by Gianni Pulone/photos as noted
It was another dark, damp night off a West Eugene industrial spur. Lurking on a trackside access road, I watched and shot long exposures of Union Pacific’s Old Yard Job collecting several boxcars that had been on spot at a warehouse. With the string of boxcars together and aired up, the conductor and brakeman ambled past me, brake sticks and lanterns in hand, on their way back to the head end. “Pretty soon, someone else is gonna be doing all this,” the conductor said to me. It may have been a regular night of pulling and spotting industries, the same work as always, but change was in the air.
On the morning of December 10, 2024, rumors began to fly about Union Pacific planning to contract local jobs in Eugene, Ore., to Genesee & Wyoming’s Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad (CORP). By midday, the full scope of this transfer of operations was revealed, with Omaha posting a press release to the official UP website. Not only would G&W be taking over the local jobs servicing customers, but the switching/classification work and operation of UP’s Eugene Yard itself would be handed over to CORP, contingent on approval from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.
ABOVE: Union Pacific LIW44, known locally as the Weyerhaeuser Job, pulls away after spotting two centerbeams for loading at the Sundance Lumber Co. sawmill in Springfield, Ore., on January 20, 2025. —Gianni Pulone photo
What is now Union Pacific in Eugene was part of the Southern Pacific empire before its 1996 acquisition by UP. The railroad’s modern presence retains a strong legacy from SP, and the heritage hides in plain sight for those who look. A Cotton Belt Stac-Pac container, repurposed as a storage shack, sits grounded along a yard access road. The diesel shop, now occupied by CORP, retains faded lettering reading southern pacific machine shop along its walls.
The most obvious, and perhaps most grim reminder of Eugene’s SP heritage, is the massive scar in the yard where the hump once stood. For decades, the Eugene hump yard was a crucial artery in SP’s western operations, before post-merger rationalization killed it off in 1997. The raised ground of the hump itself, and the empty gravel strip that the bowl tracks once occupied, serve as somber reminders of Eugene’s past importance as a funnel of traffic between the Northwest and elsewhere. Though they may not be as blatantly obvious as something with the SP name left on it, UP’s present-day local jobs operated out of Eugene also carry a strong legacy, with some retaining historic titles, or continuing to operate in much the same way as in the SP era.
ABOVE: As the sun sets on January 28, 2025, the UP Old Yard Job is crossing Van Buren Street in Eugene just south of the Coos Bay Branch wye. —Joey Matsuno photo
Likely the most well-known — and perhaps the most visible — UP local operating out of Eugene is the “Weyerhaeuser.” Most crews, dispatchers, and railfans use the Weyerhaeuser moniker, but this local job also uses the UP symbol LIW44. Serving customers in Springfield, a historically industrial town directly east of Eugene, the Weyerhaeuser spends most of its time out on the Marcola Industrial Lead, branching north off the Brooklyn Subdivision main line. The Marcola Lead was once the beginning of the SP Marcola Branch, a full-fledged branch line reaching 14 miles into the foothills north of Springfield to serve lumber mills. After a gradual decline in the local timber industry, however, and a few decades of Weyerhaeuser itself operating the branch, the branch was abandoned in 1987. The first few miles of the branch now form the Marcola Industrial Lead.
This job’s namesake comes from the sprawling paper mill complex it serves off the Marcola Lead, undoubtedly the largest and most demanding customer served by this job, boasting its own elusive switch engine. Weyerhaeuser was the owner of this mill for decades, and although the mill has been operated by International Paper since 2008, the old name sticks to this day. Between switching the customers off the Lead, and serving several customers directly off the Brooklyn Sub, the Weyerhaeuser’s work typically keeps the crew busy for a full day.
ABOVE: The Old Yard Job switches the Emerald Forest Products plant in Eugene on February 23, 2025. With stacks of lumber everywhere, there’s no question what the primary industry of the region is. —Joey Matsuno photo
Previously, the LIW44/Weyerhaeuser had a night job counterpart, the LIW45 “Vaughn-Dougren” local. In recent years the Vaughn-Dougren would pick up where the Weyerhaeuser left off in Springfield, typically giving the paper mill another switch and handling any other necessary industry work, before bringing the train back to Eugene. This job was cut by Union Pacific in 2022, however, leaving all the Springfield work to be handled by the Weyerhaeuser day job. This job’s name came from SP days, when it alternated between going to Vaughn on the Coos Bay branch and Dougren to the south on the Cascade line. Amid lumber mill closures, the job was merged with the “Night Weyerhaeuser” in 1990, retaining the Vaughn-Dougren title despite no longer reaching either location.
Another intriguing local job displaying SP roots is UP’s YEU62R, the “Old Yard” Job. This job serves an industrial area located off the Coos Bay Branch in west Eugene known as the Old Yard. It additionally handles interchange work with Portland & Western, which connects near the Old Yard, and serves Grain Millers Inc. in downtown Eugene…