A boxcar was hauled up to the summit and pulled back and forth on the track to hold the pass for the OP, but the rails were never connected to anything. No rails were ever laid on the Malheur grade, but crews did construct several hundred feet of track on the top of Santiam Pass. The OP (had it been built) would have come down the east side of Santiam Pass, passed north of Bend, gone through Prineville, thence eastward from there across the desert and down the Malhuer River Canyon to an undetermined connection with some railroad (most rumors said the Chicago & Northwestern) farther east. The OP did cut a grade at the top of Santiam Pass and also put down about a dozen miles of grade in the Malheur River Canyon to hold both spots for it's continued journey east. Before it finally gave up and sold out to the SP it had track in place from Yaquina through Corvalis, Albany, Lebanon, and into the coast range, eventually reaching Idanha (12 miles short of the top of Santiam Pass). The first was the Oregon Pacific, which started west from Yaquina on the Oregon Coast in the early 1880's. The Malheur River Canyon saw two railroad construction efforts. To the east of the pass is open country where you can see more of the mountains than the SP crossing to the south.

I think the scenery along the McKenzie river is the best of the Cascade mountain rivers. It could be possible following the present all-weather road north over the Santiam. The proposed route was up the Santiam river. I have never read anything about a proposal for a railroad up the McKenzie. There are miles and miles of lava flows that the old highway crosses. I think it was in the 50s that a connecting road was built from the McKenzie to the Santiam and it is an all-weather road. If you look at a AAA road map you will find US 20 and the Santiam Pass maybe 20 miles north of the McKenzie. The McKenzie Pass got shut down by snow in the winter and that is the way the road is today. When I was a kid there was no all weather road from Eugene to Bend. Thats as much as was done east of the Willamette valley. A couple rails were laid up in the summit area to secure rights and something was done along the Malheur river.

Hogg proposed a railroad from the Oregon coast up the Santiam and connecting with the Oregon Short Line in eastern Oregon.

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