Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway HO Scale Models

The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway was incorporated in 1905 as a joint venture between James J. Hill's two transcontinental properties, the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway. Hill's primary motivation was to establish a competitive rail route into Portland, Oregon, and to capture a share of the lucrative Pacific Northwest lumber trade then largely controlled by E. H. Harriman's Union Pacific and Southern Pacific systems. Construction began in 1906 under the initial name Portland and Seattle Railway, proceeding outward from Vancouver, Washington, and requiring the construction of significant bridges across the Columbia River, the Oregon Slough, and the Willamette River. The first segment opened on December 15, 1907, running approximately 112 miles westward from Pasco to a point near Maryhill. The name was amended to Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway in January 1908, and a ceremonial golden spike was driven at Sheridan's Point on March 11, 1908, marking the completion of the main Columbia River line. Full freight and passenger service between Pasco and Portland commenced in November 1908, and by 1909 the railroad had extended its reach northward along the Snake River to Spokane itself. Beyond its main line along the north bank of the Columbia River, the SP&S assembled a collection of subsidiary and affiliated routes that considerably broadened its footprint in Oregon and Washington. The railroad gained control of the Oregon Electric interurban line in 1910, eventually extending that electrified system south to Eugene by 1912. It also operated the former Astoria and Columbia River Railroad, running along the Columbia's south bank from Portland to Astoria and Seaside, which Hill had purchased in 1907 for approximately five million dollars. A third significant route descended southward from Wishram, Washington, through the Deschutes River canyon to Bend, Oregon, operated as the Oregon Trunk Railway. The construction of this line generated a well-documented rivalry with Harriman's forces, as competing construction crews worked opposite sides of the canyon simultaneously, each attempting to impede the other's progress. The route ultimately opened using predominantly Oregon Trunk trackage, with both the SP&S and its rival sharing operating rights over portions of it, an arrangement that persisted for decades under successor railroads. During the middle decades of the twentieth century, the SP&S served an increasingly industrialized Columbia River corridor, handling traffic generated by aluminum smelters, sawmills, chemical plants, and grain facilities that had grown up around the hydroelectric projects on the river. The railroad's passenger operations were closely integrated with those of its parent roads, and SP&S trains served as connecting links for named services including the Empire Builder and the North Coast Limited. Named SP&S trains of its own included the Inland Empire Express and the North Bank Limited, which provided daily service between Portland and Spokane. In March 1970, the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway was absorbed into the newly formed Burlington Northern Railroad, which simultaneously consolidated the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad into a single system. The SP&S thus became a fallen flag after roughly six decades of independent operation, though its physical infrastructure remained in active service. The principal routes of the former SP&S are today operated by BNSF Railway, the direct corporate successor to Burlington Northern, while portions of its Oregon branch trackage passed to the Portland and Western Railroad. The SP&S is remembered as a well-engineered regional carrier that provided Hill's northern transcontinental empire with a direct and strategically important outlet to Portland, effectively challenging Harriman's long-standing dominance over Pacific Northwest rail commerce.