Sunday, August 11, 2013

Southern Pacific - Lake Oswego, Oregon

Lake Oswego aerial photo from 1969, north is at the top. Note that you can see the first truss section of the bridge over the Willamette at the upper right.

A pair of SD9s pull a cut of cement cars out of Ashgrove Cement (SPINS 0608) in 1986.
Note the ABS signals, this was a busy piece of railroad.




Crown Zellerbach Woodchip Rail/Barge Transfer, SPINS 0610-0612.
Aerial view looking southwest showing the CZ woodchip transfer facility, and Ashgrove Cement.


Lake Oswego, Oregon, while today mostly known as a tony suburb of Portland, was once a hub of industrial activity.  Indeed the very formation of the city of Lake Oswego is tied to the Oregon Iron and Steel Company (link,) which was located along the Willamette River just to the south in the photo above. Of course all over the Portland area, land proximal to navigable commercial waterways has been "re-purposed" to "mixed use" development, so Lake Oswego is hardly the exception. And of course, nobody in Lake Oswego has ever needed cement or toilet paper. Speaking of toilet paper, you can still the see the Crown Zellerbach logo on toilet paper and paper towel dispensers in public bathrooms. The CZ chipwood transfer facility enabled the SP to serve two offline CZ paper mills in West Linn, Oregon, and Camas, Washington. 



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The area today. You can still see the pattern of trackage, and parts of the right of way are now trails.

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