Oregon and Northwestern Railroad
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The former lumber mill at the railroad's southern end in Hines
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| Locale | Grant County and Harney County, Oregon, USA |
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| Dates of operation | 1928–1984 |
| Predecessor | Malheur Railroad |
| Length | 50.2 miles (80.8 km) |
| Headquarters | Hines |
The Oregon and Northwestern Railroad (O&NW) is a defunct railroad in eastern Oregon in the United States. It ran 50.2 miles (80.8 km) from Hines north to Seneca, which is on the edge of the Malheur National Forest, over a total of 19 trestles.
The railroad's history began when the Edward Hines Lumber Company, having won a bid for a timber sale in the Malheur National Forest east of Seneca, purchased the Malheur Railroad and its corresponding sawmill, both incomplete, from the Fred Herrick Lumber Company for $400,000 in 1928 (equivalent to $5,579,070 in 2016). In the early 1920s, Herrick had won a Forest Service auction of ponderosa pine forest in the Bear Creek valley east of Seneca, and his company built the Malheur Railroad 30 miles (48 km) from Crane northwest to Burns in 1924. The company started to build a sawmill southwest of Burns and a rail line from Burns to Seneca, but it ran into financial troubles and did not complete either of those. Failing to meet the terms of its contract with the Forest Service, Herrick's company lost the auctioned land to the Edward Hines Lumber Company.
The Edward Hines Lumber Company finished construction of the sawmill, where the company town of Hines developed, and completed the Malheur Railroad between Hines and Seneca in 1929, thereby linking Crane with Seneca. The track between Hines and Seneca became the Oregon and Northwestern Railroad. The railroad received its permit from the Interstate Commerce Commission and became a common carrier on 24 June 1929. Charles John Pettibone was superintendent of the railroad and assistant manager of the lumber company.
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