Most of Oregon east of the Cascade Mountains is a raw and inhospitable land, largely the product of recent volcanic activity. Railroad builders constructed a couple mainlines skirting the edges of the region and some branch lines into agricultural communities, but found very little else to attract their interest. Over time, however, a small collection of interesting shortline railroads built or bought rail lines, either in conjunction with the developing timber industry in the Blue, Ochoco, and Wallowa mountains or to connect a few existing communities with the mainline that bypassed the town. This book tells the stories of these small railroads and the roles they played in the development and economies of the region; covered railroads includes the Big Creek & Telocaset; City of Prineville; Condon, Kinzua & Southern; Idaho, Northern & Pacific; Klamath Northern; Oregon & Northwestern; Oregon, California & Eastern; Oregon Eastern Division of the Wyoming/Colorado; Sumpter Valley; Union Railroad of Oregon; Wallowa Union; and others.

A reflection of the effects of highways--and their hugely subsidized trucks--upon railroads, and of the incompetence of the Southern Pacific. The trucks took much rail freight on the coast, the SP--partly through government rules & inertia--failed to meet the competition; many lines were closed, most of the rest were sold to small, hungry, competent firms. This is the story. It is well told in a style familiar to rail fans: lists of stations, engine rosters, control blocks. Abundant photos, a few in color. Current through the visit of the X2000 in mid-1993. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

In 1922, the US Forest Service offered one of the largest timber sales in the agencys history, encompassing 890 million board feet of mostly Ponderosa pine timber in the mountains north of Burns, Oregon. Among other requirements, the sale terms required the successful bidder to build and operate 80 miles of common carrier railroad through some of the most remote and undeveloped country in the state. The Fred Herrick Lumber Company and its Malheur Railroad initially won the bidding, only to lose it when a crash in the lumber market forced the company into insolvency. The Edward Hines Lumber Company of Chicago picked up the pieces, and from 1929 until 1984, its subsidiary Oregon & Northwestern Railroad made a living hauling logs, lumber, and occasional livestock between Burns and Seneca, Oregon.

The Great Northern Railway Through Time takes us on a tour of the American Northwest―the last American frontier―from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington. The Great Northern opened up the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, the dramatic Cascade Mountains of Washington and the Continental Divide at Marias Pass. President James J. Hill intended the Great Northern to be a freight hauling road, but tourists riding on the GN's premier passenger train, The Empire Builder were delighted by the prairie, the farmland, the Big Sky Country, the mountains, and Glacier National Park. The G.N.'s reputation grew. Today, Amtrak's Empire Builder traverses the same territory. The Great Northern Railway Through Time presents photos taken over the course of seventy five years by photographers of the era. The author has provided ample photo captions pointing out features that have changed over the years and features that have ​stayed the same. The early photos are fresh―never before published. The more recent shots were made by twenty of America's finest rail enthusiast photographers.

This edition lists nearly 600 shortline and regional railroads in the United States and Canada. Includes the history, radio frequency, locomotive roster and other information for each line as well as diesel profiles and a listing of past shortlines.

Railroads and Land Grant Policy: A Study in Government Intervention attempts to replace a major part of the railroad land grant legend (according to which the granting of federal and state land to private railroad firms benefitted these firms more than it contributed to society as a whole) with some real numbers and analysis. An attempt is made to put the income and wealth distribution impact of the railroad land grants in perspective, but thorough analysis of this issue is not undertaken. The primary question this study does try to illuminate is that of the effect of the railroad land grants on economic efficiency. This emphasis was chosen because it seems clear that improvement of economic efficiency was the major goal that Congress and various state legislatures sought to attain, and thus the examination of economic efficiency questions is fundamental to evaluation of railroad land grant policy. This study will not completely replace the railroad land grant legend (because much is not covered here), but it does represent a considerable diminution of that legend.

The Code of Federal Regulations is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government.