Nostalgia & History > Red Electrics in Oregon

Tomorrow,October 5th, is the 80th anniversary of the last run of the S. P. electric interurban trains in Oregon.

Gee, they bit the dust way before the ones in the Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley area or on the NWP.

Huh? I'd buy 60 years but 80??

Saw a picture in Austin and Dill's Southern Pacific in Oregon showing them taking down the wires for the Red Electrics.
Circa 1930. 60 years ago would be 1949, long gone by then, I believe.
Todd Montgomery
Eugene OR

That's actually pretty amazing since much of that equipment ran for many more years,
sure didn't seem like that long ago.

OK, my bad. The passenger service ended in 1933 but electric freight operations ended
in 1945. I knew that they still had wires up later than the thirties just couldn't remember
what ran underneath them.

You are thinking of the Oregon Electric not the SP electric operations.

The SP "Red Electric" passenger service ended on October 5th 1929. But if you phrase the question carefully, by asking when Southern Pacific electric service ended in Oregon, you might be able to win a beer in a bar bet. The reason is because SP was bound by a Salem Oregon city ordinance not to use steam locomotives on that city's street industrial tracks on Front Street. Because of that, electric freight motors were used until 1941, when SP sent a SW-1 up to take over, thus ending Southern Pacific's Oregon electrified operations.

I've always wondered what color the "Red Electric" SP freight motors were. Likely they were black, but as they were very similar to units used on the Pacific Electric that were at once painted red, I have wondered if it was possible if they were painted red to match the interurbans. Actually, "freight motors" are somewhat of a misnomer, because they handled at least one train consisting of regular SP passenger cars from Portland's Union Station to Hillsboro, where they were turned over to steam power to continue on to Tillamook on the coast.

-Dan