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Oregon and California Railroad Co. collection
MS 134  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Biography/Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms
  • Additional collection guides

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Oregon and California Railroad Co. collection
    Dates: 1876-1926
    Collection Number: MS 134
    Creator/Collector: Oregon and California Railroad
    Extent: 8 boxes + 1 volume
    Repository: California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives
    Sacramento, California 95814
    Abstract: Includes an equipment record and financial records.
    Language of Material: English

    Access

    This collection is open for research at our off-site storage facility with one week's notice. Contact Library & Archives staff to arrange for access.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Capital District Collections Manager. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

    Preferred Citation

    Oregon and California Railroad Co. collection. California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives

    Acquisition Information

    The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley; Southern Pacific Railroad, New York Collection.

    Biography/Administrative History

    The Oregon & California Railroad was incorporated March 17, 1870 and eventually totaled approximately seven hundred miles of standard gauge, steam operated railroad, a little over half of which was constructed under its own name, the balance being obtained by acquisition of the following organizations: 1. Oregon Central Rail Road (east side) 2. Oregon Central Railroad (west side) 3. Western Oregon Railroad 4. Portland & Yamhill Railroad 5. Albany & Lebanon Railroad 6. Oregonian Railroad The Oregon & California itself, as originally constructed, was a railroad without branches, extending approximately 365 miles from Portland, Oregon southerly via Salem, Albany, Eugene, Roseburg and Ashland to the Oregon-California state boundary. Several small branches described later were constructed under the corporate name of the O&C after the road was taken over by the Southern Pacific Company. O&C rails reached New Era, on the east side of the Willamette River, 20.08 miles south of Portland, on December 24, 1869, under the name of the Oregon Central Rail Road. Southward progress was as follows: To Salem September 27, 1870, Albany December 25, 1870, Eugene October 15, 1871, Roseburg December 3, 1872, where construction was halted for almost nine years. The section to Myrtle Creek was completed August 14, 1882, to Grants Pass December 2, 1883, and to Ashland May 4, 1884. The line of the Central Pacific building north from Red Bluff, California, reached the Oregon border on June 1, 1887, and the O&C, under lease to the SP Company since July 1, completed construction north from the border to Ashland on December 17, 1887, thus completing the Siskiyou route and forming a continuous rail line from Portland, Oregon to New Orleans, Louisiana, about thirty-two hundred miles, all under one management. [Guy Dunscomb, A CENTURY OF SOUTHERN PACIFIC STEAM LOCOMOTIVES, 1862-1962 (Modesto, California: 1967), p. 395]

    Scope and Content of Collection

    This collection is arranged in two series: •1. RECORD OF EQUIPMENT •2. FINANCIAL RECORDS 1. Record of equipment One volume, July 1, 1887 with entries that provide numbers (old and new) of boats, locomotives and rolling stock on the Oregon and California, including those pieces of equipment transferred to the line from other railroads, class of equipment, dimensions, weight, date in service and remarks, including disposition of the equipment. 2. FINANCIAL RECORDS Includes accounting records of the Oregon & California Railroad. They include journal entries for land transactions, land accounts, land sales and leases, correspondence, letterpress books, cash books, balance sheets and cash payments. •Contact Library Staff for additional financial records.

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