Now our railroad is bringing Tillamook County... and all of America... into the 21st Century by bringing and insuring America's fiberoptic connectivity to the world along our rights-of-way!

We are literally bringing ourselves and all of America from the horse and buggy era of communications to the amazing era of modern, high-speed fiberoptic communications... and beyond!

It is the vision of the Port management that our railroad be a multiple use facility. While our line has hosted excursion and dinner trains in the past, perhaps the best illustration of that vision can be found in the opening of the Salmonberry River Canyon, and the utilization of the right-of-way as a route for fiber optic communications lines.

The telecommunications industry is booming, with cellular phones, Internet-connected computers, and increased land-line use making additional connections necessary. To meet that need, there are over 30 separate major submarine cable projects underway around the globe, stringing miles of 1.2 inch diameter fiber optic cable between continents.

One such project bringing cable from Alaska made landfall at Nedonna Beach, near Wheeler, in 1999. Another arrived in April of 2000.

The cables are laid by special ships designed to bury them to a depth of at least one meter, but in some locations the cable is left lying on the surface of the bottom, depending on conditions. Once the cable reaches land, a suitable route must be found to get the cable to a telecommunications hub, like Portland. In the case of the Nedonna Beach projects, that route is our railroad.

While you can't tell that the cables are even there by looking at the railroad tracks, a telltale sign is seen on our many bridges and trestles, where a metal conduit helps the cables make their trip across open space.

It's just another way that the Port of Tillamook Bay remains a diverse economic force.