Windows in Time Lecture: Southern Pacific’s Siskiyou Line: The Later Years

Tony Johnson, railroad historian, presents the 2017 Windows in Time Lecture: Southern Pacific’s Siskiyou Line: The Later Years, on Wednesday, September 13 at the Ashland Branch Library, 410 Siskiyou Boulevard, from 12 noon – 1:00 p.m.

Johnson’s presentation will discuss the Southern Pacific's Siskiyou Line: 1900 to present time, and how the Southern Pacific expanded and improved their operations on this 300-mile long line between Springfield, OR and Weed, CA. He will give a brief look at the many other railroads that once connected with this line. The shippers and communities it affected, and even another proposed Southern Pacific Line that would have taken a southern route to Coos Bay. It will conclude with the sale of the Siskiyou Line to another company in late 1994.

Growing up in Southern Pacific Railroad's headquarters city of San Francisco, Johnson has been a fan of the Southern Pacific since he can remember. He rode the cab of his first SP locomotive in San Francisco in 1954. For five years he was the Southern Pacific editor for a bi-weekly railfan magazine called Flimsies, and for six years the editor of a monthly magazine called S.P. Review. I am the curator/archivist/historian for the Southern Oregon Railway Historical Society's museum inside the Medford Railroad Park. He is also the Track Superintendent (among other jobs) for the Southern Oregon Live Steamers club at the Medford Railroad Park.

He has taken around 25,000-30,000 color slides, a few thousand black & white photos, and hundreds of hours of videos, mostly on Southern Pacific's empire in Oregon and elsewhere and will share a brief sampling of these photos during the presentation.

The monthly Windows in Time lectures are offered at no cost to the public and are jointly-sponsored by the Southern Oregon Historical Society and Jackson County Library Services. For more information please contact Jackson County Library Services at 541-774-8679 or visit jcls.org.