User:Valfontis/Railroad notes

Pendleton Branch along Wildhorse Creek

1875 - Walla Walla & Columbia River Railroad (WW&CR) (narrow gauge) from Wallula to Walla Walla, Washington

1879 - branchline from Whitman, Washington south; construction stopped at Blue Mountain station

1879 - Henry Villard's Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company (OR&N) purchased the WW&CR

1881 - OR&N converted Walla Walla mainline to standard gauge, late in the year line planned from Walla Walla to Pendleton

1882 - September: construction started on the above line
 * Walla Walla to Milton, then west to connect to narrow gauge line
 * December: construction of standard gauge to BMS

1883 - meeting w/Villard (farmers in Centerville & Weston frustrated)
 * September: Grade to Centerville (Athena) resumed north from Pendleton, finished in February 1884; 10-mile gap between Centerville and Weston remained

1886 - post Villard bankruptcy, OR&N continued construction from Centerville to BMS

1887 - first train to run from Pendleton to Walla Walla

Was 2ndary mainline to Spokane

1889 - Centerville renamed Athena

1898 - Union Pacific buys majority stake in OR&N

1960 - passenger service ends

1975 - proposal to abandon tracks for portion of Pendleton Branch Line, between MP 0.00 near Pendleton and MP 17.03 near Athena
 * Havana, Blakeley, and Adams stations are affected

1985 - Athena to Weston trackage abandoned (rails to Sumpter Valley RR)

Stations on the timetables
 * Walla Walla, Washington
 * State Line, Oregon
 * Spofford, Oregon
 * Milton, Oregon
 * Prunedale, Oregon
 * Barrett, Oregon
 * Bade, Oregon
 * Blue Mountain, Oregon (spur)
 * Downing, Oregon [warehouse]
 * Weston, Oregon (spur)
 * Athena, Oregon
 * Adams, Oregon
 * Blakeley, Oregon
 * Havana, Oregon [warehouse]
 * Saxe, Oregon
 * Pendleton, Oregon

Other

 * Eastland, Oregon?

Shipping/milling companies

 * Sperry Flour
 * Pacific Coast Elevator
 * Interior Warehouse Company
 * Kerr-Gifford Company
 * Fulton, Hamilton & Rourke Company (1895) Fulton and Hamilton Sts, signed off on by Rourke, in this plat in Pendleton (1891)

Populations

 * Finnish settlement north of Havana?

Misc

 * https://www.co.umatilla.or.us/fileadmin/user_upload/Road/Surveyor/UMATILLA%20COUNTY%20SURVEYOR%20RECORDS/GLO%20PLATS%20&%20TRANSCRIBED%20FIELD%20NOTES/FILED%20SURVEYS/SUBDIVISIONS/BOOKS%2013-16/14-70.pdf City of Pendleton plat showing old ROW for "Pendleton Branch" of the UP
 * http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=77774&Page=4 Some Pendleton Branch pic here
 * https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df71cc11v Century Farm info in Havana area w/map
 * https://wx4.org/to/foam/maps/1Perry5-2/1975-08-10UP_NorthwesternDist_1-SheldonPerry.pdf Havana no longer on UP timetable (but Blakeley is) 1975
 * https://www.newspapers.com/image/316511943/?match=1&terms=%22Union%20Pacific%22%20Athena Closing of small-town railroad agencies (incl. Athena)