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By Tony Boom for the Mail Tribune April 26. 2015 1:30PM Train talk turns into historical discovery in Talent TALENT — Tony Johnson discovered a spur line that served three businesses east of the main rail line running through downtown while doing research for a talk he will give at the Talent Historical Society, 105 N. Market St., at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday . “I can’t remember anybody every talking about it. I was quite surprised,” said Johnson, president and historian of the Southern Oregon Live Steamers. “I got some old Southern Pacific plats. One goes back to around 1900. It shows a spur that I didn’t know existed.” Tuesday's talk is the second in an ongoing series designed to encourage public involvement in the society. Nearly all 40 seats were filled for the first talk held March 24, said society Secretary Bob Casebeer. Talks will be held every fourth Tuesday. Bagley Canning Company, a Timber Products mill and Tomlin Box Company were served by what is called a “house track,” said Johnson. The line was parallel to and about 50 feet east of the main line. Bagley Canning opened in 1912, but moved to Ashland in 1924. The spur started at Wagner Street and ran to a point opposite the junction of Gibson and LaPree streets for about 2,100 feet. By 1960 only about 490 feet of the track remained, another plat shows. On the other side of the mainline was a 3,100-foot spur used to temporarily shunt slower trains off the main line. That also started at Wagner Street and ended near Fairview Street. It was removed in the late 1980s, said Johnson. “Basically it was put in the same time the railroad was being extended into Ashland. It was certainly going to be a busy track,” said Johnson. “Naturally there would be faster trains, usually passenger trains.” Talent was also listed as a flag stop with an "F” on some train’s schedules. Passengers would place a flag in a holder and the engineer would stop the train. Potential stop times were built into the schedules. “They had to anticipate that there may be a passenger there,” said Johnson. “If the kids were like today, they’d either steal the flags or put it out to stop the train.” Johnson will hand out copies of railroad time tables from 1914 and 1926 to illustrate the change in traffic levels once a rail line was completed through Klamath Falls and traffic declined on the steeper Siskiyou route. Talent first got a depot in 1900 when the former Medford railroad depot was moved to the town, where it stood until 1935, said Johnson. Today a replica of the depot, owned by the city with tenants leasing space, is in the original location. Anecdotes of Siskiyou line operations between Medford and Ashland will be included in the talk. “Unfortunately Talent doesn’t have a lot of rail history. The trains ran through it,” said Johnson. Audience members are encouraged to bring their photos and share recollections of the railroad in Talent, said Casebeer. The session will last until 8:30 p.m. Tony Boom is a freelance reporter living in Ashland. Reach him at [email protected] http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20150426/news/150429658 © 2016 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->