Rock Creek Culliton


Valle Vista


Bowers Jct. He


B Helvetia Groveland C Lincoln coln North Plains Orenco Vadis Dersham Dixon Christie Wilkesboro Hawthorn Farm Connell


Twin Fir ln


wi Fir ell


Plainview


Hillsboro


Government Center Central/SE 3rd Tuallty/SE 7th


Washington/SE 12th Hillsboro Airport


Newton


Quatama/NW 205th


Reedville


Willow Creek


Merlo/SW 150th Elmonica/SW 170th


Beaverton Creek Milikan Way Beaverton


of the Coast Range. The tracks paralleled the SP Tillamook Branch for several miles in the area of Banks. The Southern Pacific segment from Tigard


to Banks was part of their Tillamook Branch over which the SP hauled heavy trains of lumber from Oregon’s Coast Range for many years. The line from Banks to Tillamook was sold to Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad, which interchanged with the P&W at Banks until the line over the Coast Range was closed in 2007 due to storm damage. The Oregon Electric was a subsidiary of the Spokane Port- land & Seattle Railway orig- inally constructed on a route that departed downtown Port- land southwards utilizing ex- tensive street running. In 1913 a connector line was opened which split off from the United Railways at Bowers Junction and headed due south to Forest Grove Junction, thence south- eastward through Beaverton to Garden Home, where it met up with the original OE route from Portland. From there the OE tracks extended south towards Albany and Eugene. During World War II trackage rights were secured over the SP between Bea- verton and Tigard, eliminating the more cir- cuitous routing via Garden Home. This pro- vided an alternate route for OE freight traffic that avoided the street running in Portland. At the urging of the City of Portland, the


original OE route south out of Portland that included the extensive street running was abandoned in 1941. By that time, through


freight traffic had already moved to Corne- lius Pass. Today, Interstate 5 closely follows the old alignment of the OE heading south out of downtown Portland. In the 1990s the line between Bowers Junction and Beaverton was removed from service to make way for the expansion of TriMet’s MAX light rail line be- tween Beaverton and Hillsboro. From World War II onwards, the Cornelius


Pass line was the main route that the SP&S used to connect the Portland and Vancouver area with the network of former OE lines in


In SP&S days, continuing through the BN


era, most of the traffic originating on the OE was long-haul lumber and paper forwarded via the Great Northern and Northern Pacific to eastern markets. “The SP&S was smart as they would block their overnight OE outbound train with a GN block and an NP block,” said Leachman. “The night OE road train continued to Pasco as a through train running with the SP&S power off the OE.” When the train ar- rived in Pasco it was an easy set-over move at the yard for separating the GN and NP blocks. What was ironic was that


From World War II onwards, the Cornelius Pass line was the main route that the SP&S used to connect the Portland and Vancouver area with the network of former Oregon Electric lines in the Willamette Valley...


the Willamette Valley extending as far south as Eugene. Traffic to and from the OE in postwar


SP&S days filled four through trains per day in addition to a number of locals and turns working along the route. Prof. Rob Leachman of U.C. Berkeley recalls that the road power for these trains was a mix of four-axle power; the OE road trains were powered by Alco FAs, RS2s, RS3s, C415s, C424, C425’s, or four-ax- le EMD Geeps. Leachman explained, “This was due to the weight restrictions of the high bridges on the line.”


Portland & Western over Cornelius Pass


BANKS Roy


AMTK - Amtrak BN - Burlington Northern BNSF - BNSF Railway GN - Great Northern NP - Northern Pacifi c OE - Oregon Electric PNWR - Portland & Western POTB - Port of Tillamook Bay SP - Southern Pacifi c SPS - Spokane, Portland & Seattle TriMet - Tri-County Metropolitan Trans. Dist. of Oregon UP - Union Pacifi c UR - United Railways


Schefflin


PNWR OE


TriMet BN (OE)


Transit Ctr. Sunset


Holcomb Creek Trestle 1,168 FT.


PORTLAND Bendemeer Ben B Bend OREGON Gasco Willbridge


this train was a big money maker for the BN, but ran with a mix of four-axle pow- er all the way to Pasco as opposed to the higher-horse- power six-axle power run- ning through the Columbia River Gorge on the point of trains with the less prof- itable traffic originating in Portland proper. After the merger into Burlington


Northern, traffic off the OE still required four daily trains with Trains 397 and 398 handling the priority traffic on that segment.


P&W Operations Today most of the traffic is handled on a


P&W train exercising trackage rights on UP from Salem to interchange with BNSF or UP at Portland. In contrast, the Harbor Turn traffic is nearly all captive as its car traffic moves from one end of the P&W system to the other without the need for a Class I inter- change. The Harbor Turn delivers its cars to


Burlington River Jct. Falkenberg


Cornelius Pass


Tunnel 4,111 FT.


Tunnel Spur McCoy


Linnton United Jct. Harbor


0 Merle


PORTLAND Robertson


Tunnel Beaverton Transit Ctr.


1 MILES


2


3


Illustration by Otto M. Vondrak. Not all railroads and stations shown. Not an offi cial map. ©2015 White River Productions


0 10 MILES CORNELIUS PASS GRADE PROFILE 20


SPS


POTB/PNWR BN (UR)


PNWR SP


PNWR/TriMet SP/OE


PNWR BN (OE)


SP


OE


TriMet BN (OE)


Eastbound Max. 1.2%


Wi l l ame t t e


R i v e r


POTB/PNWR SP


UR


SPS UR POTB SP


TriMet


UR


PNWR BN (UR)


PNWR BN (NP)


UR


PNWR BN (NP)


Westbound Max. 2.3%


BNSF/AMTK BN (SPS/GN/NP/UP)


UNITED JCT. River Jct.


Burlington


Cornelius Tunnel


Bowers Jct.


North Plains Sherman


Wilkesboro BANKS


BN OE


PNWR SP


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