Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad

As of 2025, CORP holds {{convert|306|mi}}—58 in California and 248 in Oregon Interchanges are with the Yreka Western Railroad (Montague, California); Rogue Valley Terminal Railroad (White City, Oregon); and the Union Pacific (Eugene, Oregon and Black Butte, California). {{cite web | url=https://www.gwrr.com/corp/ | title=Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad – A Genesee & Wyoming Company }}

In December 2007, CORP announced it was cutting shipments over the Siskiyou Pass south of Ashland, Oregon beginning January 15, 2008. Shipments from Ashland and areas north of Ashland would be re-routed north to Eugene before heading south via Klamath Falls. Reduced shipments would continue over the Siskiyou Pass until April 15, 2008 on a bi-weekly basis.{{cite news |last=Conrad |first=Chris |title=Freight lines at crossroads |newspaper=Mail Tribune |date=15 December 2007 |url=http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071215/NEWS/712150306 |access-date=19 August 2012}}

On March 20 2008, CORP announced plans to keep its Siskiyou line open between Medford and Weed, and to spend nearly $5 million on improvements to the line.{{cite news |last=Sowell |first=John |title=Roseburg railroad offers to keep Siskiyou line open, but at a price | newspaper=The News-Review |date=21 March 2008 |url=http://www.newsreview.info/article/20080321/NEWS/797022122}}{{subscription required}}

CORP reopened the {{convert|95|mi|km|adj=on}} section between Ashland and Weed in November 2015, after repairing rails, ties, and bridges. The project was funded by $7.1 million of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) money, $30,000 combined from Douglas and Jackson counties, and a 25 percent match from CORP.{{cite news |url=http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/33702629-75/railroad-line-between-ashland-and-northern-california-re-opens-after-7-year-closure.html.csp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180617001704/http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/33702629-75/railroad-line-between-ashland-and-northern-california-re-opens-after-7-year-closure.html.csp |url-status=live |title=S. Oregon railroad line operating again after 7 year closure |first=Ilene |last=Aleshire |newspaper=The Register-Guard |location=Eugene, OR |date=November 11, 2015|archive-date=June 17, 2018|access-date=June 16, 2018 }}

The Coos Bay Line began in 1893 as the {{convert|26|mi|km|adj=mid}} Coos Bay, Roseburg & Eastern Railroad and Navigation Company (CBR&E) bringing logs and lumber from coastal forests to the seaport town of Marshfield (later renamed Coos Bay.) Southern Pacific Railroad purchased the CBR&E in 1906 and spent ten years building west from Eugene on its Willamette River valley line to a connection with the former CBR&E at Reedsport to open this Coos Bay branch for traffic in August 1916. The completed {{cvt|139|mi|km|adj=on}} branch line went from Eugene to Powers via the communities of Veneta, Noti, Swisshome, Mapleton, Cushman, Canary, Reedsport, Lakeside, Hauser, North Bend, Coos Bay, Coquille and Myrtle Point. The branch climbs out of Eugene along Long Tom River and Noti Creek before cresting the coast range in tunnel 13 to follow Wildcat Creek and the Siuslaw River downstream to the Pacific coast. The branch crosses the Siuslaw River six times. The last crossing is a drawbridge at Cushman where the branch heads south parallel to the coast using tunnels to cross from one river valley to the next. Tunnel 19, with a length of {{cvt|4183|ft|m}} was Southern Pacific's longest tunnel in the state of Oregon. Impressive drawbridges cross the Umpqua River at Reedsport and the mouth of Coos Bay.{{cite book |author=Larson, Henry |title=Out of the Forest, Into the Fog: SP's Coos Bay Branch |publisher=CTC Board |date=January 1990 |pages=38–43}} According to a timetable dating 1920, four through-passenger trains and a local between North Bend and Myrtle Point made up passenger service in the line. Passenger service ended on June 4, 1953, after many years of only one running passenger train, nicknamed "The Owl".{{cite magazine |last1=Dill |first1=Tom |title=Southern Pacific's Coos Bay 'Owl' |magazine=SP Trainline |issue=28 |page=15 |publisher=Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society}} The line continued to serve a number of sawmills harvesting Oregon's coastal forests. Until the late 20th century the branch carried 14,000 carloads per year of outbound lumber, plywood, woodchips, fiberboard, and paper with inbound LP gas and chemicals for the forest products mills. Tracks beyond the Georgia-Pacific mill at Coquille were abandoned and subsequently removed in the 1980s. "In 1994 SP sold the route to Railtex (later, RailAmerica), which operated it as part of" CORP.{{cite magazine |title=Coos Bay rail link: Traffic nearly doubles |magazine=Railfan & Railroad |date=March 2014 |page=25}}

On September 21, 2007, CORP elected to shut down most of the Coos Bay branch. The track was closed between Vaughn (west of Noti) and Coquille (south of Coos Bay). This action was taken after it was revealed that the nine aging tunnels on the line required repairs that were internally estimated to cost up to $7 million.{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |title=Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad shuts down operations |newspaper=The Oregonian |date=September 21, 2007 |url=http://blog.oregonlive.com/business/2007/09/railroad_shut_downs_operations.html |access-date=August 19, 2012 }}

On October 23, 2007, the Port of Coos Bay filed a $15 million lawsuit against CORP, in response to its closing of the Coos Bay Branch. The suit claims that CORP failed to provide the required 180 days' notice that it would shut down a leased spur to the bay's North Spit.{{cite web |url=http://www.cargobusinessnews.com/archive/week_of_102207.html |series=Today's Cargo News |title=archives October 22 - October 26, 2007 |publisher=Cargo Business News |access-date=14 April 2018}}

On November 21, 2008, the Surface Transportation Board ordered CORP to sell part of the branch to the Port of Coos Bay for $16.6 million. The {{convert|111|mi|km|adj=on}} segment links Danebo and Cordes. The price was much less than RailAmerica, CORP's corporate parent, had desired ($25 million), and much closer to what the port had initially offered ($15 million).{{cite news |title=Coastal rail link priced for sale: Coos Bay port officials hope to make the purchase and restart the vital passage |first=Winston |last=Ross |url=http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/2891027-35/story.csp |date=November 21, 2008 |access-date=August 19, 2012 |newspaper=The Register-Guard |page=B1 }} The Port completed the purchase of the line in 2009 and by 2010 was repairing the tunnels that led to the line's closure.{{cite magazine |date=June 2010 |title=RailAmerica restarts its engines |magazine=Trains |publisher=Kalmbach Publishing}} The Port reopened the line in 2011 as Coos Bay Rail Link.

{{reflist}}

{{portal|Railways}}

• {{cite journal |last= Burkhardt|first= D.C. Jesse|date= April 1990|pages= 26–33 |title= Mountain Branchline|journal= Pacific RailNews}}
• {{Robertson-Western Railroad}}
• {{cite book | author=Stindt, Fred A. | title=American Shortline Railway Guide - 5th Ed.| location=Waukesha, WI | publisher=Kalmbach Publishing | year=1996| isbn=0-89024-290-9}}
• {{cite book | author=Walker, Mike| title=Steam Powered Video's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America - California and Nevada - Post Merger Ed.| location=Faversham, Kent, United Kingdom | publisher=Steam Powered Publishing| year=1997| isbn=1-874745-08-0}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.alpharail.net/corp/corp.htm Unofficial CORP website]
• [https://www.gwrr.com/corp/ Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad Webpage - Genesee & Wyoming Website]
• [http://www.brian894x4.com/CentralOregonandPacificRR.html Active Short Lines of the Pacific Northwest: Central Oregon and Pacific] from Abandoned & Active Historical Railroads of the Pacific Northwest

{{Regional railroads}}

{{California railroads}}

{{Oregon railroads}}

{{Genesee & Wyoming}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Central Oregon Pacific Railroad}}

Category:Regional railroads in the United States

Category:California railroads

Category:Oregon railroads

Category:RailAmerica

Category:Spin-offs of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company

Category:1995 establishments in Oregon