Oregon Eastern Railway

Oregon Eastern Railway

Oregon Eastern Railway (red) and lines built by successors SP and UP (dotted)
Locale	Oregon and California
Dates of operation	1906–1912
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Oregon Eastern Railway was a predecessor of the Southern Pacific Company that acquired or built most of the Natron Cutoff or Cascade Line in northern California and southern Oregon, United States. It also made surveys and acquired right-of-way in eastern Oregon, which were subsequently sold to Union Pacific Railroad subsidiary Oregon–Washington Railroad and Navigation Company.

The Natron Cutoff is on the National Register of Historic Places, considered significant to the period 1905 to 1945.

Starting in 1903, the Weed Lumber Company built a private railroad from the main line of the Southern Pacific Company (SP), formerly the Oregon and California Railroad, in Weed to Grass Lake, California. On July 6, 1905, the California Northeastern Railway was incorporated to operate the line as a common carrier. The new company bought the line on July 29, and an SP-funded reconstruction was completed on September 1, 1906, when the line was opened to the public as a leased branch line of the SP. Extensions were completed to Bray on September 6, 1907, Dorris on May 1, 1908, the Oregon state line on August 25, 1908, Worden on November 25, 1908, Ady on January 1, 1909, and finally the whole 86.15 miles (138.64 km) to Klamath Falls, Oregon on May 20, 1909.

On August 21, 1905, the Oregon Eastern Railway was incorporated in the interest of the SP and Union Pacific Railroad (UP), then both controlled by E. H. Harriman. This company surveyed a route from a line of SP lessor Oregon and California Railroad at Natron, near Springfield, over the Cascades in the direction of the UP near Ontario, Oregon. It also planned to build branches south to Klamath Falls and Lakeview, the former connecting with the California Northeastern. This company began construction in November 1909 on the line north from Klamath Falls, soon reaching Chiloquin under lease to the SP. The Oregon Eastern acquired the property of the California Northeastern on December 18, 1911, and on February 12, 1912, the property of the Oregon Eastern was sold to SP lessor Central Pacific Railway, which owned the main line through Weed. The Central Pacific completed two segments on which the Oregon Eastern had begun work: Natron to Oakridge and Chiloquin to Kirk, in May and September 1912 respectively. However, work was then placed on hold while the federal government decided whether the SP's lease of the CP violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. (It had already broken up the SP-UP combination in 1913.)