Also known as the “Springwater Division” after the town in Clackamas County that the line was originally aimed at, but never reached. A hotel and picnic grounds were built at Estacada, and the line supplied building materials to the Faraday dam and power house at the end of the line.

Originally, the line interchanged with the Mount Scott line at Lents Junction and opened in stages: to Gresham (by steam motor) on January 12, 1903, to Boring on May 18, 1903, and finally all the way to Cazadero on September 29, 1903. The cut-off down the east bank of the Willamette River, through Sellwood and up to Lents was opened for passenger service on November 1, 1904, though freight cars had been using it for “some time” before that.

Electric service from Lents through Gresham to Boring was inaugurated on November 21, 1903, with most cars running through from Portland via the Mount Scott line. Electric cars first ran to Eagle Creek on June 4, 1904 and finally to Estacada on June 14, 1904.

At Estacada – wholly owned by the company – a new Oregon Water Power Townsite Company was formed in January 1904 and the townsite was platted and sold off. The Estacada Hotel was built for visitors to the Clackamas to lodge and dine at, often as part of a package trolley ride and dinner ticket. Starting in May 1904, the townsite of Barton was auctioned off the same way.

Starting in 1922, an extension of the line was made further down the Clackamas River to help construct the remote Oak Grove hydroelectric dam project. It was electrified as far as what is now known as Promontory Point, just east of the confluence with the North Fork Clackamas River. The rest of the line was built as a standard-gauge logging railroad, served by four Shay steam locomotives and several gasoline-engine “speeders”. Although this part of the line was technically not open for passenger service, PRL&P maintained a picnic ground at the dam site and offered charter service there using the speeders for people in the know. Once the plant was fully operational there was little need for the line, and the track was torn up in 1937 to be replaced by a “forest-type highway.” Oregon Route 224 largely follows the old railroad grade today.

Passenger service was cut back in stages over the years: the section from Cazadero to Boring was abandoned on October 8, 1932; then from Boring to Gresham on May 1, 1934 (an Oregonian article from June 24, 1983 states that traction company records indicate closure on this date). In the mid-1940s, the Gresham terminal was moved from the OWP depot to the Mount Hood depot which was more centrally located. Passenger service was then cut back from Gresham (Mount Hood) to Bellrose on January 31, 1948; and all passenger service ceased on January 25, 1958 along with the Oregon City line.

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