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Elise Hamner saw 22 freight cars loaded with plywood go through Coos Bay on Tuesday.

“It was a beautiful sight,” she said.

Hamner, the communications director of the Port of Coos Bay, said it shows that the Coos Bay Rail Link is done, and that trains are once more hauling wood, steel and other cargo between Roseburg and the Oregon Coast. Hamner said the first train moved along the fully restored 134-mile rail line on Monday.

“We, as a community, have done the impossible,” Port of Coos Bay CEO David Koch said. “We’ve accomplished what so many naysayers said couldn’t be done.”

Port officials bought the rail line in 2007 for $17 million and launched into the backlog of maintenance projects that had caused the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad to close the track in 2003.

The loss of rail service was devastating, Hamner said. American Bridge, a steel fabricator in Reedsport, had 100 employees in 2003. After the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad abruptly shut down because of safety concerns, American Bridge had only 10 employees and was barely limping along.

The railway reopened partially in October 2012, and after a year of restored rail service, American Bridge and other companies welcomed the relief. However, the railway was not fully restored until this week.

That’s when workers for Billeter Marine and Scott Partney Construction in North Bend completed the final step of repairing two critical wooden trestles to open the remaining 20 miles of rail line to Coquille.

“Moving product by rail directly out of Coquille can eliminate up to 18 truckloads per day of material being shipped to another mill, where it then is loaded on a railcar,” Roseburg Forest Products transportation director Jeff Brandt said. “This will not only allow us to be more competitive by reducing our costs, but it will benefit the community and environment by reducing highway traffic and emissions.”

The company also moves wood chips along the rail line to its terminal on the North Spit of Coos Bay. The company is one of 11 manufacturers and agricultural producers that have transported wood products, steel, chromite ore and organic cattle feed by rail since 2011.

The Coos Bay Rail Link now employs 12 people, with a total payroll exceeding $500,000, Hamner said.