The Oregon Electric Railway (OE) was an

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

line in the U.S. state of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

that linked Portland to Eugene. Service from Portland to Salem began in January 1908. The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway purchased the system in 1910, and extended service to Eugene in 1912. Regular passenger service in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...

ended in May 1933. Freight operations continued and the railway survived into the 1990s, ultimately as a

Burlington Northern The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroadin ...

feeder. Operation as an electric railroad ended July 10, 1945. The tracks run parallel to the main modern

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

line between Portland and Eugene, used for freight and passenger service. The OE line is to the west, closely following the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

. In the 2000s, the line has been under consideration as an alternative for Amtrak's Cascades and

Coast Starlight The ''Coast Starlight'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, which has operated continuously since Amtrak's format ...

passenger lines. Removing passenger service from the clogged Union Pacific track would improve the timeliness of the trains, permit higher capacity, and allow higher-speed travel, peaking at 110 MPH. Burlington Northern operated the last freight train on the Portland-Beaverton segment of this mainline on December 31, 1994, in preparation for the construction of

Westside MAX West Side or Westside may refer to: Places Canada * West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario * West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia United Kingdom * West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Westside, Birmingham E ...

, part of the

TriMet TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 ...

light rail system. The right-of-way between Portland and Tigard has since been abandoned. From the north bank depot, it followed 10th Avenue, Salmon Street, and West Bank of the Willamette River. Portions of the right-of-way between the Southwest Waterfront and Multnomah Boulevard are currently under

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...

Stations

Main line

In order from north to south * Portland North Bank Depot *10th & Stark *10th & Morrison *5th & Salmon *2nd & Salmon *Front & Jefferson *View Point * Fulton Park *

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

*Ryan Place * Multnomah *Shahapta * Maplewood *Barstow *

Garden Home A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

**branch to Forest Grove * Nesmith * Metzger * Greenburg * Tigard * Bonita *

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

* Tualatin **branch to McMinnville *Nasoma * Tonquin * Mulloy * Wilsonville * Prahl * Butteville * Fargo *

Donald Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

* Fellers * Broadacres *

West Woodburn West Woodburn is a village in north-western Northumberland, England. The 2001 census recorded a population of 492 in the Parish Council area of Corsenside of which West Woodburn is the main settlement. The village is situated south of the bo ...

**spur to Woodburn * Saint Louis * Concomly * Waconda * Chemeketa (now Hopmere) * Quinaby * Chemawa *Claxtar *

Deaf School Deaf School is an English art rock/ new wave band, formed in Liverpool, England, in January 1974. Overview Between 1976 and 1978, the year in which they split up, Deaf School recorded three albums for the Warner Brothers label. The first a ...

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

* Salem * Melas * Livesley * East Independence * Orville * Sidney * Talbot *

Dever Dever is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Barbara Dever (born 1951), opera singer, appeared with Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, Zubin Mehta * Benjamin M. Dever (died 1942), American politician * Dan Dever (born 1946), Ca ...

*Conser * Albany * Pirtle *

Gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be compose ...

**spur to Corvallis * Oakville * Fayetteville * Potter *

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

* Cartney *

Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in ...

* Junction City * Milorn * Meadow View * Aubrey * Enid * Lasen * Eugene

United Railways line

In order from west to east * Wilkesboro * North Plains *

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

Helvetia Helvetia () is the female national personification of Switzerland, officially ''Confoederatio Helvetica,'' the Swiss Confederation. The allegory is typically pictured in a flowing gown, with a spear and a shield emblazoned with the Swiss fl ...

Falkenberg Falkenberg is a locality and the seat of Falkenberg Municipality, Halland County, Sweden, with 27,813 inhabitants in 2019 (out of a municipal total of about 45,000). It is located at the mouth of river Ätran. The name consists of the Swedish ...

* Burlington * Linnton Dispatcher table of Oregon Electric Railway

Forest Grove line

In order from west to east * Forest Grove * Cornelius * Hillsboro * Orenco * Quatama * Elmonica * Beaverton * Whitford *Garden Home Map of telephony lines of Oregon Electric Railway

Map of telephony lines of Oregon Electric Railway

Remnants

*The former Oregon Electric line from Tigard to Eugene is now operated by the

Portland & Western Railroad The Portland and Western Railroad is a Class II railroad serving the U.S. state of Oregon, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of shortline and regional railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The PNWR includes a subsidiary, the Willamet ...

. BN donated the track from Tigard to Quinaby (a farming community north of Keizer) to the State of Oregon and sold the track to the Portland & Western. South of Quinaby, the line is still owned by BN successor

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

and leased to P&W for operation. * The OE branch between Hillsboro and Beaverton is now part of the

MAX Blue Line The MAX Blue Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It travels east–west for approximately —the longest in the network—between Hillsboro, Beaverton, Po ...

*Passenger service is again available on the segment from Tigard to Wilsonville as part of the

Westside Express Service The Westside Express Service (WES) is a commuter rail line serving part of the Portland metropolitan area's Washington County and a small portion of Clackamas County in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned by TriMet and operated by Portland & Wester ...

(WES) commuter rail line. WES service continues north of Tigard to Beaverton using a former Southern Pacific track that the OE had used since the mid-1930s when its own route north of Tigard to downtown Portland was abandoned. The OE used to join with the ex-Southern Pacific track at Greton, located in the northern part of Tigard near the intersection of S.W. North Dakota Street and S.W. Tiedeman Avenue. Today, the original OE track ends and joins the former SP line southeast of S.W. Hall Boulevard. The parking lot of the current WES station in downtown Tigard is where the OE tracks used to lie; the abandoned right-of-way is still plainly visible north of downtown Tigard. *The former station in Eugene had been reused and housed the

Oregon Electric Station The Oregon Electric Railway Passenger Station is a historic railroad station in Eugene, Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was built in 1914 as a station for the Oregon Electric Railway and was designed by A. E. Doyle. Passenger service by ...

restaurant. *The Albany station is now a pizza parlor. *The Multnomah depot was located at the current site of the John's Market parking lot, on the northwest corner of SW 35th and Multnomah Blvd. The adjacent 1913 Nelson Thomas Building, characterized as " streetcar era commercial" architecture, still stands.Marco's Café: About
/ref> *The North Bank Depot in Portland was the northern terminal for the OE from 1912 to 1931."Electric Line Changes: Trains Stop Operating on Salmon and Tenth (subheadlines: Oregon Electric Service Now Terminates at Jefferson Street; Ticket Office Moves)". (June 20, 1931). ''

The Morning Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850 ...

'', p. 4. Used also as a warehouse, the building (and a matching one across the street) was preserved and converted into condominiums in the 1990s. *The site of the Tigard station is now occupied by the Tigard Chamber of Commerce. *The former Springfield Southern Pacific station was leased to Oregon Electric for a brief period. Is now a museum. It has an authentic semaphore signal and baggage car outside. *Several of the railway's electric substations still exist, including those at Tonquin and Waconda.

References

External links

*
Historic Oregon Electric Railway images
from Salem Public Library

from www.pdxhistory.com * ** ** ** ** {{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Electric Railway Former Class I railroads in the United States History of transportation in Oregon Defunct Oregon railroads Transportation in Portland, Oregon Predecessors of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Railway companies established in 1906 Railway companies disestablished in 1981 Interurban railways in Oregon Electric railways in Oregon 1906 establishments in Oregon Historic American Engineering Record in Oregon