I’m sure there are alot of you who haven’t even heard of it, but the camas prarie rairoad of west central Idaho recently filed for abandonment and is being threatened with having its tracks pulled. This kind of thing happens more and more these days but as with all railroads, this one is special. For one is had had the second highest trestle on the UP, 141 feet high, until they sold it, and it became the highest trestle on the Camas Prarie railnet. Now they have let it go. Falling lumber prices and Canadian imports were it’s real undoing but it has great potential for a tourist operation and I encourage anyone to do a yahoo search for it. There is such a lack of info on it it’s practically unheard of as an internet website. Any opinions or imput is apreciated.
cnwfan 400
sorry to hear about the railroad shutting down.If you do operate a tourist line be ready to fork out some big $$$ because of insurance rates.
good luck
stay safe
Joe
Especially on this one. I belive there are 23 wooden trestles, Halfmoon, the 141 foot high trestle being one of them. The best pics I’ve found are at http://wallcloud.home.mindspring.com/www/camas.htm
Very little you have posted is correct. While Camas Prairie RailNet did file three years ago to abandon the Second Subdivision between Spalding and Grangevillle, and the STB approved the request, the Second Subdivision is still mostly intact, as is the First Sub between between Orofino and Kooskia and the Third Sub between Lewiston and Ayer.
In December 2002, salvage gangs began preparing for removal of rail this spring. However, in late December 2002-mid January 2003, a buyer stepped forward to acquire the Second Sub between Spalding and Cottonwood, Idaho. So, Lawyers Creek Viaduct, Halfmoon Trestle et al. will remain intact for the time being and grain trains will be running off the Second Sub to Lewiston come harvest. The only rails that have been removed are between Grangeville and Cottonwood, as well as a good chunk of the Fourth Sub; the latter was done many years ago when the mill at Jaype closed.
A daily-except-Saturday turn still runs between Lewiston and Ayer, where the CSP interchanges with BNSF and UP. Most of the traffic is paper products from the Potlatch mill is Lewiston.
Paul Schmidt
Correspondent
Trains Magazine
Thats really good to hear. So far I’ve only been going on what I’ve heard on the local news and several outdated reports online. Thanks for the update.
And Mark is exactly right. Extraordinary piece of railroad is the Second Sub. Heck, the entire CSP is an extraordinary railroad, period!
If you can ever get out here to see it, especially the Second Sub, it will take your breath away. It’s as if God was a model railroader.
Paul
Mark Memphill quoted- It’s like the builders of this line sat in a tent drinking whisky and dreaming up the most ridiculus collection of superlatives they could think of…and then went out and built it the next morning.