Eagle Cap Train Rides

The Eagle Cap Excursion Train runs over the historic Joseph Branch in Oregon's far northeast corner, where the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company opened a line north from La Grande to Elgin in December 1890. After the OR&N was dissolved, the Union Pacific took over and pushed the rails north and east — reaching Wallowa by 1908 and eventually Enterprise and Joseph. UP marked the branch for divestiture around the start of the 1990s and sold it in 1993 to Rio Grande Pacific Corporation, whose Idaho Northern and Pacific Railroad operated it until the Elgin–Joseph segment was slated for abandonment in 1997 following the closure of the Joseph mill. Determined to keep the corridor alive, Union and Wallowa counties bought the 63 miles of railroad in 2002, creating the publicly owned Wallowa Union Railroad. Excursion service started up in the early 2000s — initially run by the Idaho Northern and Pacific — with the first full season beginning in May 2004, and since 2013 the nonprofit Friends of the Joseph Branch has operated the excursion business under agreement with the Wallowa Union Railroad Authority, growing ridership and trips year over year.