Around The Railroad

Line Won't Reopen Until March

Epic Oregon Mudslide "Size of Sears Tower"

February 19, 2008 | 10:46 a.m. CST

In his 40-year career of repairing track, Bill Van Trump has never seen anything like the Frazier, Ore., mudslide that buried UP's main line Jan. 19 on the Cascade Subdivision. Arriving at the Willamette National Forest shortly after the slide occurred, Engineering's assistant vice president-maintenance and other employees anticipate they'll be working at the site through March to reopen the line. 

"Until now, our most significant project as far as time out of service was in the Caliente Canyon a couple years ago, when a washout closed the track for 17 days. On that one, we had loaders, rock-haul trucks, Caterpillars and excavators stretched out over 40 miles," he explained. "This time, we have the same amount of work equipment concentrated in just 1,500 feet of railroad, and up and down the mountain's slope within a quarter of a mile. This obviously requires an extreme amount of coordination and attention to safety."

Van Trump is overseeing about 175 employees and contractors working 12-hour days and a portion of the night. The amount of rock and soil involved in the 20-acre slide has been compared to the size of a football field as tall as the Sears Tower. It knocked out two sections of UP's main line, which snakes back and forth across the mountain to overcome the steep grade, about three-eighths of a mile apart.

Rebuilding the track means moving 350,000 cubic yards of mud and rock from the slide, and reusing 250,000 cubic yards of that – augmented by additional carloads of rock from a nearby quarry – to construct the track's base.

 

The work has been impeded by Mother Nature's continued bad mood. Improving a couple of Forest Service roads to handle the work equipment and then keeping them open has "consumed a significant amount of our resources just getting us in and out," said Van Trump. "It snowed steadily for two weeks following the slide, so we had our hands full just plowing the roads. More recently it has warmed up, so now the roads are muddy and we've had to truck in rock to make them passable." 

Also involved are Transportation, Mechanical and HDC employees, supporting rerouted north- and southbound trains between Roseville, Calif., and Portland, as well as four work trains operating 'round the clock to the site, hauling in materials and hauling away downed trees, mud and snow. Tom Jacobi, Western Region vice president, commends the total teamwork among the trackmen, trainmen and mechanics for keeping operations fluid.

Always keen to learn something new, Van Trump said the Frazier disaster offered railroaders at the site a unique perspective: "We spent the first two weeks being loggers. There were several hundred old-growth trees, many four feet in diameter and up to 200 feet long, that had to be cut up and hauled out by train. We also used helicopters – in one 6.2-hour day, a helicopter lifted out 1.3 million pounds."

Finding motel rooms for employees in such a remote location has been difficult. Tiny Oakridge, Ore., has only a limited number, with the next-closest city being Eugene, Ore., some 50 miles to the north. A partial answer was found: four members of the Allen family – all UP trackmen who live in Oakridge – were recalled from around the system to work on the project.

"Not only do they not need motel rooms, they are familiar with the territory," said Van Trump. Helping with the work trains and Form Bs are: Randal Allen, track supervisor and father of the clan, and brothers Jake (track supervisor), Nate (assistant foreman) and Adam (gang foreman).

 

Van Trump also recognized the following employees and their work groups:

• Paul Dannelly, general director, and Kent Hargraves, manager-track projects and "a good dirt guy," both from Salt Lake City and veterans who worked the Caliente Canyon washout.
• John Day, manager-track maintenance; Les Hopkins, manager-telecom operations; Rand Karsten, manager-bridge maintenance; Steve Burns, director-terminal operations; and Ken Bobert, K.P. Norden and Jay Jones, managers of special projects.
• Joe Cobarrubia, manager-signal maintenance; Bob Hennessy and Joel Adams, managers-construction projects; Steve Lisak, locomotive engineer; Steve White, manager-track programs; Greg Lemmerman, director-track programs rail; Deb Schafer, general director-maintenance of way environment; Pat Malik, director-contract and construction; and Chad Rose, Antonio Buelna and Dan Difede, engineering associates.