A RAILROAD WITH A VIEW –

RUNNING THE LAKE COUNTY RAILROAD, OR 

CLICK ON PICTURES FOR LARGER IMAGE                                    Doug Jensen

It’s 5 p.m. on Friday, July 16^th, 2004.   The temperature is in the high 80’s; the sun is reflecting a harsh light upon Goose Lake, a 200 square mile by 8-foot deep body of water that has been on our left side for the past few miles. My speeder and 15 others are stalled behind a well worn, derailed and out of fuel ballast regulator, 8 miles from set-off. The machine’s crew is resting to the side trying to find shade while the foreman has walked ahead to get his truck and bring back some rescue equipment.

Ah, one of the limitations of traveling by rail - the fact that you cannot pass or go around stalled items that are in front of you. When you are accustomed to seeing objects on rails being very linear, it is strange to see this poor antique beast sitting at such an odd angle. Its so close to the rails and yet, so far.

Our collective group of speeder hobbyists has come up to offer advice or to supervise any kind of attempt to rerail our metal bovine. Time marches on and theories are mounting. I take time to look down at the rails that have held up so much, or in this case didn’t.  I shout, “Check this out! These rails were manufactured in 1907”. We’re on 97-year-old bands of steel and yet this railroad was built in 1912. Hmmm, wonder what worn out section of railroad the Southern Pacific yanked these tracks from? And when? Could they have come from the original Overland Line where they had seen too much wear for the faster trains but still had good life on a branch?

Finally, to the crew and excursionist’s relief, the boss shows up with the large bodacious track machine that we had seen in town and yanks, lifts and pulls on the disabled bovine of a machine. It resists briefly but soon she’s rerailed and the crew, with more fuel and a couple of donated Scott Edgar Pepsi’s, fires up the old bandaged thing and marches on to town, ripping along at a Fairmont first gear 15 mph clip. Ah well, the sun is getting lower and the scenery is phenomenal. Oh ya, one of the advantages of rail travel is getting to areas most people will never see. I mean we’ve seen antelope, coyotes, red tailed hawks, deer, egrets, geese, pelicans, and two Bald Eagles. This little 55-mile out in the end of the world railroad offers more wildlife than any railroad I’ve ever ridden on.

I’m leading a group of very dedicated speederites on the Lake County Railroad. And I do mean dedicated since this is as far from anywhere one can get in a one-day journey from most of Northern California. Consider this – the Lake County Railroad represents the only rails laid in this county of 8,359 square miles. If you were to travel north from Lakeview you wouldn’t hit any rails for 250 miles. Going east you would have to travel 430. Lakeview, the county seat for this large county, is the only city located within its boundaries and the total population of the county is 7,750 – a population density of less then one person per square mile* The lake County Railroad is owned by the state of Oregon and, as was pointed out to me, this may the only situation where another state owns a piece of another as 40 miles of this 55 mile railroad are in California. 

Our trip started the evening before with a wonderful little run that started at 7:30 p.m. from Lakeview, OR and ran down to Goose Lake State Park which is right on the Oregon/California state lines. We turned our cars there and returned during the sunset. The next day we headed again back south to Alturas where we planned to have lunch. The day was very warm but as I’ve stated, the scenery and wildlife phenomenal. Our biggest problems were of the cattle variety since many of fences have small enough breaks that allow cows to meander onto the railroad’s right-of-way for the more desirable, less grazed places to eat. We slowed way down just in case one got a wild hair to jump out in front of us which has happened in the past on this line. 

The tracks parallel Goose Lake for 15 miles then it follows the Pitt River down into Alturas through a wonderful twisty canyon that takes us over a number of bridges and along old ranches and farms. The rail is in better shape then we’ve ever seen it as Lake County RR was given a large grant by the State of Oregon to rehab the tracks. We pull into Alturas at 12:30 and walk across the highway to the Brass Rail restaurant where the staff is ready for our 36 +- group. We’re in and out in less than an hour and since the track crew has the rails north of us till 4:45 or so, we decide to hang around Alturas for an extra hour or so before heading back. Some folks take in the Old N-C-O depot, which is now the Elks Lodge. Some of us head to the nearest ice cream parlor and luxuriate in air-conditioned respite.

On our trip back we take a brief pause at Chimney rock, a spot where, before the railroad was built, a pioneer had built a home using the towering rocks as a foundation and had built a chimney into it. The hearth still exists but the tracks took out the home. We stood briefly for a group picture and moved on. Further on, of course, our trip is interrupted by the derailment but it didn’t seem to matter to the group. The scenery had more than made up for any inconvenience this had created.  We still make it back to Lakeview intact and with great memories of a fine trip.

*(My thanks to Jack Bowden and Tom Dill’s wonderful book, The Modoc – Southern Pacific’s Back Door to Oregon for this info).