The Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society (OERHS) is a non-profit organization in the U.S. state of Oregon, founded in 1957. It owns and operates a railroad museum for electric railroad and streetcar enthusiasts, and also operates a separate heritage streetcar line, the Willamette Shore Trolley.
The group was founded in 1957, [1] [2] and is named in honor of the Oregon Electric Railway, a former interurban electric rail line in the Willamette Valley. OERHS operated a streetcar museum known as Trolley Park in Glenwood, Washington County, Oregon from 1966 [3] to 1995. The Trolley Park museum was formally named the Oregon Electric Railway Museum, and it retained the latter name when it moved in 1996 from Glenwood to Brooks, Oregon.
The OERHS currently operates the Willamette Shore Trolley between Portland and Lake Oswego, [4] as well as the Oregon Electric Railway Museum in Brooks. [5] The museum is on the grounds of Powerland Heritage Park, located just west of Interstate-5.
The OERHS collection includes two former-Portland "Council Crest" Brill streetcars, built in 1904. Other vintage streetcars at the museum include an open-sided car from Sydney, Australia; double-deckers from Blackpool, England, and Hong Kong; and two 1940s PCC streetcars from San Francisco. The 1912-built Australian streetcar was one of OERHS's first acquisitions, in 1959, [6] but most of the collection comes from U.S. transit systems and railroads. [1]
Although mostly concerned with preserving streetcars and electric railway equipment, the OERHS has also collected a modern Boeing-Vertol US SLRV Light-Rail Vehicle from San Francisco Muni, and has acquired three vintage trolley buses. The entire collection is based in Brooks, but there have been periods when one or two of the group's streetcars were based in Portland or Lake Oswego, for use on the Willamette Shore Trolley line (WST). The last OERHS-owned trolley car to have been used on the WST line, ex-Portland Traction Company Brill "Master Unit" No. 813 (operated on the WST 1996–2010), was moved back to the Oregon Electric Railway Museum in Brooks in 2012. [7]
The Portland Streetcar is a streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, that opened in 2001 and serves areas surrounding downtown Portland. The 3.9-mile (6.3 km) NS Line runs from Northwest Portland to the South Waterfront via Downtown and the Pearl District. The Loop Service, which opened in September 2012 as the Central Loop, runs from Downtown to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry via the Pearl District, the Broadway Bridge across Willamette River, the Lloyd District, and the Central Eastside Industrial District and added 3.3 miles (5.3 km) of route. In September 2015 the line was renamed as the Loop Service, with the A Loop traveling clockwise, and the B Loop traveling counterclockwise. The two-route system serves some 20,000 daily riders.
The Willamette Shore Trolley is a heritage railroad or heritage streetcar that operates along the west bank of the Willamette River between Portland and Lake Oswego in the U.S. state of Oregon. The right-of-way is owned by a group of local-area governments who purchased it in 1988 in order to preserve it for potential future rail transit. Streetcar excursion service began operating on a trial basis in 1987, lasting about three months, and regular operation on a long-term basis began in 1990. The Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society has been the line's operator since 1995.
The Portland and Willamette Valley Railway was incorporated on 19 January 1885 to continue construction of a 3 ft narrow-gauge railroad line between Portland and Dundee, Oregon, United States, which had been started a few years earlier by the Oregonian Railway. The line was opened on 31 December 1886 and the first timetables were published the following day; however, the line did not reach Portland until 23 July 1888, due to disputes over the right-of-way. The railroad company ran this line until it fell into receivership on 2 February 1892.
Heritage streetcars or heritage trams are a part of the efforts to preserve rail transit heritage. In addition to preserving street-running rail vehicles, heritage streetcar operations can include upkeep of historic rail infrastructure. Working heritage streetcars are closely related to the growing global heritage railway movement and form a part of the living history of rail transport.
The Portland Vintage Trolley was a heritage streetcar service in Portland, Oregon, United States, that operated from 1991 to 2014. It operated on a portion of the MAX light rail system, and for a brief time also operated on the Portland Streetcar system, in downtown and nearby areas. Service was provided with replicas of a type of Brill streetcar, nicknamed the "Council Crest" cars, which last served Portland in 1950. The service was managed by Vintage Trolley Inc., a non-profit corporation, and the cars were owned and operated by TriMet, Portland's transit agency. For 18 of its 23 years, the service followed a 2.3-mile (3.7 km) section of what is now the MAX Blue Line, between Lloyd Center and the west end of downtown. In September 2009, the route was changed to a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) section of the MAX system, along the transit mall in downtown Portland, from Union Station to Portland State University (PSU).
Lake Grove is a neighborhood of Lake Oswego, Oregon, United States, located west of Oswego Lake, south of the Mountain Park neighborhood, east of Interstate 5, and north of Rivergrove.
The Yakima Valley Transportation Company was an interurban electric railroad headquartered in Yakima, Washington. It was operator of the city's streetcar system from 1907–1947, and it also provided the local bus service from the 1920s until 1957.
The Issaquah Valley Trolley (IVT) is a heritage streetcar line in Issaquah, Washington, United States. It is a project of the Issaquah History Museums. The IVT operates from the Issaquah Depot Museum building located at 78 First Ave, NE. The service operated on a trial basis in 2001–02 and has operated on a regular basis, seasonally, since 2012.
Streetcars or trolley(car)s were once the chief mode of public transit in hundreds of North American cities and towns. Most of the original urban streetcar systems were either dismantled in the mid-20th century or converted to other modes of operation, such as light rail. Today, only Toronto still operates a streetcar network essentially unchanged in layout and mode of operation.
Rail transportation is an important element of the transportation network in the U.S. state of Oregon. Rail transportation has existed in Oregon in some form since 1855, and the state was a pioneer in development of electric railway systems. While the automobile has displaced many uses of rail in the state, rail remains a key means of moving passengers and freight, both within the state and to points beyond its borders.
The Oregon Electric Railway Museum is the largest streetcar/trolley museum in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It is owned and operated by the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society and is located in Brooks, Oregon, on the grounds of Powerland Heritage Park.
Council Crest Park is a city park in southwest Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Amenities include paved and unpaved paths, a dog off-leash area, picnic tables, public art, a view point, and a wedding site that can be reserved. The 43.51-acre (17.61 ha) park, operated by Portland Parks & Recreation, is open year-round from 5 a.m. to midnight. It was the site of an amusement park from 1907 until 1929.
Glenwood is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States, northwest of Forest Grove on Oregon Route 6.
Streetcars in St. Louis, Missouri operated as part of the transportation network of St. Louis from the middle of the 19th century through the early 1960s. During the first forty years of the streetcar in the city, a variety of private companies operated several dozen lines; from the start of the 20th century, most of these companies consolidated into the St. Louis Public Service Company, which served both the city of St. Louis and neighboring St. Louis County, Missouri. Other private companies, such as those serving the Metro East region or St. Charles, Missouri, continued separate operations. Starting in the 1930s and continuing through the 1960s, St. Louis Public Service ended all streetcar service, while other regional operators also ended their services.
The Lake Oswego Transit Center is a transit center operated by TriMet, at 4th Street and A Avenue in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
The Southern Pacific Red Electric Lines, also known simply as the Red Electric, was a network of interurban passenger train services operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad in the Willamette Valley of the U.S. state of Oregon from 1914 to 1929. The service got its name from the bright red color of its cars. Despite its short history, among West Coast interurbans it was unique, and it was considered the finest such system in the Pacific Northwest. It was the only major electric interurban railroad converted from steam to electric passenger use. It was also one of few systems using all-steel equipment, and one of the largest 1500-volt systems in the country.
The Astoria Riverfront Trolley is a 3-mile (4.8 km) heritage streetcar line that operates in Astoria, Oregon, United States, using former freight railroad tracks along or near the south bank of the Columbia River, with no overhead line. The service began operating in 1999, using a 1913-built streetcar from San Antonio, Texas. As of 2012, the service was reported as carrying 35,000 to 40,000 passengers per year and has been called a "symbol" and "icon" of Astoria. The line's operation is seasonal, normally during spring break and from May through September.
The North South Line is a streetcar service in Portland, Oregon, United States, that runs as part of the Portland Streetcar system. Operated by Portland Streetcar, Inc. and TriMet, it travels approximately 4.1 miles (6.6 km) per direction between Northwest 23rd & Marshall and Southwest Lowell & Bond, serving 39 stations. The line connects Portland's Northwest District, Pearl District, downtown, Portland State University (PSU), and South Waterfront. It runs every day of the week between 15 and 18 hours per day, operating on headways of 15 to 20 minutes. The NS Line is the busiest of Portland's three streetcar routes; it carried an average of 8,751 weekday riders in September 2018.
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