Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. Issued to Oregon Short Line R.R. Co. - Stock Certificate

Stock issued to Oregon Short Line R. R. Co. and printed by International Bank Note Co., New York. All over 1,000 shares each!

The Oregon Short Line Railroad (reporting mark OSL) was a railroad in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Montana and Oregon. The line was organized as the Oregon Short Line Railway in 1881 as a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railway. The Union Pacific intended the line to be the shortest route ("the short line") from Wyoming to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Construction was begun in 1881 at Granger, Wyoming, and completed in 1884 At Huntington, Oregon. In 1889 the line merged with the Utah & Northern Railway and a handful of smaller railroads to become the Oregon Short Line and Utah Northern Railway. Following the bankruptcy of Union Pacific in 1897, the line was taken into receivership and reorganized as the Oregon Short Line Railroad (“OSL”). The OSL became a part of the Union Pacific System in the Harriman reorganization of 1898.

The Oregon Short Line Railway was organized on April 14, 1881. The line started from the Union Pacific main line in Granger, Wyoming, and reached Montpelier, Idaho, on August 5, 1882, and then to McCammon, Idaho, in the Fall of 1882. Between McCammon and Pocatello the line was shared with fellow Union Pacific subsidiary Utah & Northern's grade by adding a third rail to the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge track to accommodate the 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge cars. The line from Pocatello to Huntington, Oregon, was completed in late 1884. Access to Portland, Oregon, was on track leased from the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.

The line was essential because the Union Pacific main line ended in Utah where it met the Central Pacific Railroad, which by that time was part of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The Southern Pacific had built tracks as far east as El Paso, Texas, and would, in 1883, become a transcontinental railroad in its own right. The Southern Pacific then started routing traffic to the southern line, cutting off the Union Pacific, which needed other access to the Pacific coast. The Oregon Short Line also was meant to halt the OR&N's continued eastward expansion at the Idaho-Oregon border.

In 1889, the Oregon Short Line Railway merged with Utah & Northern Railway and 6 other smaller railroads to form the Oregon Short Line and Utah Northern Railway. In 1890 the company finished converting the original Utah & Northern line from 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge to 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge, a process that U&N had started as early as 1885. On October 13, 1893, the OSL&UN went into receivership with the rest of the Union Pacific holdings. The Oregon Short Line Railroad was incorporated in February 1897 and purchased the property of the OSL&UN later that month. On March 15, the OSL took possession of the line and started operating.

The OSL was independent for a short period of time until October 1898 when the newly reformed Union Pacific Railroad took control of a majority of the board of directors. During the early part of the 20th century the railroad publicized tours of Yellowstone National Park by way of a spur constructed from Idaho Falls, Idaho, to West Yellowstone, Montana.

In 1938, Union Pacific began consolidating operations and leased for operation a number of its subsidiaries including the Oregon Short Line. The railroad operated under the lease until December 30, 1987, when the OSL was fully merged into the Union Pacific Railroad.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (reporting marks B&O, BO) was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from the city of Baltimore, which had benefitted to some extent from the construction of the National Road early in the century, wanted to continue to compete for trade with trans-Appalachian settlers with the newly constructed Erie Canal (which served New York City), another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania (which would have connected Philadelphia and Pittsburgh), the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (which connected to the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., although it never reached Ohio), and the James River Canal, which directed traffic toward Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia. At first the B&O was located entirely in the state of Maryland, its original line extending from the port of Baltimore west to Sandy Hook (opened in 1834). There it connected with Harper's Ferry (the boat) across the Potomac into Virginia, and also with the navigable Shenandoah River.

Because of competition with the C&O canal for trade with coal fields in western Maryland, the railroad could not use the C&O right-of-way. Thus, to continue westward through the Appalachian Mountains, the B&O chose to build the B & O Railroad Potomac River Crossing (1839) at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia). The line continued through Virginia to a point just west of the junction of Patterson Creek and the North Branch Potomac River, where it crossed back into Maryland to reach Cumberland (1842), connecting with the National Road, the main route west. It reached the Ohio River at Moundsville, Virginia (1852), Wheeling (1853), where it built a terminus, and a few years later (1857) also to Parkersburg, Virginia, below rapids which made navigation difficult during parts of the year. It proved crucial to Union success during the American Civil War, although the conflict also caused considerable damage (and repair costs). After the war's end, the B&O consolidated several feeder lines in Virginia and West Virginia, as well as expanded westward into Ohio (including a junction at Portsmouth), Indiana, and Illinois. B&O advertising later carried the motto: "Linking 13 Great States with the Nation."

After several mergers, the B&O became part of the CSX Transportation (CSX) network. The B&O also includes the Leiper Railroad, the first permanent horse-drawn railroad in the U.S. At the end of 1970, the B&O operated 5,552 miles of road and 10,449 miles of track, not including the Staten Island Rapid Transit (SIRT) or the Reading and its subsidiaries. It includes the oldest operational railroad bridge in the United States.

When CSX established the B&O Railroad Museum as a separate entity from the corporation, it donated some of the former B&O Mount Clare Shops in Baltimore, including the Mt. Clare roundhouse, to the museum, while selling the rest of the property. The B&O Warehouse at the Camden Yards rail junction in Baltimore now dominates the view over the right-field wall at the Baltimore Orioles' current home, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Part of the B&O Railroad's immortality has come from being one of the four featured railroads on the U.S. version of the board game Monopoly; it is the only railroad on the board that did not directly serve Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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