Thursday. March 17, 1977, Heppner, Ore. THE GAZETTE-TIMES Page 9-A
Tree farm railroad man
- y
' f , ff i xi. . 1
.Lewis Lorengel has put in
nearly three decades on the
rails to between Kinzua and
Condon and logging spurs on
the Kinzua Tree Farm. During
that time, he has chalked up
more than a half million miles
of travel as engineer on the
Condon, Kinzua and Southern
railroad.
Born in Portland in 1912,
Lorengel "Louie" grew up on
steam logging engines in
Klickitat County, Wash. He
came to Kinzua in 1949
because he "knew it had a
Heisler Locomotive." (See
picture, page 1.)
Lorengel was working with
a relative of Carl Coleman
jiii? '"" w "' wi' ''"'hk '" v " "Kin 11 "m!" v ii n "'. 1
: BUCKNUM'S :
comes to the I
comes to the
rescue everyday.
Thanks
Bucknum's Tavern
before he came to Kinzua. He
recalls the fellow said, "I
know Carl and I know you
won't last two weeks." Lor
engel walked into Kinzua and
told Carl the story. Said
Coleman, "Let's try it and see
for ourselves." Said Lorengel,
"Turned out to be the best
boss I ever worked for."
Lorengel recalls backing an
engine into the side of a box
car. One impulse was to leave
a note on Carl's desk and "Get
to the woods." Lorengel went
to see Carl and told him what
happened. "He looked at me a
little bit and asked, 'What was
the real cause of the acci
dent?' I told him the BS was
about that deep," Lorengel
measures with a wave of his
hand.
Lorengel took over as en
gineer of a new General
Electric Diesel locomotive in
1951.
The new diesel had about
half the power of the Heisler
steam engine, but the ratio of
fuel consumption was much
better.
Since 1962, Lorengel has
recorded 205,000 miles over
the tracks. A single load of
logs would require 55 miles a
Kinzua
day over the tracks. There are
24 miles of track between
Condon and Kinzua.
The first trip in the diesel
took place about May 13 of
1951 and the last working trip
By Tom Franks
was recorded Nov. 19 of 1976.
The diesel was sold and moved
from the yards at Kinzua '
recently after a thorough
inspection from Lorengel.
Speed over the line was
J- 1?
JjvJaI IN ANY
I Yf I Hi,,. CROWD!
Like Kinzira Corporation in
the logging industry-so do
r;e strive for tne finest.
13
average, about eight miles per
hour, Lorengel said.
Sometimes there were some
close calls and over the years
a few accidents which tied up
the line for a few days.
"Louie" figures his closest
call came m February of 1968
when 20 feet of snow was over
the line. The C.K. & S. was
stuck two miles out of Condon,
but the line was cleared by
returning for bulldozers. Not
expecting that the Kinzua
train had reached Condon, the
Union Pacific came in from
GARDNER'S SALUTES
mzm corporation
GawlnUV MEH'S
O
the north, plowing snow. The
collision bucked one of the
cats partially into the cab with
Louie. "At first all I could
think of was an atomic bomb
or earthquake," he said.
The C.K. & S. line is known
to railroad fans. "Railroad
fans have rode this thing from
all over," Louie said.
At 65 years of age, Louie
Lorengel is 28 years and more
than half a million miles from ,
the point where he started
hauling logs from Camp 5 in
1949.
IflEflR
i Heppner 676-9218
E
Heppner
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