Tracking West
The Day The Music Died
The year is 2008, and the southern section of the Siskiyou Line has shut down. It would be nearly ten years before the line would reopen in 2015. The big reason for reopening, as well as the only major customer, was Roseburg Forest Products in Weed. Everything seemed fine for ten years, but then on December 3, 2025 everything changed.
RFP announced that the Weed veneer plant shut down, which meant that rail service would shut down with it. The reason for this was that the company wanted to consolidate veneer production, with the operations moving to Riddle and Coquille, OR. For CORP, this meant cleanups needed to happen. Lots of woodchip hoppers and bulkhead flats were stored along the line, so at some point all of those would have to move north. Originally, the railroad wanted the last run on Tuesday, December 9th. However, the mill, which used to employee well over 100 people, was down to under ten. Due to this, there was nobody around to load the last outbound cut. The following day, CORP held a meeting in Medford to figure out when the last run would be. Meanwhile, the Weed crew was out roping up the remaining cars on the line, and would end up dropping them in the sidings at Gazelle and Hornbrook. Afterwards, the crew would return the power to Weed. The last run would come the following day.
On Thursday, December 11th, the last cut of loads were ready to go, only five cars. A very thick layer of fog covered Weed and most of the valley north of it, so getting photos in the valley was not the easiest. Many railfans from all over NorCal and Oregon showed up to see this run. The crew took their small, but regular sized train on this line, to Gazelle. After hooking up to the train, it was a total of 38 cars. Once they departed, everything was going to Medford.
Eventually, the train reached Hornbrook, where 14 cars sat in the siding to be picked up. Here the train would also be picked up by the Medford crew, who brought two GP38-2s and an SD40-2 with them. By the time the Weed crew grabbed the remaining cars, the Medford crew had arrived with their power. After hooking up everything and getting ready, it was time to tackle the steepest section of the Siskiyou one last time.
I figured I would use one of the iconic lines from Don McLean's American Pie for the title as really, the music did die. Just like the line from the song, it refers to a massive loss, in the case of American Pie, Buddy Holly, and the end of an era. For the foreseeable future, no more will the sound of a horn and EMD 645s echo through the valleys and hills to the summit of the steep Siskiyou Mountains. Question now is will service ever return, the answer is maybe, I was told while chasing that UP might be looking to take back this section of the line to run interchange trains. However, this seems very unlikely as spending the time and money to upgrade 100 miles of track to Class I standards just for one train seems unnecessary, especially since the train in question, MRVEU, already runs on the adjacent mainline to get to Eugene. CORP also wanted to run all southbound cars to Black Butte for interchange, but that never solidified. It is possible these could happen, or something else could revive the line, but currently nothing hints at a reason to run. With no clear path in sight, what the future holds for this line is completely up in the air now. Hopefully, the line does not sit dormant for very long, as it is undoubtedly one of the coolest sections of rail in the west, and that also means all the money put in to revive the track in 2015 would go to waste.
The Day The Music Died
The year is 2008, and the southern section of the Siskiyou Line has shut down. It would be nearly ten years before the line would reopen in 2015. The big reason for reopening, as well as the only major customer, was Roseburg Forest Products in Weed. Everything seemed fine for ten years, but then on December 3, 2025 everything changed.
RFP announced that the Weed veneer plant shut down, which meant that rail service would shut down with it. The reason for this was that the company wanted to consolidate veneer production, with the operations moving to Riddle and Coquille, OR. For CORP, this meant cleanups needed to happen. Lots of woodchip hoppers and bulkhead flats were stored along the line, so at some point all of those would have to move north. Originally, the railroad wanted the last run on Tuesday, December 9th. However, the mill, which used to employee well over 100 people, was down to under ten. Due to this, there was nobody around to load the last outbound cut. The following day, CORP held a meeting in Medford to figure out when the last run would be. Meanwhile, the Weed crew was out roping up the remaining cars on the line, and would end up dropping them in the sidings at Gazelle and Hornbrook. Afterwards, the crew would return the power to Weed. The last run would come the following day.
On Thursday, December 11th, the last cut of loads were ready to go, only five cars. A very thick layer of fog covered Weed and most of the valley north of it, so getting photos in the valley was not the easiest. Many railfans from all over NorCal and Oregon showed up to see this run. The crew took their small, but regular sized train on this line, to Gazelle. After hooking up to the train, it was a total of 38 cars. Once they departed, everything was going to Medford.
Eventually, the train reached Hornbrook, where 14 cars sat in the siding to be picked up. Here the train would also be picked up by the Medford crew, who brought two GP38-2s and an SD40-2 with them. By the time the Weed crew grabbed the remaining cars, the Medford crew had arrived with their power. After hooking up everything and getting ready, it was time to tackle the steepest section of the Siskiyou one last time.
I figured I would use one of the iconic lines from Don McLean's American Pie for the title as really, the music did die. Just like the line from the song, it refers to a massive loss, in the case of American Pie, Buddy Holly, and the end of an era. For the foreseeable future, no more will the sound of a horn and EMD 645s echo through the valleys and hills to the summit of the steep Siskiyou Mountains. Question now is will service ever return, the answer is maybe, I was told while chasing that UP might be looking to take back this section of the line to run interchange trains. However, this seems very unlikely as spending the time and money to upgrade 100 miles of track to Class I standards just for one train seems unnecessary, especially since the train in question, MRVEU, already runs on the adjacent mainline to get to Eugene. CORP also wanted to run all southbound cars to Black Butte for interchange, but that never solidified. It is possible these could happen, or something else could revive the line, but currently nothing hints at a reason to run. With no clear path in sight, what the future holds for this line is completely up in the air now. Hopefully, the line does not sit dormant for very long, as it is undoubtedly one of the coolest sections of rail in the west, and that also means all the money put in to revive the track in 2015 would go to waste.