HASSO HERING

More than a century old, this little locomotive is on display in Jacksonville in Southern Oregon.

On Dec. 16, 1890, the Southern Pacific’s southbound freight due in Albany at 2 p.m. was two hours late.  And before it would have reached town, it crashed through the bridge on Cox Creek at 4 p.m.

I came across this bit of forgotten Albany railroad history because on the bike the other day, I tried out a short little “Rails to Trails” path in Jacksonville in Southern Oregon.

The path is on a section of the former right of way of the Rogue River Valley Railway, which connected Jacksonville, then the county seat of Jackson County, to Medford five miles away.

A sign told me the railroad operated from 1891 till 1925. I wanted to learn more and discovered a long compilation of newspaper clippings on a website sponsored, I think, by the Southern Oregon Historical Society.

Among the clippings was this from the Democratic Times, Jacksonville, of December 26, 1890:

“A freight train on the Southern Pacific attempted to pass over a bridge, near Albany, one day last week, which was undergoing repairs, and the effect was that the engine got across safely, but three flatcars, one loaded with railroad iron for the Jacksonville-Medford railroad, and two with lumber, fell into the stream twenty feet below and were crushed to splinters. The other portion of the train became detached and stopped upon the brink of the chasm. No one was hurt.”

That sent me to newspapers.com. In Albany’s Morning Daily Herald of Dec. 17, 1890, I found the story on which the Jacksonville paper’s item was based.

“ANOTHER WRECK,” the Herald headlined its report on what happened “last evening.”

The story said two of the flatcars, not one, were loaded with “railroad iron.” It had other details such as:

“The scene of the wreck is the bridge at the Jewish cemetery…

“The fireman, D. Fish, obeying the admonition of the engineer, jumped from the train. Engineer J.F. McQuade, remained with his engine.”

The repair crew had placed torpedoes on the track and a flag to warn trains that the bridge work was not complete. The engineer told the Herald reporter the danger signals had been placed “too near the bridge to enable him to stop the train.”

The repair crew foreman, A. Robinson, countered that the signals were placed at the customary distance, “the torpedoes being 1,440 feet distant and the flag 450 feet nearer the bridge.”

The Southern Pacific immediately sent a “wrecking train” to rebuild the bridge, which apparently was accomplished overnight. SP officers told the the paper the track would be repaired by 7 or 8 “this morning, and in the meantime the passenger trains will lay over at the break until it is repaired.”

Back in Southern Oregon, the “railroad iron” eventually reached its destination. The Jacksonville-Medford line was completed in early 1891.

Alas, the railroad never made any money. It had several owners and eventually folded in 1925. The track was taken up in the 1930s.

The path that remains is only 0.31 miles long (measured on my bike computer) and has recently been nicely repaved. And it’s not the only reminder of the short-lived railroad.

The Jacksonville depot remains, and private citizens perserved the engine that in the line’s first few years pulled the  two-car trains consisting of a flatcar and a coach.

Now the engine sits on a property called Bigham Knoll, on or near what would have been the track’s location in 1891. It’s on private property, but if you want to see it you can get pretty close. (hh)

A sign on this “Rails to Trails” path commemorates the former railroad in Jacksonville, OR.

Back in the day, they sometimes called the locomotive the “Tea Kettle.”