The City of Rockaway Beach, Ore., has requested that a section of former Southern Pacific tracks, now used by the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, be removed and replaced with a trail. The request from the tracks’ owner, the Port of Tillamook Bay, surprised the tourist railroad, which has long supported building a trail alongside the tracks. 

The planned Salmonberry Trail will stretch 84 miles along the former SP Tillamook Branch, starting from Tillamook along the Pacific Coast before heading into the Coast Range via the Salmonberry River. Construction on a short section of trail began in July near Wheeler, alongside the railroad tracks. However, the City of Rockaway, which has committed to building the trail through its community, said that constructing the trail next to the tracks is too expensive — even though it is being built in other areas. 

“We want to be clear: OCSR is not opposed to the Salmonberry Trail,” the railroad’s board of directors wrote. “In fact, we are strong proponents of a rail-with-trail model and have offered numerous engineering ideas to support safe co-location within the right-of-way, including cantilevered trail segments on the side of existing railroad bridges, as well as using the railroad’s specialized on-track machinery to help with trail construction. We have been working closely with the non-profit Salmonberry Trail Foundation on a demonstration segment of the rail-with-trail in Wheelers, where the railroad is providing help with spreading gravel and vegetation control. We remain open to collaboration, cost-sharing, and innovation over the leased section of the railroad — but we will not be excluded.”

The decision to remove the track is made by the Port of Tillamook Bay. While most of OCSR’s excursions operate between Tillamook and Rockaway Beach, some trips go north of there to Wheeler. Last year, about 10,000 of the railroad’s 55,000 passengers traveled on that section. 

—Justin Franz