The Southern Pacific Railroad was founded in San Francisco in 1865, and in 1868 it was purchased by the "Big Four" railroad tycoons of California, Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker. In 1870, during the construction of the first transcontinental railway, the company merged with the Central Pacific to form the largest railroad company in the western U.S. By 1876 the railroad had opened service between Oakland and Los Angeles, and by 1883 a second transcontinental route had been built from Los Angeles to Chicago. In 1885 the Southen Pacific assumed control over all operations of the Central Pacific, and in 1913 the U.S. Supreme Court forced the Union Pacific Railroad to sell its stock in the Southern Pacific Company. In 1988 the Southern Pacific Company was taken over by Rio Grand Industries, and in 1996 the Southern Pacific was purchased again by the Union Pacific Railroad.
In 1887 the Southern Pacific assumed control of the Oregon and California Railroad, which had been established through a reorganization of the California and Oregon Railroad in 1865. The Oregon and California came to be known as the "East Side Line" since it competed with the Oregon Central, or "West Side Line," to build the rail link between Portland and San Francisco. In 1870, magnate Ben Holladay assumed control of the Oregon and California, although later financial losses led to his displacement by Henry Villard and the Northern Pacific after 1873. In 1887 the line from Portland to Oakland, California, was completed and the Oregon and California came under the control of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
In the following decades the Oregon and California Railroad became the focus of a notorious land-fraud litigation. This was the result of the U.S. Government's method of subsidizing railroad construction through the grants of alternating parcels of property along the routes. As a condition of these land grants, the railroad was required to sell the parcels to "settlers" at $2.50 an acre. However, the Oregon and California evaded this requirement and sold properties to large land developers at high prices. These fraudulent practices became a public issue, in part through the investigative reporting of the
In 1927 the Southern Pacific bought the Oregon, California, and Eastern Railway, which was begun by R. E. Strahorn in the early 1900s. The line ran eastward from Klamath Falls, Oregon, to Sprague River, and eventually reached the town of Bly. It was operated jointly by the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Great Northern Railroad after 1928.
The Northen Pacific Terminal Company was founded in 1882. It was owned jointly by the Oregon and California Railroad, the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company. In 1886 it purchased 14 blocks in Portland from the Oregon Central Railroad, and between 1890 and 1896 the company constructed the present Portland Union Station. In 1965 the name was changed to the Portland Terminal Railroad Company.
The collection was assembled by the Oregon Historical Society from a variety of sources. The most significant series is a large set of blueprints, probably collected by engineer Robert L. Donald, consisting of drawings for bridges, trestles, outbuildings, generic stations, locomotives, and a variety of other equipment. These date primarily from the 1890s and 1900s and were apprently parts of sets produced by the railroad's central offices. Most of the bridges and other structures were located in Oregon and California. A large portion of the drawings were identified with serial numbers, and these numbers are reflected in the indexes filed in the first folder of the collection.
Another important series contains records of the Oregon and California Railroad, which include minutes of board meetings, 1870-1929, and legal materials relating to land litigation cases. Also of note are photocopies and originals of employee timetables, primarily for lines in Oregon, and dating from 1892 to 1987. The collection also includes: publications and documents relating to the Northern Pacific Terminal Company; Southern Pacific Company publications; freight tariff books, 1895-1898; work order books, circa 1937-1967; corporate minutes, 1915-1974, of the Oregon, California, and Eastern Railway; general correspondence; stock books of the Oregon Central Railroad Company and the Willamette Valley Railroad Company; and ephemera.
The collection contains materials formerly designated Mss 1113, Mss 113-1, Mss 1113-2, and Mss 1113-3.
The collection is arranged in the following series:
The collection is open to the public.
The Oregon Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library prior to any use of reproductions. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use of reproductions may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright holders.
Southern Pacific Railroad collection, Mss 1113, Oregon Historical Society Research Library
Minutes of the Board of Directors of the Oregon and California Railroad also available on microfilm as Mss 1113 Microfilm, Oregon Historical Society Research Library
The engineering records and blueprints were probably collected by Robert L. Donald.
Library accessions 9510, 11328, 12687, 14010, and 14011.
Southern Pacific Railroad architectural drawings are designated Mss 3169 in the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Southern Pacific Railroad photographs are designated Org. Lot 442 in the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Additional drawings and specification of the Southern Pacific and related railroads are housed at the California State Railroad Museum Library, Sacramento, California.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
These materials were probably assembled in the office of a company construction engineer, probably Robert L. Donald. Many of the blueprints appear to have come from a set issued by the railroad around 1907. The materials were found in a random and disorganized state, and an attempt to reconstruct their original order was made during processing.
Not all drawings listed in the indexes are represented in the collection. Oversize drawings are housed in oversize folders and boxes. Numbers listed below refer to sequences of drawings, e.g., "B. 41-44" means drawings B 41, B 42, B 43, etc.
Contains:
Researchers must use photocopies unless permission granted by reference librarian.
Schematic diagram in booklet form, showing elevations, track composition, bridges, and other features of the route from Portland east as far as Sierra Nevada Mine.
Map of southern Calfiornia lines, and map of Oregon Electric Railway, Portland-Salem Division.
Minutes are indexed in 7 volumes housed in box 21
Also available on microfilm. See index to microfilm below.
Includes letter from Harvey W. Scott
These materials were found together in a specially designed custom box, stamped on the spine "Northern Pacific Terminal Company." They were probably collected in the course of litigation, and are related to the records of the Oregon and California Railroad in the above series. The original box was discarded due to extreme deterioration, but an inner panel with a list of the documents was preserved and is included in the first folder of this series.
Bound typescript titled "Corporate history of the Southern Pacific Company and proprietary companies, comprising the Pacific System as of June 30, 1916."
Correspondence regarding right-of-way of Jefferson Street Branch Line, previously the Portland end of Newberg Branch Line, originally the Portland and Willamette Valley Railway Co. These materials appear to have been assembled by A. W. Killborn, superintendent at Portland.
Hand printed engineering earthwork table for determining areas of cross sections.
Field survey notebook of the Oregon and California Railroad Company, dating from the time reconnaisance surveys were made for a portion of the railway linking Ashland with Siskiyou County, California.
"Prepared in Bureau of News, Development Department, Southern Pacific Company, 65 Market Street, San Francisco, California."
Reproduction of a fragment of a deed to a Scotch corporation for portions of the right of way on the Sheridan Branch Line.
Printed timetables intended for railroad staff and not for the public. Dates refer to dates that timetable was to take effect. Materials in this series were formerly designated Mss 1113-3.
A complete inventory of these original timetables is included in box 15.
Contains: United States Railroad Administration, Southern Pacific, lines north of Ashland, timetables numbered 1, 2, 3 (1918-1919); Southern Pacific Company, Pacific Lines, Portland Division, timetables numbered 119, 130 (1930, 1937); and Southern Pacific Company, Pacific Lines, Los Angeles Division, number 144 (1924).
Contains: Portland Division, United Railways Company, Gales Creek and Wilson River Railroad Comapany, and Oregon Electric Railway Company (table number 120, 1935; Terminal Division (tables numbered 149, 153, 154, 1935-1937); and Vancouver Division and Oregon Trunk Railway (tables number 76, 78, 79, 1934, 1936)