QuickTake:

The restored rail service will carry Oregon-made rebar on a former logging car.

Two Springfield businesses that distribute building materials have restored a Eugene rail spur to transport steel from a producer in northern Oregon.

Stout Steel and Cedarwood purchased an industrial property in west Eugene last year and renovated a warehouse on the lot. The businesses, owned by Alan Stout and his father, Randy Stout, hired a contractor to restore the spur, which had been unused for nearly 20 years. Alan Stout is also a Springfield city councilor.

“That was the most fun,” Alan Stout told Lookout Eugene-Springfield, about the process of restoring the spur, which cost about $50,000. “You never really know when you’re dealing with a 1960s property. Like, what did they actually have underneath it?”

A spur is a short line of track that branches off from a primary railroad and ends in a dead end for loading and unloading.

Restoration involved removing asphalt that had covered deteriorating railroad ties, replacing damaged ties, adding rock and regrading the track to align with the loading dock, according to a news release. 

The spur runs inside the warehouse, where railcars will be unloaded before steel is transferred to trucks for delivery to construction projects, the release states. 

The property is at 110 N. Cleveland St., in an industrial area along a rail line west of Chambers Street and south of Roosevelt Boulevard. Stout said the spur connects to the former Oregon Electric Railway line, where the track is owned by BNSF and the Portland & Western Railroad operates the switching.

Stout said the businesses have an agreement with Portland & Western to use a former logging railcar to transport steel from Cascade Steel in McMinnville to Eugene, a journey that takes two to three days.

Each railcar trip replaces about three truckloads, reducing freight costs, and uses about half of the diesel required for truck transport on Interstate 5, according to the news release. 

“The supply chain changes for us,” Stout said. “Now we have a lot stronger supply here in Eugene, and we have the capacity to move a lot more than we did before.”

The warehouse will receive about four deliveries a month in the summer and two to three per month in the winter. The first delivery was scheduled for Nov. 11.