The Willamette Shore Trolley is a
heritage railroad or
heritage streetcar that operates along the west bank of the
Willamette River
The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...
between
Portland and
Lake Oswego in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
. The
right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
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 railroad offers passenger excursions using a historic or replica-historic
trolley on a former
Southern Pacific line previously known as the Jefferson Street Branch Line. The line runs for , including a passage through the Elk Rock Tunnel. The Lake Oswego terminal is downtown, alongside State Street (
Oregon Route 43
Oregon Route 43 is an Oregon state highway that runs between the cities of Oregon City and Portland, mostly along the western flank of the Willamette River. While it is technically known by the Oregon Department of Transportation as the Osw ...
) 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.
['']Tramways & Urban Transit
''Tramways & Urban Transit'' ''(TAUT'' or ''T&UT)'', also known as ''Modern Tramway'', is a British monthly magazine about tramways and light rail transport, published continuously since 1938. Its content is orientated both to tramway enthu ...
'' magazine, April 2011, p. 153. 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,
and that section of the line reopened in August 2014.
[ Service over the northern half of the line, to Bancroft Street in Portland, was restored on July 21, 2017.]
Corridor history
The right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
now used by the Willamette Shore Trolley was established in the mid-1880s by the Portland and Willamette Valley Railway
The Portland and Willamette Valley Railway was incorporated on 19 January 1885 to continue construction of a narrow-gauge railroad line between Portland and Dundee, Oregon, United States, which had been started a few years earlier by the Oregon ...
, 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
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
to standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in E ...
and electrified it in 1914. This led to its peak in passenger travel in 1920, when 64 "Red Electric
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 1 ...
" interurban
The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...
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. The Elk Rock Tunnel is (approx. one-quarter mile) in length and is located in the unincorporated Riverwood Riverwood may refer to:
Places
;Australia
*Riverwood, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia
**Riverwood railway station
;United States
* Riverwood, Indiana
* Riverwood, Kentucky
* Riverwood, Oregon
* Riverwoods, Illinois
* Riverwood (Nash ...
area, between Portland and Lake Oswego. On October 5, 1929, passenger service ended, though the line was used for freight
Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including tran ...
until 1983.[Federman, Stan (April 7, 1987). "Trolley run along river gets study". ''The Oregonian'', p. D15.]
Right-of-way preserved, experimental trolley service
In August 1984, the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to elimina ...
granted Southern Pacific permission to abandon the line. This prompted several local governments in the area to establish a not-for-profit corporation
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
to acquire the line and preserve the right-of-way for future mass transit
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
. 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
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depart ...
(ODOT). The line's official name at that time was the Jefferson Street Branch, because during the passenger-service era it had served a station called Jefferson Street and continued into downtown Portland via that street.
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), 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
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and is ...
, England. 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, for US$1.9 million, including the cost of a planned extension in Lake Oswego, to be constructed by SP. Metro identified it as a possible transit corridor.
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. A 1913-built streetcar originally from San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_ ...
, Texas, was used, with a diesel-powered generator trailer again employed to provide electricity to the streetcar. 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.[Furey, John (March 9, 1993). "Trolley to run into downtown Lake Oswego". ''The Oregonian'', MetroSouth edition p. B2.]
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. 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. The contract with Gales Creek Enterprises was not renewed when it expired at the end of 1994.
In 1995, the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society again became the operator of the trolley service, 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. It was joined in December 1996 by another streetcar in OERHS's collection, a 1932 Brill
Brill may refer to:
Places
* Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands
* Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England
* Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK
* Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...
"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.
In April 1997, the line was extended from its north end, to the RiverPlace
RiverPlace is a mixed-use district of Downtown Portland, Oregon. Although not an officially recognized neighborhood, its borders can be considered to be Naito Parkway to the west, the Willamette River to the east, and the Marquam Bridge (whic ...
district, increasing its overall length to about . Charlie Hales
Charles Andrew Hales (born January 22, 1956) is a former American politician who served as the 52nd mayor of Portland, Oregon, from 2013 to 2017. He previously served on the Portland City Council from 1993 to 2002.
Early life and education
Charl ...
, then a city commissioner, opined in 1998 that the line had an important future as part of the MAX light rail system. 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. 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
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 groun ...
, in Brooks, Oregon
Brooks is an unincorporated community in Marion County, Oregon, United States. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Brooks as a census-designated place (CDP). The census definition of the area may not precisely ...
. 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
The Christmas season or the festive season (also known in some countries as the holiday season or the holidays) is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late November ...
, in December each year.
As a tourist attraction, the line is most popular on the Fourth of July
Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...
, when the Oaks Amusement Park
Oaks Park is a small amusement park located south of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The park opened in May 1905 and is one of the oldest continually operating amusement parks in the country.
The park includes midway games, about tw ...
fireworks
Fireworks are a class of Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a l ...
display is viewable along the river, and in mid-December, when the area's Christmas Ships Parade on the Willamette can be viewed.
2009 to present
For most of 2009, all service was suspended, so as to permit work to rehabilitate the line's four trestle bridge
A trestle bridge is a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by closely spaced frames. A trestle (sometimes tressel) is a rigid frame used as a support, historically a tripod used to support a stool or a pair of isosceles trian ...
s. The longest of these is Riverwood Trestle, which is long and about high.
Service resumed during the 2009 Christmas and holiday season
The Christmas season or the festive season (also known in some countries as the holiday season or the holidays) is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late November ...
. The 2010 season began on May 1, but the line's only streetcar broke down on July 16, 2010, causing an indefinite suspension of service. This suspension continued in 2011 and 2012, because the estimated cost to repair the car was high, and no substitute streetcar was available.[ After OERHS determined that repair of the 1932-built streetcar, Portland ]Brill
Brill may refer to:
Places
* Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands
* Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England
* Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK
* Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...
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
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 groun ...
, near Salem, in June 2012.["Museum News" (August 2012). ''Tramways & Urban Transit'' magazine, p. 317.]
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.[ 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.][Willamette Shore Trolley's Facebook page]
August 4, 2014. Retrieved 2017-08-21. The replacement car is a replica of a 1904 Portland "Council Crest"-type Brill streetcar built in 1991 by the Gomaco Trolley Company
The Gomaco Trolley Company is a manufacturer of vintage-style streetcars (alternatively called ''trolleys'' in the US, or ''trams'' in much of the world), located in Ida Grove, Iowa, United States. The company has supplied replica-vintage str ...
, for use on the Portland Vintage 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 Street ...
service. It is car number 514, and it was moved from TriMet's Vintage Trolley carbarn next to the Rose Quarter Transit Center
Rose Quarter Transit Center is a light rail station in the MAX system and a TriMet bus transit center, and is located in the Rose Quarter area of Portland, Oregon, a part of the Lloyd District. It is served by the Blue, Green and Red Lines. It i ...
to Lake Oswego on March 26, 2013. 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.["Museum News" (November 2014). ''Tramways & Urban Transit'' magazine, p. 481.]
The line reopened for public rides on August 16, 2014, using car 514.[ Because of major construction affecting the rail line where it passes through the site of construction of a new ]Sellwood Bridge
The Sellwood Bridge is a deck arch bridge that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The current bridge opened in 2016 and replaced a 1925 span that had carried the same name. The original bridge was Portland's firs ...
(among other issues), it was known that Willamette Shore Trolley service would not be able to run through to Portland for quite some time, until 2016 or 2017. When reopened in 2014, it was running only between Lake Oswego and Riverwood Riverwood may refer to:
Places
;Australia
*Riverwood, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia
**Riverwood railway station
;United States
* Riverwood, Indiana
* Riverwood, Kentucky
* Riverwood, Oregon
* Riverwoods, Illinois
* Riverwood (Nash ...
, but one year later, on August 8, 2015, service was extended north to Powers Marine Park (just south of the Sellwood Bridge).["Museum News" (October 2015). ''Tramways & Urban Transit'' magazine, p. 417.] This increased the length of line in use to around . The 2016 season began on May 28.
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. On July 21, 2017, the service was reextended to its pre-2011 Portland terminus, at Bancroft Street,[ 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,] on May 26. Prior to this, its last operation with passengers had been on the Portland Streetcar line, more than 12 years earlier.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, service was suspended for the 2020 season and remained suspended in spring 2021, but the line reopened for service on July 3, 2021. Operation is temporarily limited to the southern portion of the line. The 2022 season began on May 28, and service is still limited to the southern section of the line, because of the need for trestle repairs.
Battery power
In late January 2019, maintenance crews started removing old DC motor
A DC motor is any of a class of rotary electrical motors that converts direct current (DC) electrical energy into mechanical energy. The most common types rely on the forces produced by induced magnetic fields due to flowing current in the coil ...
equipment on car 514 as the first stage of a project to convert the streetcar to AC motor
An AC motor is an electric motor driven by an alternating current (AC). The AC motor commonly consists of two basic parts, an outside stator having coils supplied with alternating current to produce a rotating magnetic field, and an inside rotor ...
s and battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
propulsion. The new configuration is a collaboration between the WST's volunteers and EVDrive Inc, a company based in Hillsboro, Oregon
Hillsboro ( ) is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Situated in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city hosts many high-technology companies, ...
. If successful, this new system will allow operation without the need for a diesel generator. AC motors will allow regenerative braking
Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. In this mechanism, the electric traction mo ...
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
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. In the mid-1990s, the consortium of governments that own the line secured a federal grant to fund most of the $600,000 cost of building a carbarn in Lake Oswego. Construction began in February 1998, and the facility was completed and dedicated in September 1998.
Future transit possibilities
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. Work on an environmental-impact assessment started in spring 2009, considering both the streetcar option and the alternative of "enhanced bus" service, or bus rapid transit
Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...
(BRT). The streetcar proposal faced opposition from residents of affluent neighborhoods near the tracks, but was preferred by Metro, 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. Planning work on the proposal was indefinitely suspended in early 2012, in light of escalating cost estimates for construction.
See also
* Lake Oswego Transit Center
*List of heritage railroads in the United States
This is a list of heritage railroads in the United States. There are currently no such railroads in the states of Mississippi or North Dakota.
Heritage railroads by state
Alabama
* Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum, Shelby & Southern Railroad a ...
*Portland Vintage 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 Street ...
References
External links
Willamette Shore Trolley website
Lake Oswego's website about the trolley
Willamette Shore Line right-of-way
from the Metro website
Photo of ex-San Antonio car 300 on the WST
fro
of an article from ''The New Electric Railway Journal
''The New Electric Railway Journal'' () was a quarterly American magazine primarily about electric urban rail transit in North America, published from 1988 to 1998, with an international circulation.''Light Rail & Modern Tramway'' magazine, various ...
'', Autumn 1993 issue
* History of the narrow gauge railroad in the Willamette Valley from the 1919 issue of the ''Oregon Historical Quarterly
The ''Oregon Historical Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed public history journal covering topics in the history of the U.S. state of Oregon, for both an academic and a general audience. It has been published continuously on a quarterly schedule by th ...
''
{{Portal bar, Oregon, Railways, Trains
1987 establishments in Oregon
Heritage railroads in Oregon
Heritage streetcar systems
Streetcars in Oregon
Tourist attractions in Clackamas County, Oregon
Tourist attractions in Portland, Oregon
Transportation in Clackamas County, Oregon
Transportation in Portland, Oregon