Although most of the movie Stand By Me was filmed in Brownsville, the railroad scenes were filmed here just outside of Cottage Grove, or in Northern California. The boys started their epic journey crossing the railroad bridge just a couple hundred feet from the cache location. The Railroad bridge over Mosby Creek. At the time of the movie filming, in 1985, this was still an active railroad. Today the rails are no more, it is a walking/biking trail
About the railroad. It is actually a very famous railroad when it comes to the movies. The Oregon Pacific and Eastern ran 18 miles from Cottage Grove to Disston. It started in 1904 as the Oregon and Southeastern. The line closed in 1987 and the track was ripped up in 1994.
In 1985 the movie Stand by Me was filmed on the line. In 1973 Emperor of the North Pole starring Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine. In 1926 the Buster Keaton movie The General was filmed on the line as well. All on a short line railroad built to serve logging
The railroad as stated was really about serving the areas lumber economy. in the early 1980s there was passenger excursions up the Row river. But with the lumber economy heading downward the railroad could not survive with the tourist trade.