The Columbia and Nehalem Valley Railroad was a

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

logging railroad A forest railway, forest tram, timber line, logging railway or logging railroad is a mode of railway transport which is used for forestry tasks, primarily the transportation of felling, felled logs to sawmills or railway stations. In most cases th ...

near Columbia City,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, which was owned by the

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

-based Peninsular Lumber Company.

Location

The track started in Columbia City and was planned to be built to Pittsburg in the Nehalem Valley. It went uphill in a westward direction onto the heights between Milton Creek and Merrill Creek.VanNatta Logging History Museum of Northwest Oregon
Columbia and Nehalem Valley Railway.
/ref>

History

The investors Goodsell, Giltner & Sewell of

announced on 7 March 1902 that they would build a logging railroad from Columbia City to Pittsburg. On 25 April 1902 they explained that the rail would lead to Oak Ranch Creek and would be long. They planned to use 6 steam locomotives.The Columbia County Historian Home Page
The Columbia and Nehalem Valley Railway Company
/ref> On 29 June 1906, Giltner & Sewell of Portland sold of forest for $200,000 to the Peninsular Lumber Co., including of track and a jetty at the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

. The sales price was based on

stumpage Stumpage is the price a private firm pays for the right to harvest timber from a given land base. It is paid to the current owner of the land. Historically, the price was determined on a basis of the number of trees harvested, or "per stump". Curr ...

of $1.25 per thousand. The Peninsular Lumber Co. owned a saw mill at the river, to which it could raft the logs. The track was extended to until 1912 but didn't reach as far as Yankton.

Bridges

<--> A combined crib and

trestle bridge A trestle bridge is a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by closely spaced frames. A trestle (sometimes tressel) is a rigid frame used as a support, historically a tripod used to support a stool or a pair of isosceles trian ...

was used to cross the McBride Creek. The sniped faces of the logs show that they were probably drawn by animals towards the construction site. This was sometimes done to allow construction before the area was accessible to heavy equipment.

Locomotives

At least two or three steam locomotives were used, which were fired by wood. One of them was a 35 t geared

Climax locomotive A Climax locomotive is a type of geared steam locomotive built by the ''Climax Manufacturing Company'' (later renamed to the ''Climax Locomotive Works''), of Corry, Pennsylvania. These had two steam cylinders attached to a Transmission (mechan ...

and one was a smaller conventional

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

locomotive. It is possible that additionally a geared Shay was used. One of them was a small Baldwin

2-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and two trailing wheel ...

Mikado. Logging locomotive and crew B.jpg,

Climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

logging locomotive Logging steam locomotive B.jpg, As far as I can see from the photograph<-->

steam locomotive Locomotive pulling railroad cars with logs over a crib trestle (3227290798).jpg, Bridge with fire fighting barrels Logging Locomotive, Columbia and Nehalem Valley Railroad.JPG, Logging train Logging, Columbia and Nehalem Valley Railroad, Oregon.JPG, Loading area with steam winch

References

{{Coord, 45.895000, -122.810669, display=title Defunct Oregon railroads Logging railroads in the United States Transportation in Columbia County, Oregon