On Oct. 7, 2025, the PNWR’s freight train from Toledo headed for the Albany yard. On Jan. 21, the train got derailed in Toledo.
If you haven’t seen it, I’d like to call your attention to a YouTube video showing the successful operation last week to save the locomotives of an Albany-bound train that were derailed on a trestle in Toledo.
Produced by 7idea Productions, based in Toledo, the 12-minute video can be found here.
The derailment happened on Jan. 21. If you saw the online photos of the locomotives stuck on the trestle, you probably wondered how those engines could ever be righted without pitching into the slough below.
As the video documents, crews and equipment from Rick Franklin Corp. in Lebanon managed to accomplish that seemingly impossible job.
To get the salvage equipment in position, Hamilton Construction of Springfield first built a temporary work bridge halfway across the slough.
The train goes by the name of Toledo Hauler going west, and Toledo Patch on the return trip to Albany going east. At least that’s what I understand from feature-length videos that 7idea Productions has made of the train crossing the Coast Range.
Those videos, too, are worth seeking out. They recall a lot of history of the communities that once dotted the rail line between the valley and the coast.
On Friday, the three derailed locomotives were back on the rails and off the trestle. I read that more work would need to be done on the trestle itself.
I messaged a spokesman for the railroad company and asked when we can expect the train between Toledo and Albany to resume its daily schedule. On Monday (Feb. 2) I got an answer from Tom Ciuba, vice president of communications for Genesee & Wyoming, the Portland & Western’s parent company.
“We’re expecting to bring the first train back into GP [the Georgia Pacific paper mill in Toledo] tomorrow,” he emailed me.
That would mean the return train may arrive back in Albany Wednesday afternoon. (hh)
PEOPLE IN THAT PART OF OREGON GET THINGS DONE & THEY DIDN’T NEED ODOT OR TINA TO VOTE ON IT….OH MY
I think it has more to do with the money of the railroads and their lack of regulations. The RRs “built” this country and they were given lots of latitude in that process. Much of that latitude remains.
Remember, this Toledo site is a massive environmental mess that is still unresolved by the last department there.
Beautiful photography.
An amazing task well preformed.
Thanks for sharing this video.
I have seen that video from 7idea productions. Very interesting and worth a watch. I’ve always liked seeing how these type of things are done.
Very interesting. I have seen Rick Franklin’s heavy equipment in convoys on I-5 several times over the last couple of years. When you see them, you know there is a derailment somewhere that they are headed to. In my prior work days 50 years ago, we used to get scraped flatbed rail cars from Rick to use as bridges on power line access roads.
Thanks Hasso. It’s amazing to watch these monster machines being moved and re-railed.
I’m not a “train watcher,” but the video was fascinating! A quick single-click to bypass the political ad too! :-)
I love trains! I know that Coast Range train and tracks. There is not much in Toledo other than the paper mill and that mill needs a way to get its product to market which is the railroad. I hope they get it rebuilt and the tracks and trestles better maintained so it has many more decades of success that sustains Toledo residents.
I was also quite impressed by the video. It shows what man can accomplish when they don’t have to deal with govt. intervention
That reminds me of some local project in the last year or so where 2 railroads (one of them the above mentioned) each demanded their flagger crew to be present and couldn’t schedule a time that suited the other? A situation that only needed ONE crew to handle. I wonder how demanding they were to the above contractors?
Now that daily train can move goods again! There is a solid waste transfer station in Toledo, but nearby Newport sends thirty 90-yard truckloads to the landfill in Benton County–EVERY DAY.
A better and cheaper solution already now would be shipping waste by rail all the way to the Columbia Ridge landfill, where direct rail car unloading is possible. Plus there is a lot more room, and actual functioning methane collection. More benefit to the rail companies, our public roads, and our environment. It’s time for all of us to do better!