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Junction City. Junction City is where the branch to Steamboat would have come off . had the main line gone west through Trout Creek and Twentymile Park. The region was known as Arrowhead long before the mine came; whether this has anything to do with arrowheads in the region or represents o romanticized western name to disguise a mining region is not known. Junction City never amounted to much as a town; primarily, it was a mine office and consisted of only a few buildings. The miners lived elsewhere. Junction City burned down in the late 1940s and nothing has been done to replace it (Whaley 1979, personal communication). Hording siding marked the end of the Oak Creek Coal District. The railroad turns east, through Deer Park and Sidney, there to Turn down Jap Canon (where Japanese irackworkers were supposedly buried following their deaths during a labor dispute at the time of the railroad's construction ihrougl~ the area). Rail Operations -- The District Switcher The Switcher would make up his train of empties in Phippsburg, a few for each mine, and head westbound (by rail -- northbound by map). In the old days the cars • would be filled with grizzled miners, the railroad being the only way to the district. The train was often powered by D3~SL mallets (200's) before the Rio Grande took over. Mikadoes (Mikes) were also used, but there was no assigned power. They ran everything they had. Empties would be left at each mine, or for the switch engines at Oak Hills and Haybro. The mines loaded coal only in The daytime. Loads were then shoved to Oak Creek on the return trip where the locomotive would run around the train and pull the loads To Phippsburg. Trains were kept small and several trips were made a day. Lots of times a helper was needed when they got behind and didn't make enough trips (Williams and Saindon 1979, personal communication). •