I hope this helps to explain why the Frazier Detours were routed the way that they were!

I do hope that the railroads and US Government learn the MAIN lesson that our nation very badly NEEDS many more mainlines for redundancy all around the Western USA and Canada. There are so very FEW detour options around the Western US that NOTHING would have surprised me with this mess that is fortunately now a thing of the past. I was almost expecting a ver few trains to be detoured all the way east to Denver Co and the Joint Line. Many very crazy out-of-the-way routings probably happened because of this extended SP Frazier slide and closure. I imagine that some of those Granger Detours MAY have been run east into the nearby Green River WY yard to change crews and change ends. This is why some Ogden detours were further SPLIT again to run via the MODERN CTC mainline thru Montpelier ID and GRANGER WY the really LOOONG-LONG way. That hand-throw switch factor greatly limited traffic levels that could be run thru Brigham City.

Those Ogden UT detours were complicated because the DIRECT line thru Brigham City is SINGLE TRACK territory dispatched with old-style radio track warrants and HAND THROW siding switches. You also need to realize these Frazier-Oakridge OR Detours were competing for limited space with regular traffic on the BN Bend OR - Oregon Trunk Line:īN Oregon Trunk Line thru Bend, Oregon AND the traditional UP Pocatello ID thru Brigham City UT TO Ogden UT Line.

That Siskyou Line is built to very ancient curve and clearance and can only handle trains that are completely 'PLATE C' clearance or smaller.Īs a result of the very TIGHT clearance restrictions of the shorter SP Siskyou Line the Frazier Detours were SPLIT mainly between the following 2 Detours in order to equalize traffic. This is because the former SP Siskyou Line thru Medford, OR does NOT clear most MODERN rail equipment. Yes that was and is a LOOOONG Detour indeed. Amazingly during the MAJOR Frazier Slide Closure the UPRR was forced to Detour some trains all the way to Granger, WYOMING (almost Green River, WY).

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