Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Oregon and California Railroad Co. collection
MS 134  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Overview
 
Table of contents What's This?
Description
Includes an equipment record and financial records.
Background
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]
Extent
8 boxes + 1 volume
Restrictions
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.
Availability
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.