When Stephen Carver incorporated the Portland & Oregon City Railway Company in 1913, the original goal was to find a new route from Oregon City to Portland that its parent, the Clackamas Southern Railway Company could then use to bring its cars all the way into Portland instead of using the Portland Railway, Light & Power Company’s Oregon City line. The proposed route was planned to be shorter and quicker, and would also have avoided having to pay PRL&P for the right to run on their track.

Some grading for the line was done, “several miles” of track was apparently laid outside Portland city limits, and concrete footings were put in for a bridge over the Clackamas River, near where the Southern Pacific main line and I-205 cross today.

However, when the Clackamas Southern’s descendant, the Willamette Valley Southern Railway Company struck a funding deal with PRL&P in 1914 to complete their struggling line to Mount Angel, Carver cut all ties and concentrated the efforts of his company on building a line out to Baker’s Bridge (the town that would later be renamed after him) in Clackamas County – the so-called “Carver Line.” Arguments with the Oregon City council over a franchise also brought about this change, as Carver saw the farmers of Clackamas County as being far more welcoming of his railway than the hostile council.

The franchises the Portland & Oregon City had obtained from the cities of Portland and Milwaukie for the line to Oregon City were redirected toward the new line. A franchise from Oregon City was also still held, and Carver occasionally announced plans to build there from a suitable location along his operating line, but nothing was ever built.

See also: “Carver Line” (1915–1928)

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