The first in a long line of companies that would eventually build a standard-gauge electric interurban line out to Molalla and then on to Mount Angel. The Oregon City & Molalla Railway Company seemed to be determined by remain under local control—it incorporated in August 1906 with $50,000 in potential capital of which $30,000 was to be subscribed to by local businessmen and farmers along the route, ensuring a local shareholder majority. The remaining $20,000 was promised by Portland-based investors once enough local capital had been raised. Some preliminary surveys were made along the route, which, by description, seems very similar to what was eventually constructed.

In his book on the history of the Willamette Valley Southern Railway Company, Kermit Williams relegates this company to a footnote, saying “interest quickly died in this enterprise when a rival company by the name of the Oregon City, Beavercreek & Molalla Railway was formed a couple of months later with even more financial packing and political support.” However, contemporaneous newspaper articles reveal that the two companies had shared leadership in Judge (and mayor of Oregon City) Grant B. Dimick and Judge Thomas P. Ryan. Therefore, it seems almost certain to me that the new company was a reincorporation of the old one rather than being a separate rival company and I have treated it as such here.

Lines

• Mount Angel (1915–1933) – initial route surveying only.

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