English
Oregon Historical Society, Davies Family Research Library
1200 SW Park Ave.
Portland, OR 97205
libreference@ohs.org
https://www.ohs.org/research-and-library/
Transport Consultants collection of Oregon railroad records and research
Transport Consultants, Inc. (Lafayette, Calif.)
Mss 2958
2.75 cubic feet
2 record cartons and 1 legal document case
1873-1975
1873-1928
Agreements, contracts, and financial records of the 19th-century railroad firms Oregon and California Railroad Company; the Oregon and Transcontinental Company; the Oregon Improvement Company; and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company. The collection also includes Oregon Railroad Commission reports, railroad guidebooks, and files of the Southern Pacific Railroad research team. The materials were compiled by Transport Consultants, Inc., whose president, Lynn D. Farrar, had worked for Southern Pacific and was a railroad historian.
Collection is open for research.
Gift of Lynn Farrar, care of of Transport Consultants, Inc., July 1992 (Lib. Acc. 20866).
The collection is arranged in four series: Series 1. Oregon and California Railroad Company records; Series 2. Records of other firms and events; Series 3. Reports and guidebooks; Series 4. Southern Pacific research team files.
The Oregon and California Railroad Company was formed following the passage of the Oregon and California Railroad Act by the U.S. Congress in 1866. The act designated 3.7 million acres for the purpose of constructing a railroad from Portland, Oregon, to the California border. The firm, initially called the Oregon Central Railroad, was managed by Ben Holladay until German shareholders, represented by Henry Villard (1835-1900), purchased a controlling interest. Southern Pacific Railroad took control of the Oregon and California Railroad Company in 1887.
The land grants provided by the Oregon and California Railroad Act stipulated that the company could fund construction by selling parcels along the railroad line to settlers at a rate of $2.50 per acre. The Oregon and California Railroad Company, however, submitted fraudulent settlement claims, and then sold the claims to land developers and timber firms for a profit. Exposure of these practices resulted in the Oregon Land Fraud Trials from 1904 to 1910. In 1916, Congress passed the Chamberlain-Ferris Act, which returned 2,800,000 acres of the railroad company's lands to the federal government.
Transport Consultants, Inc. was a California firm formed in part by Lynn D. Farrar, a former Southern Pacific Company valuation engineer and an expert on Southern Pacific Railroad lines and their history.
The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company was a steamship and railroad firm incorporated in 1879; its predecessor had been the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. The Oregon and Transcontinental Company, formed in 1881, controlled the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and the Northern Pacific Railroad. The Oregon Improvement Company, founded in 1880, was a business that owned and operated coal mines, railroads, and steamship companies in Washington and California. All three entities were founded by Henry Villard (1835-1900).
Collection was titled Lynn Farrar/Transport Consultants railroad collection prior to August 2019.
Transport Consultants collection Oregon railroad records and research, Mss 2958, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The bulk of the collection consists of contracts and financial records of the Oregon and California Railroad Company. The collection also includes notes and materials compiled by the research team of Southern Pacific Railroad between the 1950s and 1970s. Other materials of note include reports of the Oregon Railroad Commission, guidebooks to western U.S. railroad routes, and records relating to other railroad firms, such as the Oregon Improvement Company, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, and the Oregon and Transcontinental Company.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.
Oregon and California Railroad Company
Railroads--Oregon--19th century
Railroad companies
Railroads
Financial records
Reports
Oregon and California Railroad Company
Oregon and Transcontinental Company
Oregon Improvement Company
Oregon Railway and Navigation Company
Railroad Commission of Oregon
Southern Pacific Railroad Company
Oregon and California Railroad Company records
Series 1
1873-1915
Agreement of Compromise between Oregon Central Railroad Co., Oregon and California Railroad Company, and Heinrich Hohenemser
1873
1
1
Deed of trust for Oregon and California Railroad Company to Henry Villard, Robert Davie Peebles, and Charles Edward Bretheron
1881
1
2
Annual report for 1881
1882
1
3
General description of the Oregon and California Railroad line between Roseburg and the Oregon-California border by William Hood
1883
1
4
Notice to the preferred stockholders of the Oregon and California Railroad Company
1883
1
5
Construction contract between the Oregon and Transcontinental Company and the Oregon and California Railroad Company
1883 January
1
6
Construction contract between the Oregon and Transcontinental Company and the Oregon and California Railroad Company
1883 May 25
1
7
Land grants limits documentation for Oregon and California Railroad Company
1895 October 14
1
8
Description of Beaverton and Willsburg Railroad Company sent to Oregon and California Railroad Company
1915
1
9
Statements of accounts
1882 June-1888 June
1
10-68
Annual statements of accounts
1883-1887
2
1-5
Records of other firms and events
Series 2
1881-1898
Bylaws of the Oregon and Transcontinental Company
1881
2
6
Articles of incorporation of the Oregon and Transcontinental Company
1882
2
7
Statement of accounts, Oregon Improvement Company
1881 November
2
8
Oregon Improvement Company records
1884
2
9
First mortgage of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company to the Farmers Loan and Trust Company
1879 July
2
10
Statements of accounts, Oregon Railway and Navigation Company
1881 June-December
2
11-12
Plans and agreement for the reorganization of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company system
undated
2
13
Right-of-way maps, Oregon Railway Company
undated
2
14
Proceedings of the 5th Annual Convention of the Association of Railway Superintendents of Bridges and Buildings
1895
2
15
Reports and guidebooks
Series 3
1889-1922
Biennial reports of the Oregon Railroad Commission
1889-1897
2
16-20
Third annual report of the Oregon Railroad Commission
1909
2
21
Biennial reports of the California Bureau of Labor Statistics
1905-1906; 1909-1910
2
22-23
Guidebook of the Western United States, Part B: The Overland Route
1916
2
24
Guidebook of the Western United States, Part C: The Santa Fe Route
1916
2
25
Guidebook of the Western United States, Part E: The Denver and Rio Grande Route
1922
2
26
American Railway Bridges and Buildings
1898
3
1
Southern Pacific research team files
Series 4
1883-1975
General research files on Oregon and California Railroad
1883-1975
3
2
Notes on the Oregon and California Railroad
1970-1974
3
3
Notes by D. F. Myrick, taken from Oregon and California Railroad director's minutes for January 14-16, 1883
1970
3
4
Notes taken by D. F. Myrick about Southern Pacific rail lines
1966-1973
3
5
Book excerpt about the opening of the Siskiyou Line in 1887
1928
3
6
Article by D. F. Myrick about the Siskiyou line
1956
3
7
Articles about Oregon and California Railroad Company from the Roseburg News Review
1972
3
8
"Railroads down the Valley" by Randy V. Mills
1950
3
9
Notes about 1890 landslide in Cow Creek Canyon
undated
3
10
Origins of station names on the Portland Division
undated
3
11
File about Southern Pacific trains, "The Red Electrics of Portland"
1950
3
12
"Southern California Floods of 1916," by H. D. McGlashan and F. C. Ebert
1918
3
13