ABOVE: An interesting match of power is found on the Harbor Turn on June 4, 2007, with Day- light Locomotive & Machine Works (DLMX) SD- P40F 644 leading an SD45 and GP39-2 out of North Plains, Ore., with a loaded train. The grade will increase east of here as it climbs towards the Cornelius Pass Tunnel. The unit is ex-Amtrak and is the only preserved SDP40F. DREW MITCHEM
RIGHT: A loaded Harbor Turn is crossing the Holcomb Trestle in dense fog on November 5, 2006, as seen from the cab of DLMX 274. No. 274 is a Great Northern F7A built in 1950; it was subsequently used by Burlington Northern and was later sold to Seattle & North Coast Rail- road. It was then acquired and restored to op- erating condition by DLMX and was used for a few years on the Portland & Western. MATT ADAMS
Railways District.” From United Junction to Bowers Junction the line was considered part of the Oregon Electric Subdivision by Burl- ington Northern, while the line from Bowers Junction to Banks was merely considered a “spur” and operated under yard limits. The track used by P&W between Tigard and Banks is part of the old SP Tillamook Branch (now the Tillamook District). There are sever- al good history books on these lines including Ed Austin and Tom Dill’s history of the SP&S. What is most interesting is that in just a
47-mile stretch from Tigard to United Junc- tion/Harbor, the line encounters street run- ning, pristine farm lands, a thousand-foot- long wood trestle, mountain grade territory and a 4000-foot-long summit tunnel. Traversed five days a week, the P&W
Harbor Turn operates from Tigard to Har- bor and back with the same crew. Ultimate-
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RAILFAN.COM
ly the Turn originates and terminates at the P&W yard at Albany, but between Al- bany and Tigard the train is known as the “OE Express.” This operation hauls raw logs from the timbered lands adjacent to the Willamette Valley for export. They are transferred from the Harbor Turn to a local P&W switch job at the Harbor siding along the Willamette River. A P&W train then de- livers them to Rainier, Ore., where the logs are then de-barked and hauled by truck to the Port of Longview, Wash., across the Co- lumbia River for export. Another commodity hauled on the Harbor
Turn is perlite from the Lake Railway near Lakeview, Ore. That product is delivered in hoppers to St. Helens, Ore., for the manufac- turing of ceiling tiles. Occasionally a lumber load from Sweet Home, Ore., destined for ex- port shows up in the train.
In the Shadow of Oregon Electric
Through the years, the traffic over this line changed many times according to the scope of the parent owner. The United Railways was laid in 1911 from United Junction over the Pass and extended through Banks into the timber-rich lands in the northwest part
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