OPPOSITE: On January 23, 2015, the train re- turns from the UP interchange as light power as it passes some cars stored at the siding called Cement. These cars are being stored until there is room for them at the mill. JOEL HAWTHORN
32 OCTOBER 2015 •
RAILFAN.COM
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