White City Terminal &Utility RR.

The WCTU Railway, also known as the White City Traction Railroad runs in White City, Oregon. It was originally called the White City Terminal & Utility RR. and keeps the "WCTU" on it's engines and signage. Around 2000, WCTU acquired the engine RSS SW1200 #82 (formerly RF&P 82). After waiting for about a year before it was ready for service, it became the No. 1 power, with #5119 as back-up, while the 5217 was basically out of service. About 2004 they got another SW1200 engine, the 1503, seen in these pictures. Now WCTU uses one unit for a month, then swaps units. The 5119 is still operable, but the 5217 needs work.

WCTU get carloads and empties from the CORP, Central Oregon and Pacific RR on jobs 201 and/or 202 via the interchange at Tolo. CORP brings in full and empty cars for the WCTU to distribute throughout the White City area, and it takes full cars (and empty cars like Cement Hoppers, chemical/glue cars from various mills etc...) back to Medford to switch out to go North to Eugene-Springfield where they get placed on the UP to go north or south.

I've come to the conclusion, after several visits, that a great place to spot the WCTU at work is the intersection at 11th street, one block west of Agate Rd. via either Antelope Rd. or Ave. G. There are a few switches right at 11th St. The first 8 pictures below are at 11th St. There is very little vehicle traffic on 11th St.

UPDATE: as of 03/15/2013, WCTU was sold to a private owner, Scott DeVries, a CN engineer on the Wisconsin Central. The new name for the railway is 'Rogue Valley Terminal Railway'.

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Links

Visit Larry Tuttle's AlphaRail.Net for more on the CORP

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