With my daughter attending the University of Oregon in Eugene we drive up every fall to drop her off and every summer to bring her home. If you like trains you'll figure out really quick that Eugene is a train town with a lot of train history. With time to kill while Sarah finished her finals, I decided to poke around the area and maybe get some photos.
This is a common sight in Eugene. This W&P (Willamette and Pacific) GP-39-2 shuttling cars -- in this case log cars.
Here's the caboose. I have seen this before. Maybe it was a different one. It has been marred by graffiti but they try to keep it clean.
After driving a few back roads I (we -- the wife was driving) found my way around the huge rail yard on the eastern part of town. After criss crossing a couple times I found an access road where I could photograph what looked like an old building. I really like this kind of stuff. I noticed it was entirely free of graffiti which is pretty amazing in a college town. I had no idea what this building was.
Over to the side I saw these really old structures. In the background a sanding tower maybe -- still not sure. And at first I honestly had no idea what the thing in the foreground was.
My wife asked if that was a guard shack. That's when I realized I was looking at a turntable! Long out of service would be my guess.
Stepping back a little I got this shot and could see these rail sets radiating in even increments all around the table center with some in the direction of the building.
I walked around to the other side of the building and spotted this identical GP-39-2 apparently being serviced. On and off the engines were revved up and down. Great to listen to.
Parked on a spur nearby was a small hopper car. Also unmarked by graffiti. Here's a close up of the brake system. I thought this was pretty cool.
Here's the truck assembly which looked brand new. Note the bar code sticker on the forward wheel.
As we left through another side we street we passed this set of signs. We didn't see these at the other entrance. Still, I apologize in advance to those who want to scold me for being a scofflaw. To be sure I didn't touch anything on the car or anything else.
Remote control! Wonder if it's DCS, TMCC, Legacy or DCC!?
