Oregon Short Line Railroad

Oregon Short Line Railroad
Overview
Reporting markOSL
LocaleIdaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah & Wyoming
Dates of operationApril 14, 1881–1987
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
1923 map of the railroad
Oregon Short Line locomotive & tender No. 877, c. 1906

The Oregon Short Line Railroad (reporting mark OSL) was a railroad in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Montana and Oregon in the United States. The line was organized as the Oregon Short Line Railway in 1881 as a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railway. The Union Pacific intended the line to be the shortest route ("the short line") from Wyoming to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Construction was begun in 1881 at Granger, Wyoming, and completed in 1884 at Huntington, Oregon. In 1889 the line merged with the Utah & Northern Railway and a handful of smaller railroads to become the Oregon Short Line and Utah Northern Railway. Following the bankruptcy of Union Pacific in 1897, the line was taken into receivership and reorganized as the Oregon Short Line Railroad ("OSL"). The OSL became a part of the Union Pacific System in the Harriman reorganization of 1898.[1]

  1. ^ Strack, Don. "Utah Rails".