LEFT: The highway sign points the way to Cornelius Pass for eastbound Burlington North- ern Train 398 as it crosses the Sunset Highway (U.S. 26) in April 1980. Power is a mixed bag of four-axle cab and hood units. The OE con- nection between Beaverton and Bowers Junc- tion lasted until the early 1990s, when TriMet converted the right-of-way for its light rail line between Beaverton and Hillsboro. This bridge over U.S. 26 was susequently removed with lit- tle trace of its existence. RANDY NELSON


could. My engineer took the 644 and tied onto the rear, and down the United we went. It was pretty silly looking, with 644 on the lead of the logs by itself, but it was quite a fun little trip. I shoved him up the 0.5 percent at North Plains, and then up the ruling 1.2 percent (it’s mostly 1 percent) up to the tunnel, then used the dynamics to help hold the thing back for the trip down the mountain.” A new two-thirds-of-a-mile connector track


from the SP to the UR line outside of Banks is now in place; with it, the railroad no longer requires the runaround move, thus reducing the need for such unusual operating solutions. The $3.1 million “Banks Rail Connector” proj- ect was completed as part of a Connect Ore- gon project. The north and south approaches to the


Pass are as opposite as any can be. On the north side, the ruling grade is 1.65 percent with a short stretch of 2-plus percent. It is set amid a dense forest of evergreen trees with near continual three- and four-degree reverse curves. In the winter the north side is in near- ly continual shadow. One the south side of the Pass, the trees start to thin out and the right- of-way has few curves with a ruling 1.2 per-


LEFT: The Alcos are long since retired as BN GP35 No. 2516 (ex-GN 3033) leads westbound Train 397 (Vancouver-Albany) through Bowers Junction in August 1988. Most of the train is still on the Dick Road Trestle. The line diverging to the left goes to Banks. RANDY NELSON


STALLED AT BOWERS JCT.


THE SUMMER OF 1977 WAS AN INTERESTING TIME to be working at Burlington Northern. Traffic levels dictated that all the old first-generation power that was available was in service. EMD F-units, older Geeps, Alco road switchers, and Century units could be found on the mainline and the branches in Oregon and Washington. The Pacific Northwest was home to the former SP&S and Northern Pacific Alco fleet. They regularly worked the mainline from Vancouver-Pasco, Vancouver-Hoquiam, and on the Oregon Electric from Vancouver-Albany. I worked as a brakeman for BN between 1976 -78. I spent most of 1977


working on the Albany Extra Board. I was able to “Rule 33” (fill in for a vacation vacancy) a spot for several months in the OE Pool. OE Pool slots went “cheap” (low-seniority) because of a long layover at Albany and lots of work en route. One trip that summer had an unexpected activity for the OE, namely help-


er service. On this particular afternoon, we were called for Train 398, the Al- bany-Pasco through freight. There were enough cars this day that a second train No. 682 (Albany-Vancouver) was called about four hours behind us. We had the “hotshot” train with blocks of “BKs” (Bend-Klamath Falls) and PEs (Pasco East). Train 682 was to follow us with blocks for Willbridge, Vancou- ver, and Camas Chips. Both trains worked Minto (south end of Salem) and Beaverton and picked up the appropriate blocks of cars. We had four units (RS3 4058, F7B 827, RS3 4064, and RS11 4187) for


the trip. Heading railroad east (northbound), we lost a unit between Albany and Salem. But, we still had three and our train was not super big, so we were able to keep moving along, although not always at track speed. Train 682 left Albany a couple hours behind us and was slowly catching up to us. We were starting up the hill to Cornelius Pass out of Forest Grove Junction


when we lost our other two units, and now we were on our hands and knees crawling up the 1 percent. The old RS3 just kept pulling, but loosing momen- tum as we approached Bowers Junction, and the grade and curvature got the best of us and we stalled. I heard my engineer let loose with a profanity (the first and only time I ever heard him swear) and he got on the radio to Train 682. They had made it to Beaverton and were only 30 minutes behind us. The engineer was not able to get the other engines running so there we


sat. A plan was formulated by the conductors and the dispatcher. Train 682 came up to Merle (about two miles behind us) and they tied down their train and cut off their power. We were on the big curve at Bowers Junction and we were able to watch as Train 682’s power pulled up and coupled onto our caboose. It wasn’t too long before we were on the move with a four unit “helper” shoving us through the Cornelius Pass tunnel. They cut off and went back to their train and we went on into Vancouver with our single RS3 performing as God and Alco meant it to be. Life was always interesting on the “OE.” — RANDY NELSON


Randy is a train dispatcher for BNSF Railway in Fort Worth, currently working several desks in the Pacific Northwest. He worked for BN in 1976-78, leaving the railroad in 1978 to return to college. Randy made his railroading come- back with BNSF in 1998.


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