Steam & Excursion > They Were Lucky To Fit The Railroad's Initials On The Tenders!

For many years the practice of new shortlines was to give themselves names that included all the major destinations they either did serve or planned to serve in the future.  These railroads also at time combined rail service with waterway service so they would add this to the name as well. This led to some interesting and at times lengthy names.

In the West one of these tongue-twisting railroad names was given to the 28-mile long Coos Bay Roseburg & Eastern Railroad & Navigation Company.  This line was begun in 1890 and ran under this long and convoluted name until she was sold to the Southern Pacific in 1915.

Here we see in this early photo of a train operating on this line that ran between Marshfield, Oregon and Myrtle Point, Oregon.  Given the lengthy name of the railroad the locomotives and rail cars only had room on them for the initials of the line, rather than the name itself being spelled out.

The ancient CBR&ERR&NCO 4-4-0 #3 is stopped at the small depot in Myrtle Point before starting her run north to Marshfield (Coos Bay).  She was originally built in 1877 for the Southern Pacific as their 2nd #1303.

This line had no outside rail connection until 1916 when the SP built it's line from Eugene to Coos Bay.  With no rail connection for all those early years, the "navigation" part of the lengthy railroad name played a key part.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/17 04:23 by LoggerHogger.

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Boy, you sure do acquire some VERY interesting materials Martin.   This is a GREAT one and one that deserves a place in a future Trainmaster if you are willing.....more than ready for WINTER to be over here in the Portland hills...............Arlen

Wow that is a really neat photo; definitely old time!

Andy

By chance, is that the longest railroad name in the US?

Arlen,

Glad to have you use it.

Martin

I have a switch key with all those letters.

wp1801 Wrote:
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> I have a switch key with all those letters.

I'm surprised it would all fit on the key!

Martin

Turned out to be a much clearer image than I thought it would be.

Taylor

Posted from iPhone

Looks like they fit on the tender just fine. Looks like they had some trouble with the box car.

tomstp Wrote:

> By chance, is that the longest railroad name in
> the US?

Looks like Missouri's Chester Perryville Ste. Genevieve & Farmington Railroad Company has it beat by a few letters, especially if you spell out Sainte.