| Last Update: November 21, 2006 |
| This is Part 1 of a three part article This part contains a historical summary of the railroad & logging operations, maps, plus photos of the Carlton & Coast mainline from Carlton to Tillamook Gate Click here to skip to Part 2 Part two contains photos of the Carlton & Coast - Flora Logging Company spurlines & artifact remains. Click here to skip to Part 3 Part three contains historical photos, locomotive and equipment roster and information about the last surviving Carlton & Coast locomotive. |
| The history of the Carlton & Coast Railroad dates as far back as 1906. It was then that William A Howe built a sawmill in Carlton, Oregon. To get logs to his mill he dammed up the North Yamhill River around 1904 to create a 500 acre lake and used splash dams to flush logs down to his mill. The company would be called the Cartlon Lumber Company. By about 1909, Howe sold out and a new company called the Carlton Considated Lumber Co. took over and built a new mill. The method of bringing logs to the mill by river caused many problems, including washing logs out into farmer’s fields and many times never reaching the mill at all. They needed a new way to haul to the mill. On February 10, 1910, the Carlton and Coast Railroad was born. Construction began on July 16, 1910. Some sources indicate that the railroad name was actually originally the Carlton & Washington Railroad and the name wasn't changed to Carlton and Coast until 1913. This hasn't been confirmed, however. The new railroad was organized by Fred Russell, W.B. Dennis, and S.B. Linthicum, at the time, the owners of the Carlton Consolidated Lumber Co. As the name implies, its intended destination was the Oregon Coast near Tillamook. However, despite having the best possible route to the coast, the railroad was having trouble finding the funding. Some speculate this was partly due to E H Harriman’s influence. Harriman owned the Southern Pacific railroad and was behind the building of what would later be known as the Southern Pacific Tillamook branch. That line was having difficulty being completed due to the many trestles and tunnels required and had the Cartlon & Coast been allowed to continue on to Tillamook, it’s likely that it would have reached there first. But that never happened. By the end of 1910, the line has only reach as far as Pike, a distance of approximately 7 miles over easy grade that roughly followed the North Yamhill River. From Pike, the line entered the small N. Yamhill River canyon. By 1911, the common carrier mainline extended a total of 15 miles and a logging railroad using as much as 6 percent grades and one major switchback was extended into the woods. Total cost to build the initial mainline was $29,823 per mile, using 56-60lbs rail. The railroad originated in Carlton where it connected with the Southern Pacific’s St. Joseph Branch. A yard, a large freight/passenger depot and engine house was constructed west of the interchange, close to Carlton Lake. While most of the logs would end up in Carlton Lake, just northwest of town, some were shipped over the Southern Pacific to the Menefee Log dump. Several miles up the line past the switchback, was the original location of Tillamook Gate. Tillamook Gate was a point on the Trask Toll Road, a very rough wagon road that was built in the 1870s as the only overland route between the Willamette Valley and Tillamook on the Oregon Coast. The Toll Road was still the fastest way to reach Tillamook. All Tillamook mail and many goods were shipped over the dangerous wagon road, starting from the town of Yamhill. However, the new Carlton & Coast could cut the first segment of the journey by hauling freight out to Tillamook Gate by train, where freight wagons continue the rest of the journey. However, this was very short lived. In November 1911, the Pacific Railway and Navigation Railroad between Hillsboro and Tillamook (Later called the Southern Pacific Tillamook Branch) was completed and the Trask Toll Road was no longer needed. After almost 40 years of use, the wagon road ceased being used and Carlton & Coast ceased hauling goods destined for Tillamook. The location of “Tillamook Gate” was moved back several miles to the switchback. From 1912, until the Switchback was abandoned in 1932, that would be the official location of Tillamook Gate. Between Carlton and Tillamook Gate, the railroad served 7 stations. Johnson was located at milepost 1, located just northwest of Carlton and presumably served the sawmills and the log dump located at Carlton Lake. Woods was located at milepost 5.2. The town of Yamhill was less than 3 miles to the west of Woods via the well traveled Trask wagon road and was likely served at this station, along with local farmers. Pike was a small farming community located near the railroad at milepost 7.3 and a station existed there. Cedar Creek was located at milepost 10.7 just north of present day Camp Yamhill on the west side of a major trestle. The next two stops, Fairchilds and Chesterbrook were located at milepost 12.0 and 12.1 respectively. Why they were so close is bit of a mystery, although it does appears each station was located at one end of a trestle, Fairchilds on the west end, Chesterbrook on the east end. There is some evidence that Fairchilds was a local community stop, and apparently had a mineral spring located there, while Chesterbrook was a small railroad camp. The final stop on the common carrier portion of the line was Tillamook Gate at milepost 14.1. Also known as the Switchback. At the switchback, a large trestle was built that actually didn't go anywhere. It was the tail track for the switchback. Here, a water tank and oil tank were located for the steam engines. Loaded and empty log cars were interchanged. Rod engines would return with empty log cars and set them on the trestle, then wait for the loaded log cars. A Shay or Willamette would bring loaded log cars down from the mountain where the rod engines would take over for the rest of the journey back to Carlton. After filling its oil and water tanks, the geared engine would pick up the empties and head back up into the woods for another load. In 1914, the Carlton Consolidated Lumber saw mill burned down. The hospital remained in use for another couple of years. By 1915, the Carlton Lake dam was dismantled and the lake drained. Some of the lake bottom was reclaimed for farming. Things looked bleak for the railroad and the lumber industry around Carlton. Around 1922, Joe Flora purchased a controlling interest in the fledging railroad and logging operation. Flora incorporated his new company on November 29, 1922. While under the Flora Logging Company, the mainline railroad was still officially known as the Carlton & Coast RR. Much of the old Carlton & Coast logging equipment, some of which languished for a few years, was sold to Flora, who then set about fixing and overhauling what he could. Flora continued to log and improve the efficiency of the operation. By 1923, the dam at Carlton Lake was repaired and they began shipping as many as 50 log cars per day. By the early 1920s, there was still said to be well over 1 billion board feet of timber left to cut. In 1923 another large saw mill was built by the Carlton Manufacturing Co. as well as other smaller mills in the area. However, despite these successes, it was said that Flora’s operation was one of the most dangerous and that as many as a man per week was killed. It was said that Flora never maintained his equipment and pushed his men hard. In 1929, the Flora Logging Co. began construction of a new spur north off the mainline up the east side of Fairchild Creek. By 1932, the switchback at Tillamook Gate and a number of miles of spur north of there were abandoned. The common carrier portion of the line was cut back about one mile from Tillamook Gate to Fairchilds. The new logging spur left the common carrier mainline about 2 miles east of Fairchilds. By 1932, Flora obtained a loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (a depression era government loan program) to fund several high trestles near the headwaters of Fairchild creek, to the get the new logging spur up to a point that would be known as Neverstill. This eliminated the switchback and steep grade of the prior logging mainline. Neverstill (not to be confused with an entirely different Neverstill on the Kerry Timber Railroad) would the be the site of a major logging and railroad camp. From there, logging railroads branched out in all different directions, some spurs coming very close to the original spurs cut prior to 1932. When the great 1933 Tillamook Burn hit, a number of logging operations in the Oregon coast range were destroyed. Flora didn't escape completely, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Being at the southern end of the burn, Flora appears to have lost a few trestles and spurs and Camp One, but the damage was not as devastating as it would be a few years later. Camp One was apparently not rebuilt and operations were shifted to the new Camp Neverstill, sometimes also called Camp Two. During the Depression, as many as 100 log cars were hauled out per day and as many as 10 or more locomotives were working out of either Neverstill or one of the smaller logging camps in the woods. By 1935, another large saw mill was constructed on Carlton Lake in anticipation of increased logging by Flora. It was the Linke & Haynes Lumber Mill, more commonly known as the L.H.L. On December 31, 1936, the Carlton & Coast filed with the ICC to include the Fairchild logging spur to Neverstill in the common carrier portion of the line, making total mainline mileage 23 miles. This was presumably done because of passenger and freight traffic that traveled between the main camp at Neverstill and Cartlon. By 1938, the total mainline mileage was cut back to 20, when one spur, which was included in the 1936 filing, was abandoned. However, Flora operated dozens more miles of logging spur that didn't require filing with the ICC as they were considered exempt private logging railroads. As the Depression drew to a close by 1939 and the demand for timber increased, logging was set to expand even more on the Flora lines. Unfortunately, it would be one of the Tillamook Burns that doomed the railroad. The famous Tillamook Burn was actually a series of fires through the 1930s and 40s. The burn of 1933 was the largest and most famous. Much of the Flora operations were spared at that time. But the burn of 1939 would be different. Starting at the south end of the 1933 Tillamook burn, possibly started by the Flora Logging Co themselves by accident, the new fire raged up Fairchild Creek and completely took out the entire Flora logging operation. Over 26 trestles were destroyed, including some of the tallest 200 foot single bent trestles in the U.S. at that time. Along with thousands of feet of trestles, hundreds of pieces of railroad and logging equipment were suddenly stranded in the woods, including as many as 10 locomotives. The trestles were far too expensive to rebuild. The fire had not only destroyed logging equipment, it destroyed virgin timber that Flora had planned to take out. Flora was finished. Considerably smaller than the 1933 Tillamook burn, the 1939 burn still burned well over 200,000 acres, with more than 50,000 acres being virgin forest. 834,220,000 board feet of timber was lost and much of that was on Flora's land. Joe Flora would declare bankruptcy before moving to California and starting another logging company. But by 1946 he died by committing suicide. The Flora Logging Co. and the Carlton & Coast Railroad were taken over by the U.S. government's Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1939. It's not known if Carlton & Coast continued to operate on the mainline not affected by the fire between 1939 and 1940. It's likely any runs were rare since by that time the line was almost exclusively a log hauler. The three major trestles near the headwaters of Fairchild Creek were destroyed and cut off the lower mainline from the upper logging spurs and logging camps. Land locked, were dozens of steam donkeys, hundreds of rail cars and as many as 10 locomotives, plus dozens of miles of railroad track. Initially it was all left in the woods, abandoned. The fate of the railroad hung in the balance. For short period, Carlton & Coast No. 55 hauled lumber from the L.H.L sawmill to the Southern Pacific RR. Then, on July 3, 1940, the L.H.L sawmill burned to the ground. While the railroad's fate was not tied directly to the sawmill, it became clear at that point it's days were over. Two months later, on August 31, 1940, the Carlton & Coast Railroad was officially granted abandonment by the ICC. In all, over 77 miles of railroad was built, including mainline and spurs. There was still timber to be cut, but it would not be hauled by railroad. The L.H.L mill was rebuilt in 1941, but burned again shortly thereafter. It was immediately rebuilt in 1942 as wartime demand for lumber increased. Logging continued, but was hauled by log trucks over the Turner Creek logging Road to Yamhill and then down to the mill Carlton. It was the great scrap drives of World War Two that led to the salvage of the Flora Logging Co. remains and all the locomotives, cars and equipment that were left behind in the woods. The War Department was looking for any equipment that might be usable or scrappable for the war effort. Hundreds of tons of locomotives, cars and donkeys were abandoned in the woods above Carlton and the Government was very interested in getting them out, once they learned of their existence. Salvage work started in 1942. Because it was not feasible to build new trestles, a new temporary 16 percent grade was built from near Neverstill straight down the mountain to a point on the railroad along Fairchild creek that bypassed the burnt mainline trestles. Using rail and ties from the abandoned portions of the line, a new temporary incline spur track was constructed. The grade was too steep for locomotives to work on their own, so several salvaged steam donkeys were put to work at the top of the incline, lowering the salvaged equipment down the incline railroad to the still usable mainline. Several small culverts and small trestles along the way did have to be temporarily reconstructed to haul the equipment out of the woods. Simple crib log bridges and very crude temporary trestles were used. Hundreds of old railroad cars, log cars, and as many as 6 to 8 locomotives were brought down from Neverstill and eventually back to the yards at Carlton. Many of the locomotives and some of the cars were in fact saved and put to use on other logging and industrial railroads during and shortly after the war. However, the only locomotive that is known to survive today is the Carlton & Coast No. 55, a 1924 2-8-2 Porter, now owned and operated by the Mt. Rainer Scenic Railroad and operated as their No. 5. See more info and pictures on Part 3. After the locomotives and equipment were brought out, the L.H.L Lumber Company started using the old railroad grade between Neverstill and Carlton, including the new incline, as a one way truck road. Log trucks would bring loaded logs down the railroad grade and would return empty via the Turner Creek Road. This would be the birth of what is today a public county road called “Old Railroad Grade”, a very lightly used single lane dirt road built directly over the mainline. One can now travel most of 14 miles of mainline in exactly the same place that locomotives and trains used to travel. The only exception being a few trestle sites that were by passed when the truck road was constructed. The Carlton & Coast depot still survives today, although it's hardly recognizable. After 1940, it was used as a chicken processing plant. At some point, the entire building was covered in metal siding. I'm not sure what it's used for today, if anything. The Carlton & Coast spur track from the Southern Pacific branch to the Carlton depot appears to have survived into at least the 1960s, according to detailed city maps. Carlton Lake continued to store logs for mills still working on its shores until the late 1950s. By 1965, the dam was removed and the lake was drained for the last time for a building project that never materialized. The lake area was designated as a wildlife refuge area in the late 1970s and much of it has been reclaimed as farmland. Interestingly, a new smaller mill type complex was built sometime in the 1990s and appears to exist on the long vacant site of the L.H.L Sawmill. The Carlton & Coast and Flora Logging Co. may be long gone, but the vast majority of the railroad and spurs can actually still be driven on today as most of the spurs were later converted into logging roads. Much of the area is now a combination of BLM land, Tillamook State Forest and private timber land owned by the Weyerhaeuser and Stimson Companies. An occasional spur was left untouched where a few remains have been found, including spark arresters from steam engines and donkeys, donkey sled remains, trestle bents and an occasional railroad spike, tie, rail joiner and even a pieces of rail itself. Since most of the trestles burned during the 1939 fire, there are few trestle remains. It’s been said that some of the camp buildings that weren’t destroyed by the fires of ’39 and did survive years later, but virtually all of those sites have since been destroyed since, if not by the fire of 1951, then torn down by local authorities. Most of what remains to be discovered are well hidden under ground or growth or far back on hidden logging railroad grades. Rumors of abandoned locomotives exist of many logging railroads. I haven’t heard the specifics if one does exist on this one. However, with the fires cutting off the entire operation, it’s certainly plausible that other locomotives and equipment were left behind at least for a period of time. Some evidence suggests that not all of the locomotives that were land locked were brought out in 1942, however, most of the area later became accessible by road, so it's likely whatever remained was later scrapped out. |
| Recommended reading: A Song of Yamhill by Gorden N Zimmerman, published by Binfort and Mort, 2005 I highly recommend it, for a historic read of northern Yamhill County, including some info on the C&C Railroad. |
| Maps of the Carlton & Coast mainline and most logging spurs |
| These maps show the Carlton & Coast mainline between Carlton and Tillamook Gate. |
| These maps show most of the Carlton & Coast and Flora Logging Company logging spurs. Note: Not all spurs are shown. Further research is needed to map the rest of the logging spurs. Red indicates where a logging road was built over the original railroad grade in later years. Orange indicates a known grade that was not converted into a logging road. Blue indicates a known or suspected trestle site. Not all trestles are marked on the maps. Maps are by Brian McCamish based on multiple sources of information. Updated maps with additional information are coming soon. |
| The Carlton & Coast Depot |
| The Carlton & Coast depot building. Built in 1910, it hardly resembles the common depot structure of the day and was quite large for railroad of it's size. However, the building doubled as both a freight and passenger depot and the headquarters for the Carlton & Coast Railroad. After the railroad was abandoned, the building was turned into a chicken processing plant. At some point, in later decades, the building was entirely covered in metal siding, completely hiding all hint of it's former status as a railroad depot. Today, it appears to be an abandoned building. Brian McCamish photos: Jan 2006 & July, 2006 |
| Carlton Lake (former lake) |
| The old grade as it leaves the Carlton & Coast depot towards Carlton Lake. This short section is unfortunately gated off, but can be hiked. About a half mile beyond was stop called Johnson, where trains log trains departed from the mainline to the log dump trestle over the lake. Frank Calia Photos: Oct, 2005 |
| The grade near Carlton Lake. The lake is now dry and is mostly farm land, but during the C&C days it was a major log dump along with several saw mills. A fill was built to get the railroad over part of the lake, seen here. The rest of the lake crossing was a low level trestle, in addition to a log dump trestle. Both are now completely gone. The left photo shows the grade coming out Carlton before it crossed the lake. The right photo shows the fill at the north end of the lake. Frank Calia Photos: Oct, 2005 |
| The Mainline northwest of Carlton (Old R/R Grade Road) |
| The first 1.5 miles of the railroad grade north of Carlton Lake is actually a farmer's access road. We were only able to drive a short distance. The photo on the right is on the railroad grade looking southeast, toward's Carlton Lake, about 1 mile ahead. The other two photos are of the farmer's front yard, located at the intersection of Old Railroad Grade and NW Westside Road. The numerous ties used as fence posts were removed from the grade in front of this property sometime after 1942. From this point, approximately milepost 3.5 of the old Carlton & Coast, to approximately milepost 12.5, about a quarter mile west of the former stations of Fairchilds and Chesterbrook you can drive on the old railroad grade, now a county owned dirt road. From the old C&C milepost 12.5, a private logging gate controls access. Brian McCamish photos: Jan 2005 - 2nd photo from left, Frank Calia: Dec 2005 |
| Woods Station |
| Today's intersection of Old Railroad Grade Rd and Oakridge Rd was the Carlton & Coast stop called Woods. Here the old Trask Toll wagon road (now Oak Ridge Rd in this area) crossed the Carlton & Coast for the first time. The town of Yamhill was approximately 2.6 miles to the west and was likely served at this stop, as were any local farmers. Brian McCamish photos: Jan 2005 |
| Buried artifacts in the mainline grade |
| The old railroad grade between Woods and Pike stations. A distance of approximately 2 miles. This was probably the flatest and straighest grade of the entire Carlton and Coast and where the trains would reached their highest speeds. Brian McCamish photos: Jan 2005 |
| Along the old railroad grade, Frank Calia has found a few interesting artifacts that are finally showing themselves through well worn road after some 60 years, including a section of rail and several spikes. Frank Calia Photos: Oct, 2005 |
| More photos showing some of the railroad remains sticking out of the ground, including another spike and more rail. Frank Calia Photos: Dec, 2005 |
| Railroad coupler found buried in the grade, by Frank. Appears to be completely intact. Similar style coupler to one shown at right on an old Shay Locomotive. Because it's not broken, I theorize that it was a spare coupler that fell off a locomotive or railroad car, many years ago and was never recovered. A very interesting find indeed. Frank Calia Photos: Jan, 2006 |
| Left photo, a rail joiner found along Old Railroad Grade. Right photo, a mystery object also found buried in the old railroad grade. At this point, we're not sure what this piece used to be, but suspect it's related to a locomotive or rail car. Frank Calia Photos: Oct/Nov, 2005 |
| At first, Frank and I couldn't figure out why so much debris was found in the railroad grade. After all, we assumed gravel and dirt was piled above anything that may have existed when the new truck road was built over the grade. Matt Wolford theorized that what we were finding, the discarded broken rail, spikes and even the coupler, were items that were discarded next to the raised balast. In effect, where the items were found today, was the ditches of the railroad when it was in use. When the road was built, the rail and ties were removed and the balast bulldozed down to make a flat road, with the ditches of the grade, now being even with the center of the roadway. Over the years, the debis got compacted into the roadbed. But because the road is lightly traveled and not as well maintained, over the years, the road has now worn down to show some of the artifacts discarded as long as 95 years ago. After Frank found the long piece of rail sticking upright out of the road, I had theorized that perhaps the ties and rail were left in place and buried when the new road was built. A metal detector put an end to that theory. The rail and ties were indeed removed prior to the grading of the new log truck road, sometime during or after 1942. Frank Calia Photo, edited by Matt Wolford for demonstration. |
| Pike Station |
| Pike was a major stop on the Carlton Coast and is still a small farming community that dates to the 1800s. Beltview farms is a dairy that likely dates well back to Carlton & Coast Railroad days and probably even shipped by railroad back then. A Pike, the Railroad crosses Rockyford Rd. As the railroad continued passed Pike, it entered the North Yamhill River Canyon Brian McCamish photos: Jan 2006 |
| North Yamhill River Canyon |
| The N. Yamhill River Canyon seperated the mainline from the flat valley lands below and the coast mountain range above. Train speeds were likely slow as they would be from here the rest of the way to the woods. Brian McCamish photos: Jan 2006 |
| N. Yamhill River Bridge - then & now |
| The N. Yamhill River Bridge, located less than a mile west of Pike, was the first bridge crossed by the Carlton and Coast after crossing the Carlton Lake trestle. It's only the only trestle site used by the log truck road when it was built over the grade. The photos were taken from approximately the same location, some 90 years apart, from the east end of the structure. The trestle shown on the right was build in 1910 and was a wood truss structure that very likely was replaced at least once. It's not known what type of structure existed here when the line was abandoned in 1940, but it's possible the railroad bridge was used by the truck road and then later the county road until the 1970s. In 1972, that structure was completely torn down and replaced with the current wood trestle road bridge that you see here today in the left photo. Brian McCamish photos: Jan 2006 |
| Photo on the left shows the 1972 truck bridge viewed from the west end. One could easily mistake this for the original railroad trestle, but it's not. Frank found a strange artifact buried in the rocks below the bridge. It's still there today. Left photo, Brian McCamish: Jan 2005 - Right photo, Frank Calia Photos: Oct, 2005 |
| Continuing through the N. Yamhill River Canyon |
| With the N. Yamhill River now on the south side of the tracks, the railroad continued another 2.5 miles through the canyon. The canyon walls were steep in some sections, and probably gave crews an occasional headache with land and rock slides. The grade appeared to climb as much as 2 or 3 percent. The high number of cuts were only a hint of things to come on the logging spurs. Brian McCamish photos: Jan 2006 |
| Cedar Creek Station & the Cedar Creek Trestle |
| Unfortunately, there isn't even a hint that major trestle once existed here. Approximately 2.5 miles west of the N. Yamhill River trestle was the Cedar Creek trestle, and a stop on the Carlton & Coast Railroad. A short logging spur also left the mainline at this location and headed north for several miles. Also, another logging spur apparently headed south for several miles as well. This was probably the reason for the regular schedule stop. The road takes a very short several hundred yard detour up Cedar Creek canyon to bypass the trestle site In the photo on the left, the trestle would have actually gone over the road (except of course, the road didn't exist back then) and then over Cedar creek before meeting up with the grade on the other side. The photo on the right shows the Cedar creek trestle from the same side (east end).as it was being constructed. Brian McCamish photos: Jan 2006 - b/w historical photo courtesy of the Yamhill County Historical Society. |
| An interesting concrete block and cable discovered along side the railroad grade near Cedar Creek trestle site. It's not clear what it was used for, however. Frank Calia Photos: Oct, 2005 |
| Fairchilds, Chesterbrook, & the post 1911 Tillamook Gate & the Switchback. |
| Less than 1/2 mile west of the Ceder Creek trestle, the mainline reached the Fairchild Creek spur. However, before the Fairchild creek spur was built in 1929 and later turned into the new mainline, the Carlton & Coast, continued west. Approximately 1.6 miles west of the Cedar Creek trestle site, the portion of the old railgrade that is open to public vehicles today ends just as the line crosses Fairchild creek. Here a private logging road is usually closed. The old railroad grade continues another mile to another trestle site. Here the stations of Fairchilds and Chesterbrook used to exist very close to each other. Fairchilds was likely a public railroad stop, while Chesterbrook (two photos on the left) was commonly used to store supplies, including pilings for the railroad. From here, the line continued approximately another 1/2 mile before reaching the post 1911 Tillamook Gate station and the swtichback. (photo on the right) From 1911 until 1932, Tillamook Gate was a major interchange point on the Carlton and Coast. Shay and Willamette Locomotives would bring logs down from the woods and down the switchback to Tillamook Gate. The trestle in the photo was the tailtrack for the switchback and was also used to store empty log cars. A rod engine then took the loaded cars the rest of the journey back to Carlton. In 1932 this was abandoned, as were some of the spurs that were built up from the switchback in favor of a new logging line up Fairchild Creek. More info on that in Part two. Unfortunately, I haven't visited this part of the line yet and have no modern photos of what, if any, remains exist. I plan to return later this year when the weather improves. Photos courtesy of the Yamhill County Historical Society. |
| The original Tillamook Gate (1910-1911) |
| Although difficult to see in these foggy winter photos, this is the original site of Tillamook Gate. Approximately 2.5 miles past the switchback. The photo on the left is looking east, along the railroad grade. the cross road is what used to be the Trask Toll wagon road. The photo on the right is looking south down the ex-Trask Toll wagon road from the intersection. For a short period of time until the end of 1911, Carlton & Coast trains off loaded freight here for wagons who would take it the remainder of the way to Tillamook over the wagon road. By the end of 1911, what would later be called the SP Tillamook branch railroad between Hillsboro and Tillamook was completed and the Carlton & Coast-wagon road interchange was no longer needed. Tillamook Gate was moved back to the switchback where it would remain from then on. Brian McCamish Photos: Jan 2006 |
| Click here to continue to Part 2 Part two contains photos of the Carlton & Coast - Flora Logging Co. spurs, camps and artifacts that still remain today. Click here to skip to Part 3 Part three contains historical photos, locomotive and equipment roster and information about the last surviving Carlton & Coast locomotive. |
| If anyone has any further information or pictures about this railroad, please let me know. You can Email me anytime. Thanks. |
| Copyright © 2006 Brian McCamish, All Rights Reserved Note about the photos on this site: Most photos were taken by me, except for those that are otherwise indicated. I usually allow people to use my photos for personal use or websites. Simply Email me. I may not have authority to grant permission regarding some photos that were only loaned to me by others specifically for this website. Every effort has been made not to include other's photos without the proper permission and credits, however, if you see any photos which belong to you and that I don't have permission to use, I apologize. If you send me an Email, I will remove the photos immediately or give proper credit, which ever you wish. |
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| Yamhill County Historical Society photo - used with permission |
| The Carlton & Coast Engine Shops |
| These photos show the depot today (left photos) compared to what it used to look like from the exact same view some 90 years earlier in this only historical photo of the depot that I've seen so far. Brian McCamish photos: July, 2006 - b/w historical photo on the right courtesy of the Yamhill County Historical Society |
| These are photos of the Carlton & Coast engine shops as it appears today, still in use, but converted into a winery. When I first saw this building, I wasn't sure if in fact it was a locomotive shop, but Bob Melbo (State Rail Planner, ODOT) informed me that it in fact was the former locomotive shops of the Carlton & Coast RR. I've not seen any historical photos of this building or any reference to it in the literature that I've gone over so far regarding this railroad. The modern construction of the building leads me to guess that it was constructed in the mid to late 1930s and may have been constructed by Flora in the final years of operation leading up to the big push to increase logging just before the fire wiped out the entire operation. Brian McCamish photos: July, 2006, Sept, 2006 |
| The site of the former Carlton Lake Dam. Once the mainstay of the entire Logging railroad and mills of Carlton, now barely any evidence of the former dam remains today. Brian McCamish Photos: July, 2006 |
| When the rails were pulled up, part of the railbed north of Carlton was used exclusively as a one way log truck road, with log trucks bringing the logs down the railroad grade, then returning to the woods via a seperate logging road called Turner Creek Road. A few years later, the county took over and converted it into a single lane county dirt road, which is what it remains to this day. Brian McCamish Photos: July, 2006 |
| This pile of rail is located across the street from the depot and engine shops. My guess is that it's the remains either pulled out of the dirt ground by the depot or the street between the depot and engine shops after the street was repaved. It's the last significant testament to the former Carlton & Coast railroad. Brian McCamish photos: July, 2006 |
| The only clear photo of the Carlton & Coast engine shops is this early photo of the railroad. It's possible that the center building in this photo could be the same engine shops above, but it's not known for sure. Unknown source |