Southern+Pacific+(Red+Electrics)

Research
Jessie Sweeney, MLS


 * Service by Southern Pacific - The Red Electrics**

Although Southern Pacific had many lines it planned to electrify in order to compete with Oregon Electric, most of the time these lines were never converted to electric, and many new lines were never built.(1) Instead, the company focused on transforming their existing lines between Portland and McMinnville to electric. One of these lines provided a route along Portland’s west hills connecting the communities of Beaverton, Hillsboro, Forest Grove and Carlton. Its east side route ran from Oswego through Sherwood, then over the ChehalemMountains to Newberg and Lafayette. These two routes connected at St. Joseph, north of McMinnville, and over time were extended to Corvallis to the South. “Franchises were secured to operate electric cars on city streets in Forest Grove, Hillsboro, and Newberg, but only if SP would build the lines through the center of these cities instead of using existing freight routes that skirted or bypassed the central districts. This led to electrified “loops” through the cities.”(2) Electric lines were required within city limits as the electric trains were cleaner than the larger steam locomotives.

The first trial run from Beaverton to Gaston and back was made on January 5, 1914. January 17 was the first time passengers rode the new route, “when the Portland Commercial Club christened the service, a chartered train consisting on six cars…operated over the newly electrified “loop”” (3). The electric line used Union station in Portland to provide direct connections to further cities by steam locomotives.


 * The Decline of the Railroads**

The Red Electrics tour through western Oregon only lasted 15 years. “One of the last electric interurban lines built in the USA, it was one of the first to be abandoned,” (4). At this time the areas served by the Red Electrics, including Forest Grove, were mostly rural, sparsely populated areas. Low population meant there were not enough people buying tickets for service, leading to low revenues. The invention of the combustion engine and the resulting popularity of the automobile added to the company’s difficulty. “The “infernal combustion engine” added to the problem, and gradually the “rich man’s toy” became every man’s transportation” (5). In fact, per capita private ownership of cars in Oregon in the 1920’s was almost twice the national average (6). These circumstances, coupled with the realities of World War I, and the adverse effects of labor organizations on company profits, caused the company to continually operate at a loss. The final years of Southern Pacific’s electric operation saw losses of around $250,000 a year. “Also, SP traditionally charged low fares, even following World War I when wages and operating expenses increased substantially. Labor organizations had an adverse effect on profits as well. Demanding full-crew laws be applied to trains, when one or two men could have sufficed, not only hurt the company, but also proved suicidal for the unions” As a result, Southern Pacific began shutting down some of its more unprofitable lines, which were replaced by bus service. The last electric train ran on the WashingtonCounty line on July 28, 1929. Within a short time following this last run, city loops in Hillsboro and Forest Grove were removed, leaving only a small section from the Southern Pacific freight house to the Westside Branch at Detour. “The competition [of busses and automobiles], coupled with the Great Depression of 1929, sealed the interurban’s fate” (7). The Oregon Electric fell a few years later, in 1933, after operating those last years at a loss.(8)

...The introduction of the electric interurban brought additional benefits. Passenger travel was “clean, avoiding the nuisance of smoke, soot, and cinders. Also, farmers did not need to fear hot embers from passing steam engines setting their fields, pastures, or wood lots ablaze.” (9). These locomotives also moved faster than the steam powered trains, allowing for faster travel and deliveries. These benefits were not just limited to rail lines in one area of the country, but everywhere, including Forest Grove and all of the western Willamette Valley.

__ Citations
 * 1) Dill, Tom, and Walter Grande, //The Red Electrics: Southern Pacific’s Oregon Interurban,// Edmonds: Pacific Fast Mail (1994): p12.
 * 2) Ibid., p18.
 * 3) Ibid.,p23.
 * 4) Ibid., p95.
 * 5) Ibid.
 * 6) Ibid.
 * 7) Ibid., p96
 * 8) //Oregonian//, 2/3/1994.
 * 9) Grant, Roger, //Twilight Rails//, Minneapolis: UM Press (2010): p5.