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Re: Portland and SP
Author: SP_RedElectric
Date: 08-09-2008 - 20:16
Vance Pomerening Wrote:
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> Portland, formerly a five railroad town, not
> counting shortlines.
I would almost say that GN and NP were more "out of place" than the SP in Portland - GN reached Portland entirely by trackage rights over the NP from Seattle; and the NP "started" in Tacoma. (On the same token, UP reached Seattle/Tacoma only by trackage rights over the same NP route from Portland.)
Post-BN, Milwaukee Road gained access to Portland from Tacoma, another "where they shouldn't be" but less than a decade later they disappeared.
The SP was very interested in Oregon from the 1870s and 1880s, and the various paper corporations and construction companies that were formed to build the various lines, as well as former short-lines, were generally folded into SP by 1920. SP even formed an electric subsidiary in the Willamette Valley (although short-lived from 1914-1929) which was comparable to the Pacific Electric system, and which received much of the Oregon equipment after 1929. The only exceptions would be the Oregon, California & Eastern (joint owned with GN), the Portland Terminal Railroad (joint with NP, GN, SP&S and UP), and Portland Traction Company (joint with UP, ownership began in the 1950s and railroad operations ended in the 1990s; company still exists as a paper subsidiary of UP).
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> Portland, formerly a five railroad town, not
> counting shortlines.
I would almost say that GN and NP were more "out of place" than the SP in Portland - GN reached Portland entirely by trackage rights over the NP from Seattle; and the NP "started" in Tacoma. (On the same token, UP reached Seattle/Tacoma only by trackage rights over the same NP route from Portland.)
Post-BN, Milwaukee Road gained access to Portland from Tacoma, another "where they shouldn't be" but less than a decade later they disappeared.
The SP was very interested in Oregon from the 1870s and 1880s, and the various paper corporations and construction companies that were formed to build the various lines, as well as former short-lines, were generally folded into SP by 1920. SP even formed an electric subsidiary in the Willamette Valley (although short-lived from 1914-1929) which was comparable to the Pacific Electric system, and which received much of the Oregon equipment after 1929. The only exceptions would be the Oregon, California & Eastern (joint owned with GN), the Portland Terminal Railroad (joint with NP, GN, SP&S and UP), and Portland Traction Company (joint with UP, ownership began in the 1950s and railroad operations ended in the 1990s; company still exists as a paper subsidiary of UP).
