Idaho Northern - Joseph Branch

The Pacific Northwest Tour, 2003

Idaho Northern - Joseph Branch

The Joseph Branch is another of the INP lines, but required us to load up our speeders and head over to Island City, just west of LaGrande, Oregon. This line is part of the same company, just in a different state.

this line is about 84 miles, and was built to serve agricultural and timber businesses in the region, starting the the late 1880s' and being completed to Joseph in the early 1920's.

The destination of this trip is a town named after an Indian Chief of the Area, Chief Joseph. This line prompted my memory of the track up to Burra in South Australia, with its small towns and numbers of silos ("elevators"). Like other lines we ran, this trip followd a river valley, in this case that of the Wallowa River.

A state operating company, the Wallowa Union Rail Authority own the line, but contract the INP to run services. These extended from LaGrande to Wallowa only, with the last 24 miles not seeing a train for several years. The Authority are currently running passenger trains on this line.

A highlight of this journey was to stay in a typical lodge at Lake Wallowa, and to visit some of the shops on the Town of Joseph. This town is apparently the home of Bronze casting in the US.We travelled up to Joseph Wednesday June 18, returning Friday June 20, 2003.

Carl Vanderspek, John, George and Irene Hope, Molson, and everyone kindly hosted a "Meet the Aussie Night" during the stopover. This was a great way to meet everyone. My supply of Oz bits vanished faster than the beer.

I did take some pictures in Joseph, but sadly, seem to have misplaced the film.

I made the return Journey with Jim Hasker in his M19 - pity mine didn't fit in the bags, could have kept him company.