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.[1] 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 railroad offers passenger excursions using a historic or replica-historic trolley on a former Southern Pacific line previously known as the Jefferson Street branch. The line runs for 5.5 miles (9km), including a passage through the 0.25-mile-long (0.4km) Elk Rock Tunnel. The Lake Oswego terminal is downtown, alongside State Street (Oregon Route 43) just south of A Avenue. The location of the Portland terminal has varied over the years, but since fall 2003 it has been at SW Bancroft Street and Moody Avenue in the new high-density South Waterfront neighborhood under construction, a location that was only one block south of the Portland Streetcar terminus at SW Lowell Street and Moody Avenue after the latter's extension in 2007. However, all service on the Willamette Shore line was suspended in July 2010, when the line's only streetcar broke down.[2] In early 2013, a lease was secured on a replacement streetcar, a Gomaco-built faux-Vintage Trolley, to enable a resumption of service on the southernmost portion of the line,[3] and that section of the line reopened in August 2014.[4] Service over the northern half of the line, to Bancroft Street in Portland, was restored on July 21, 2017,[5] but has been suspended again since the end of 2019, awaiting trestle repair work, leaving only the line's southernmost section in operation for the time being.
The right-of-way now used by the Willamette Shore Trolley was established in the mid-1880s by the Portland and Willamette Valley Railway, which began passenger service with steam trains on July 4, 1887. It provided Oswego (as Lake Oswego was known then) with a direct link to Portland. Prior to this, access to Oswego was limited to primitive roads and river boats.
The line was later purchased by the Southern Pacific Company. Southern Pacific widened the line from narrow gauge to standard gauge[6] and electrified it in 1914. This led to its peak in passenger travel in 1920, when 64 "Red Electric" interurban trains traveled daily between the two cities. The line originally ran around Elk Rock– a bend in the river just north of Elk Rock Island– on a long trestle until December 1921, when a tunnel replaced it.[7] The Elk Rock Tunnel is 1,396 feet (426m) (approx. one-quarter mile) in length and is located in the unincorporated Riverwood area, between Portland and Lake Oswego. On October 5, 1929, passenger service ended, though the line was used for freight until 1983.[8]
Right-of-way preserved, experimental trolley service
Blackpool car 48, a British double-decker tram built in 1928, operated on the line in 1987 and again from 1995–2003.
In August 1984, the Interstate Commerce Commission granted Southern Pacific permission to abandon the line. This prompted several local governments in the area to establish a not-for-profit corporation to acquire the line and preserve the right-of-way for future mass transit.[9] This consortium of governmental entities was initially composed of Metro, TriMet, the cities of Portland and Lake Oswego, and the counties of Multnomah and Clackamas, and it was later joined by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).[10] The line's official name at that time was the Jefferson Street Branch,[1] because during the passenger-service era it had served a station called Jefferson Street and continued into downtown Portland via that street.[11]
The southern portal of the quarter-mile-long Elk Rock Tunnel in 2014
In January 1987, on behalf of the consortium, the City of Portland secured a lease of the 6.2-mile line from Southern Pacific (SP),[12] including an option to purchase the line. In autumn 1987, a heritage streetcar/trolley service was operated on the line, as a way to gauge public interest in such an operation, in order to help preserve the right-of-way if the plans to purchase the line came to fruition. This temporary, trial heritage trolley service was inaugurated on September 12, 1987, and was operated by the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society (OERHS), using a double-deck trolley originally from Blackpool, England.[13] OERHS named the operation the Willamette Shore Railway, and service ran on weekends and holidays until the end of the year only. As the line lacks overhead trolley wires, the electricity to power the trolley's motors was generated by a diesel engine mounted on a cart towed behind (or pushed in front of) the car. The Portland terminus, with a ticket office in a leased trailer, was located next to Moody Avenue, below the west approach viaducts to the Marquam Bridge. The Lake Oswego terminus was located about one-half mile north of downtown.
The consortium purchased the line from Southern Pacific in October 1988,[1][10] for US$1.9 million, including the cost of a planned extension in Lake Oswego, to be constructed by SP.[1] Metro identified it as a possible transit corridor.[14]
Regular service, extensions
Regular, seasonal vintage streetcar service began operation on July 6, 1990, now named the Willamette Shore Trolley. A private company named Gales Creek Enterprises was the operator for the first five seasons, under contract with the City of Lake Oswego.[15] A 1913-built streetcar originally from San Antonio, Texas, was used, with a diesel-powered generatortrailer again employed to provide electricity to the streetcar.[16] The ends of the line remained the same as they had been during the 1987 trial service: near the Marquam Bridge in Portland, and near State Street and Terwilliger Boulevard in Lake Oswego.[17]
In 1993, a half-mile of new track was laid in Lake Oswego, permitting extension of the trolley service south to a terminus just south of A Avenue, much closer to the city center.[17] The ticket office was then relocated into a small building owned by Southern Pacific at the new Lake Oswego terminus, and since that time, round-trip excursions have started at the line's south end, rather than in Portland.[17] The contract with Gales Creek Enterprises was not renewed when it expired at the end of 1994.[18]
The trolley car used from 1996 until 2010 was Portland Traction Company car 813, built in 1932. It is pictured at the Bancroft Street terminus, in Portland's South Waterfront district.
In 1995, the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society again became the operator of the trolley service,[19] now on a longer-term basis, under contract to Lake Oswego. Trolley operation resumed in August 1995, initially using a former Sydney, Australia open-sided streetcar, but only as a temporary substitute until the intended car could be moved to the line. This was 1928-built Blackpool tram 48, the same double-deck trolley which OERHS had operated on the Willamette Shore line for a few months in fall 1987. The double-decker entered service on November 24, 1995.[20] It was joined in December 1996 by another streetcar in OERHS's collection, a 1932 Brill "Master Unit"-type streetcar which had spent its entire working life in Portland, where the cars of that model gained the nickname "Broadway cars", from the route they first served.[21]
In April 1997, the line was extended from its north end, to the RiverPlace district,[22][23] increasing its overall length to about 7 miles (11km). Charlie Hales, then a city commissioner, opined in 1998 that the line had an important future as part of the MAX light rail system.[24] Because of major construction in the then-new South Waterfront district, the new section of track was last used in September 2003, and service was thereafter cut back to a new terminal located immediately south of Bancroft Street.[25] The Blackpool double-decker was taken out of regular use on the Willamette Shore Trolley in late 2003 and was moved in May 2006 to OERHS's museum, the Oregon Electric Railway Museum, in Brooks, Oregon.[26] After that, the 1932 Portland Brill streetcar, No. 813, became the only streetcar serving the WST line.
Service is provided on a seasonal basis, rather than year-round, the regular operating season normally lasting from May to October, followed by limited operation on a few dates during the Christmas and holiday season, in December each year.
For most of 2009, all service was suspended, so as to permit work to rehabilitate the line's four trestle bridges.[27] The longest of these is Riverwood Trestle, which is 686 feet (209m) long and about 75 feet (23m) high. Service resumed during the 2009 Christmas and holiday season. The 2010 season began on May 1,[28][29] but the line's only streetcar broke down on July 16, 2010, causing an indefinite suspension of service.[2] This suspension continued in 2011 and 2012,[30] because the estimated cost to repair the car was high, and no substitute streetcar was available.[2] After OERHS determined that repair of the 1932-built streetcar, Portland Brill car 813, would be prohibitively expensive in the foreseeable future, the group began looking for a replacement. Car 813 was moved from Lake Oswego to the Oregon Electric Railway Museum, near Salem, in June 2012.[31]
In early 2013, a lease was secured on a replacement streetcar, and the non-profit group's goal was to resume service in summer 2013 on the southernmost part of the line.[3][30] In October, it was announced that the restarting of service had been postponed to summer 2014. In August 2014, the date for service to resume was set for August 16.[4][32] The replacement car is a replica of a 1904 Portland "Council Crest"-type Brill streetcar built in 1991 by the Gomaco Trolley Company, for use on the Portland Vintage Trolley service. It is car number 514, and it was moved from TriMet's Vintage Trolley carbarn next to the Rose Quarter Transit Center to Lake Oswego on March 26, 2013.[3] One year later, following the discontinuation of Vintage Trolley service in July 2014, a second replica-Council Crest streetcar, car 513, was moved to Lake Oswego on September 8, 2014, and initially was placed into storage, awaiting later restoration.[33]
Car 513 at the Bancroft Street terminus in Portland. Service on this part of the line has been temporarily suspended since the end of 2019, awaiting trestle repair.
The line reopened for public rides on August 16, 2014, using car 514.[32] Because of major construction affecting the rail line where it passes through the site of construction of a new Sellwood Bridge (among other issues), it was known that Willamette Shore Trolley service would not be able to run through to Portland for quite some time,[3] until 2016 or 2017. When reopened in 2014, it was running only between Lake Oswego and Riverwood, but one year later, on August 8, 2015, service was extended north to Powers Marine Park (just south of the Sellwood Bridge).[34] This increased the length of line in use to around 3 miles (5km).[34] The 2016 season began on May 28.[35]
The 2017 season began on May 27, with the service's northern terminus still temporarily being at Powers Marine Park, but with the track in the area around the Sellwood Bridge having been reinstated and test runs made.[36] On July 21, 2017, the service was reextended to its pre-2011 Portland terminus, at Bancroft Street,[5] which is one block from the South Waterfront terminus of the Portland Streetcar's NS Line.
Car 513 was restored to operating condition, and it entered service on the WST in 2018,[37] on May 26. Prior to this, its last operation with passengers had been on the Portland Streetcar line, more than 12 years earlier.[38]
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, service was suspended for the 2020 season and remained suspended in spring 2021,[39] but the line reopened for service on July 3, 2021. Operation is temporarily limited to the southern portion of the line.[40] The same limitation extended to the 2022 season, because of the need for trestle repairs,[41] and the 2023 season, which began on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.[42] Trestle repair work is expected to begin in 2023.[43]
Battery power
In late January 2019, maintenance crews started removing old DC motor equipment on car 514 as the first stage of a project to convert the streetcar to AC motors and battery propulsion. The new configuration is a collaboration between the WST's volunteers and EVDrive Inc, a company based in Hillsboro, Oregon. If successful, this new system will allow operation without the need for a diesel generator. AC motors will allow regenerative braking in the battery, extending the duration of its charge. It is anticipated that the AC motors will be installed in late summer 2019, with the battery pack still in early production at EVDrive. The conversion of car 514 is fully funded, while fundraising is underway to allow car 513 also to be converted to this new system eventually.
Carbarn
The line's carbarn (maintenance and storage building), located near the Lake Oswego terminus
Since 1998, the Willamette Shore Trolley has had a two-track maintenance building, or carbarn, near the Lake Oswego terminus, where the trolley cars are stored and maintained. Prior to 1998, any trolleys being used on the line had to be stored outdoors, protected with chain-link fencing from vandalism and theft, but not well protected from exposure to the weather.[44] In the mid-1990s, the consortium of governments that own the line secured a federal grant to fund most[44] of the $600,000 cost of building a carbarn in Lake Oswego.[45] Construction began in February 1998,[46] and the 3,000-square-foot (280m2) facility was completed and dedicated in September 1998.[44][45]
A proposal to convert the line into an extension of the Portland Streetcar, running through Johns Landing and into Lake Oswego, has been studied by Metro, Portland, Lake Oswego and TriMet.[47][48] Work on an environmental-impact assessment started in spring 2009,[49] considering both the streetcar option and the alternative of "enhanced bus" service, or bus rapid transit (BRT). The streetcar proposal faced opposition from residents of affluent neighborhoods near the tracks, but was preferred by Metro,[50] in part because BRT would likely require giving up one auto lane to buses in some sections to be effective, as the existing roadway, Hwy. 43, is thought likely to be too constricted by topography to enable widening.[51] Planning work on the proposal was indefinitely suspended in early 2012, in light of escalating cost estimates for construction.[52]
The Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) is a light rail system serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned and operated by TriMet, it consists of five lines connecting the six sections of Portland; the communities of Beaverton, Clackamas, Gresham, Hillsboro, Milwaukie, and Oak Grove; and Portland International Airport to Portland City Center. Trains run seven days a week with headways of between 30 minutes off-peak and three minutes during rush hours. In 2019, MAX had an average daily ridership of 120,900, or 38.8 million annually. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted public transit use globally, annual ridership plummeted, with only 14.8 million riders recorded in 2021.
A heritage railway or heritage railroad is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period in the history of rail transport.
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 Steel Bridge is a through truss, double-deck vertical-lift bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States, opened in 1912. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries road traffic, and light rail (MAX), making the bridge one of the most multimodal in the world. It is the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world and the second oldest vertical-lift bridge in North America, after the nearby Hawthorne Bridge. The bridge links the Rose Quarter and Lloyd District in the east to Old Town Chinatown neighborhood in the west.
Like transportation in the rest of the United States, the primary mode of local transportation in Portland, Oregon is the automobile. Metro, the metropolitan area's regional government, has a regional master plan in which transit-oriented development plays a major role. This approach, part of the new urbanism, promotes mixed-use and high-density development around light rail stops and transit centers, and the investment of the metropolitan area's share of federal tax dollars into multiple modes of transportation. In the United States, this focus is atypical in an era when automobile use led many areas to neglect their core cities in favor of development along interstate highways, in suburbs, and satellite cities.
Portland is "an international pioneer in transit orientated developments."
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 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).
The Fort Smith Trolley Museum is a streetcar and railroad museum in Fort Smith, in the U.S. state of Arkansas, which includes an operating heritage streetcar line. The museum opened in 1985, and operation of its streetcar line began in 1991. Four vehicles in its collection, a streetcar and three steam locomotives, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The now approximately three-quarters-mile-long (1.2 km) streetcar line also passes four NRHP-listed sites, including the Fort Smith National Historic Site, the Fort Smith National Cemetery, the West Garrison Avenue Historic District and the 1907 Atkinson-Williams Warehouse Building, which now houses the Fort Smith Museum of History.
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.
The Gomaco Trolley Company is a manufacturer of vintage-style streetcars, located in Ida Grove, Iowa, United States. The company has supplied replica-vintage streetcars to several transit systems in the US, and has also restored and rebuilt authentic vintage streetcars for some systems.
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.
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The North South Line is a streetcar service of the Portland Streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, United States. Operated by Portland Streetcar, Inc. and TriMet, it travels approximately 4.1 miles (6.6 km) per direction from Northwest 23rd & Marshall to Southwest Lowell & Bond and serves 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 and operates on headways of 15 to 20 minutes.
The San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival was a heritage streetcar service along Market Street in San Francisco, California, United States. It used a variety of vintage streetcars and operated five to seven days a week, primarily in summer months, between 1983 and 1987. Sponsored by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, it was the predecessor of the F Market & Wharves heritage streetcar line that opened in 1995. It used historic streetcars from several different countries, as well as a number of preserved San Francisco cars. The impetus behind the Trolley Festival was that the city's famed cable car system, one of its biggest tourist attractions, was scheduled to be closed for more than a year and a half for renovation, starting in September 1982. The Trolley Festival was conceived as a temporary substitute tourist attraction during the cable car system's closure.
The Newberg branch is a railway line in the state of Oregon, in the United States. It runs 36 miles (58 km) from Portland to a junction with the West Side branch west of Saint Joseph. It was originally built by the Portland and Willamette Valley Railway, a predecessor of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
References
1 2 3 4 Oliver, Gordon (October 27, 1988). "Purchase of Jefferson rail line approved". The Oregonian.
↑ "Museums round-up". Light Rail & Modern Tramway. Ian Allan Publishing/Light Rail Transit Association. January 1996. p.26.
↑ "Broadway car riding rails again on trolley system" (December 18, 1996). The Oregonian.
↑ Goetze, Janet (April 25, 1997). "Trolley gets new platform, new track". The Oregonian, Metro South edition p. D2.
↑ Stewart, Bill (July 20, 2001). "Drawing the line". The Oregonian.
↑ Hales, Charlie (May 26, 1998). "Laying the tracks: South-north light rail will link city and suburbs and, importantly, blue-collar neighborhoods to jobs (opinion)". The Oregonian.
↑ "Museum News". Tramways & Urban Transit. Mainspring/Light Rail Transit Association. October 2018. p.394. ISSN1460-8324. This was its first time carrying passengers since 2005, when Vintage Trolley service on the Portland Streetcar line ended.
↑ "Trolley cars finally get home of their own". Lake Oswego Review. February 19, 1998.
↑ Stewart, Bill (June 17, 2001). "Tri-Met has trolley line on to-do list: The agency keeps $500,000 to study Willamette Shore as a possible commuter line". The Sunday Oregonian, p. B1.
↑ Zheng, Yuxing (December 14, 2007). "Study OK'd for Lake Oswego rail link". The Oregonian.
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