Union Railroad of Oregon

Company History: The UO was established in 1927 to takeover 2.2 miles of the failed Central Railroad of Oregon running from the town of Union to a connection with Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company (a subsidiary of Union Pacific) at Union Junction. UO opened with a 4-4-0 built in 1883. It was retired in 1938 and UO was dieselized with a 26-ton Plymouth that was already more than a decade old. There had been another Plymouth on the property as early as 1936 but little is known about this engine. The 26-tonner worked the UO exclusively for 40 years.

By the 1970s, UO had three customers, a feed mill, a coal dealer, and a sawmill. The latter produced most of the traffic (lumber and wood chips.) UO’s two employees would make two round trips per day between Union and Union Junction. When they weren’t running, they worked as freight agent, locomotive maintainer and section gang. In 1979, they acquired a second switcher, this time a much larger one – a 35-ton Plymouth built in 1936. In 1989, the sawmill in Union closed, as did the Union Railroad of Oregon. In 1995, it was officially abandoned in place.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.