Matt Adams - "Goodbye, Old Friend..." - (from Beaverton, OR)

The Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad... Many from the Northwest are familiar with the name. Fewer are familiar with the line. When I moved to Oregon in 2005 and it was the first thing I wanted to see. It was always one of those things in the backyard, you'd check it out occasionally, but the lure of big mainline railroading and exploring new parts of the states of Washington and Oregon, and further east to Idaho and Montana, kept me away. Like may things in your backyard, you just assume it'll always be there, and never pay it the attention it truly deserves...until it disappears forever. Such was the case in early December 2007, when the "Great Coastal Gale" moved through the Northwest. The amount of rain it brought wreaked havoc all over the Northwest, including flooding the city of Chehalis and BNSF's Seattle Subdivision for several days, causing the massive landslide just west of Clatskanie, OR that blocked the Portland & Western's Astoria District, and, by far the most damaging, were the landslides, washouts and tunnel collapses over the POTB's crossing of Oregon's Cost Range, largely confined to the section between MP 789 and MP 816, totaling 27 miles. Sadly for the fans of the line, with the $57.2 Million dollar price tag to repair the line, coupled with Hampton Lumber's inability (unwillingness?) to commit to the railroad, the Port of Tillamook Bay elected not to repair the line, instead using their FEMA money to build a golf resort. This decision effectively closed the 96-year book on trains over the must rugged and scenic operation in the Northwest. Since 2008, all but three locomotives, one GP9 and 2 SD9s have met the scrappers torch, while the line over the mountain continues to decay. I've sorted through my best and most memorable shots of the short 2-year period I was able to shoot it for this short presentation. Goodbye, old friend...