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Oregon Short Line Railroad Brochure Frontpiece -
To Geyserland
A
UP train on the former Oregon Short Line at Blazer Cyn,
Idaho.
The Oregon Short Line Railroad (AAR reporting marks OSL) was established on April 14, 1881, for construction of a standard gauge line from Granger, Wyoming, through Idaho to a junction in Huntington, Oregon with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company (OR&N). The name of the railroad came about because the goal was to build a line by the shortest route—"The Short Line"—from Wyoming to Oregon. This was necessary partly because the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) main line ended in Utah with the Central Pacific Railroad—by that time part of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). Southern Pacific tracks reached El Paso, Texas, and would in, 1883, become a transcontinental railroad in its own right. The SP then started routing traffic to the southern line, cutting off UP. The OSL also was meant to halt OR&N's continued eastward expansion at the Idaho-Oregon border. In time, the OSL assumed control of the OR&N, thus giving the UP its desired outlet to the Pacific.
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