The Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad

Patton to Cherry Grove, OR

This short line extended west from a connection with the Southern Pacific at Patton to the community of Cherry Grove. Patton is a point on the Southern Pacific just north of Gaston on the abandoned line between St. Joseph and Forest Grove. It should not be confused with the Willamette Valley & Coast Railroad Company that operated out of Yaquina and was closed in 1895. The railroad featured here is not mentioned in the Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History. The line was abandoned in 1935, according to The Southern Pacific in Oregon. The map in that book makes the line appear to have operated between what is now Patton Valley Road and the Tualatin River. The line was only 5.5 miles in length. As the line primarily served timber and farming interests in the upper reaches of the Tualatin Valley, it is possible that a private logging railroad also connected to the line at one point in time. However, with so little documentation about the railroad available, it is difficult to say anything for certain. Nothing exists of the line except about a 1/2 mile long rise in a field near the former junction.

Note from Brian Edwards: The SPV Atlas is wrong. They show it as a line from Seghers to The Stimson Mill and then to Cherry Grove. The line shown in the SPV actually only goes to the Stimson Mill in real life. The line I wrote of met the abandoned mainline a few miles south of Seghers at Gaston, which is not shown on the SPV. Look on any road map for Gaston, as it is a major farming community.

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