First Westsider - Corvallis Junction, Oregon - June 1973

Back in the early Seventies, Oregon's timber industry was still bustling. Oregon DougFir dimensional lumber was going into frame houses from Anaheim to Houston and beyond. Plywood mills were as once as common in the Willamette Valley as Starbucks are now in Portland. Newsprint from mills like Georgia Pacific's in Toledo, and Publishers Paper in Newberg supplied newspapers like the Los Angeles Times. Southern Pacific ran four peddler freights on the Brooklyn Subdivision Westside Branch. The eastbounds originated in Eugene and were called Northsiders. These were essentially extensions of the MUG trains (empties Eugene,) that dragged lumber products empties from eastern points. The westbounds were called Westsiders, and they gathered the loads down the valley, and Eugene then classified them. The photos below show the First Westsider curving off of the Westside Branch at Corvallis Jct. to get on to the Toledo Branch for the short trip to  the mainline at Albany. These were shot with my first telephoto lens, a 200mm of dubious quality, hence the vignetting. Nevertheless, these provide and excellent look back at the freight cars of the period, and the traffic they carried.

The switch has been thrown for the Toledo Branch, and head brakie retreats to his comfy SD9 cab.

Notching up. The first two cars are for veneer, note the raised roof and poles.

New Hydra Cushions, probably loaded with paper from Newberg.

Evergreen Freight Car was headquartered in the old REA building in Eugene.
They represented an early attempt to relieve SP of the burden of financing rolling stock .

Note the size of the dimensional lumber.

SP had a varied mix of woodchip cars. A converted GC Gon is in the middle, surrounded by composite steel and plywood cars.

The caboose heels around the sharp north leg of the Corvallis Junction Wye.

The concrete phone booth has recently replaced the "Old Register" building, a  wood structure.  Trains as specified by the Special Instructions, were required to register here. The top of Mt. Jefferson is visible above the caboose.