Talk:Pengra Pass rail route

Multiple geography issues

Numbers 1–4 below Resolved at least in terms of accuracy (more background/context could be added). Jsayre64 (talk) 05:57, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

The Southern Pacific Railroad’s Pengra Pass route connecting Portland, Oregon with San Francisco, California was completed in 1926. Hauling the trains over the Cascade Mountains would be the answer to problems with huge amounts of curvature and very steep grades dictated by the old line down the Willamette Valley and over the Siskiyou Mountains.

Oh, where do I begin here?

1. It's not the Southern Pacific, at least not anymore. It's the Union Pacific.
2. The Pass does not connect Portland with San Francisco. Certainly anybody traveling by train from Portland to San Francisco would use the pass, but each city is far from the pass itself.
3. "[T]he old line down the Willamette Valley and over the Siskiyou Mountains" presupposes a trip from north to south; however, the Willamette Valley is higher in elevation to the south. Therefore, a trip from Portland to Eugene would properly be "up" or "through" the valley, not "down" (though down may be used in common parlance).
4. The portion of "old line" between Portland and Eugene—whether it's up, down, or through the valley—was not replaced by the construction of the Pengra Pass route. The separation occurs south of Eugene, where the Pengra Pass route goes in a southeasterly direction while the "old" route continues in a southerly direction.

This section probably needs to be reworked and expanded, but I think it would be better if sources could be found to provide inline citations, etc. 64.85.240.22 (talk) 06:21, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

This article mentions the pass in a few places, including naming who the pass was named for: wikisource:History of the narrow gauge railroad in the Willamette Valley -Pete (talk) 18:32, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Also this NHRP submission talks in great detail about the tunnel running beneath the pass: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/or/or0400/or0457/data/or0457data.pdf

And this 1950 Eugene Register Guard article talks about the rail route's development: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cC0gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=B_EDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2766,585820

-Pete (talk) 18:20, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

More sources:

• Hofsommer, Don L. (1986). The Southern Pacific, 1901-1985 (2009 ed.). College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 1603441271.
• "Union Pacific in Oregon" (PDF). Union Pacific Railroad. April 2013.

--Jsayre64 (talk) 07:10, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Suggestion

I think an article specifically about Pengra Pass would be more valuable than the present one; and the current article's content (at least, the encyclopedic aspects) could be merged into Oregon Eastern Railway to good effect. Anyone object to shifting the article titles and structure this way? (This article could be made into a redirect to either of the others, I have no strong preference either way.) -Pete (talk) 18:20, 8 July 2012 (UTC)