Rail Buff On Hunt For Ghost Locomotives

SUMPTER, Ore. - Ron Harr has spent more than 20 years hiking abandoned railroad spurs in Northeastern Oregon in search of ghost locomotives.

Tales of lost locomotives in the thick pine, fir and larch forests west of Baker City have circulated for years.

Most of the stories come from hunters who were lost when they claim to have stumbled across a locomotive, said railroad buff Ron Brinton.

From time to time, a U.S. Forest Service helicopter crew sees one and circles back for a better look, to no avail.

Harr has hiked about 600 miles of the historic Sumpter Valley spur lines, mapping as he goes. He figures there are probably three hidden locomotives along the 1,000 miles of lines he has yet to explore between Baker City and John Day.

The overgrown spur lines crisscross an area roughly 100 miles long by 12 to 14 miles wide.

Created in 1890, the railroad hauled logs and gold ore, and by 1910 was transporting passengers the 80 miles between Baker City and Prairie City.

The line went out of business in 1947, and within five years the ties and rails were ripped out. Locomotives were scattered as far as the Yukon Territory, Guatemala, Peru and Uruguay.

Legend has it the ghost locomotives were abandoned as they broke down or tumbled off spur lines.

Harr, an engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad, is the official historian of Sumpter Valley Railroad Inc. based in Baker City. The 350-member volunteer group has restored five miles of narrow-gauge track, two wood-burning locomotives and enough rolling stock to assemble an 18-car train.

In 1977, the group acquired two former Sumpter Valley Railroad locomotives from the White Pass and Yukon Railroad at Skagway, Alaska, where they had operated since 1941.

By contemporary railroad standards, the ghost locomotives are thought to be tiny - seldom more than 44 tons each. They don't show up on old corporate manifests, Harr said.

Brinton hopes when the spectral steamers are found they turn out to be rare Porter, Climax or Shay logging locomotives.

Harr's search has not been entirely fruitless. He claims to have smelled Bigfoot on one remote railroad spur - an aroma he describes as a combination of sulfur and dead flesh.

"The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. It was ungodly. And all of a sudden it was gone," he said.