Saturday evening, I read in the local newspaper that the original steam engine that ran between Medford and Jacksonville, (OR.) starting in 1891, was displayed in the Oregon 150 party/parade in Jacksonville earlier in the day. The paper also said it will remain at Bigham Knoll school until Monday, when it’s current owners were going to take it back to California.

Sunday, my Wife, her friend and I went to the school to get some shots of it. It wasn’t there, “lets look downtown”. When we got downtown, nothing there either. The kind lady at the Info center, the old Depot, said “They’re sportin’ it around to show it off, try Alba Park, or Hawthorn Park in Medford.”

We looked at Alba Park, nothing there. Went to Hawthorn Parks south entrance, nothing there. “Oh well, let’s go to Dairy Queen”… on the way to Dairy Queen, we went past the north end of the park, my wife says “Look over there, under those trees, is that it?”. about 150 yards away, in the shade, under some trees was a silhouette of a little train we missed on our first pass through the park. “That’s it” I said, just getting a quick glimpse and having only seen a picture in the paper, it was red and black as far as I could tell. But we were going the wrong direction.

After looping around through town, probably breaking a few laws, my wife’s friend says “Drive much”, I replied, “This is how I drive when I’m chasing a train.” We arrived at the park, The train was barely visible with people and trees in the way. It wasn’t until I got right up on it that I realized… “Honey I chased a bar-b-que”

Oh well… lets go to Dairy Queen now. I did eventually go back to the school in the evening and get some shots of it. notice the very close resemblance…

They sure look close to me! Here are some more shots of this historic little engine.