Portland Vintage Trolley
Portland Vintage Trolley | |
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standard gauge) | |
Electrification | Overhead lines, 750 V DC |
The Portland Vintage Trolley was a heritage
Introduced in 1991, Vintage Trolley service operated on most weekends or at least most Sundays, from March through December, in all past years through 2010, and ran seven days a week from 1994 through 1999. However, starting in 2011 the service was heavily reduced, operating on just seven dates per year,[4][5] and it remained at that reduced level for its final four seasons. Rides were narrated by a conductor who identified historic points of interest along the way. After May 1994, rides were free, but donations were accepted.[6]
On December 22, 2013, the service operated for what was, at the time, scheduled to be the last time,
History
Early history
Portland Vintage Trolley service began operation on November 29, 1991,
The idea of operating vintage streetcars in
However, the idea only finally began to garner growing support following the 1978 approval to construct a
Plans to operate a vintage trolley service on a portion of the MAX line were approved by
From 1992 through May 1994, service was provided on weekends and holidays only, and suspended for the months of January and February each year (except the first year). However, midday service (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) on weekdays was usually provided during the month of December to entice more shoppers to downtown and the Lloyd Center during the holiday shopping season. From mid-1994 through 1999, Portland Vintage Trolley service operated seven days a week, March through December. Hours of operation were 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends and holidays and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays to Fridays. In 2000, Vintage Trolley service was reduced to Sundays only, and the hours reduced slightly, to noon to 6.[23] This reduction came about in part because TriMet had opened a second light rail line in September 1998, with a resultant doubling of the frequency of service along the section of the MAX line used by the faux-vintage streetcars. An additional reason was that a trust fund originally set up to pay for the operation had become mostly depleted by this time; TriMet took over most financial responsibility for the service in 2000.[23]
Until the end of May 1994, the fare to ride the Vintage Trolley was $1.00, valid for a round trip. However, fares were eliminated effective June 1994; all rides were then free, and continued to be free for the remainder of Vintage Trolley's existence (but donations were accepted[5]). This was the case even though the route extended outside what were then the boundaries of TriMet's Fareless Square free-ride area. (Fareless Square was expanded in 2001 and then encompassed the entire Vintage Trolley route. It was renamed the "Free Rail Zone" in 2010, but was discontinued in 2012.)
Operation on the Portland Streetcar line
From mid-2001 through 2005, Portland Vintage Trolley also served a second route, operating on the Portland Streetcar line from Northwest Portland to Portland State University (PSU) on Saturdays and Sundays, year-round.[24][25] Two of the four streetcars (Nos. 513 and 514) were transferred from TriMet to the City of Portland in 2001 for use on the new Portland Streetcar line, while the other two cars remained with TriMet for continued use on the original Vintage Trolley route.[25]
Car 514 was moved (towed) to the new line from TriMet's trolley carbarn next to Rose Quarter MAX station on January 7, 2001.[26] It was used for the first test trips on the line's first completed section (in Northwest Portland) later that month, because the first modern Škoda car had not yet been delivered.[27] It was then decided that the two replica-vintage streetcars should receive a few modifications before entering service, primarily the addition of exterior mirrors and turn signals, which had been omitted when they were built in 1991 because the 1903 cars on which they were based had lacked them. These features had been viewed as unnecessary when these cars were operating only on the MAX line, because they were using separate lanes not shared with other traffic, but on the new streetcar line they would be mixing with general traffic.[25]: 375 These modifications were made to both cars before they entered service, but car 513 was not moved to the new line until September 2001.[27]
The Portland Streetcar line opened on July 20, 2001, and Vintage Trolley service on it began on July 28.[28] On this route, one Vintage Trolley car (of two available) was used at any given time, providing hourly service and replacing a regularly scheduled modern Škoda streetcar.[25] Originally, it was predicted that the two Vintage Trolleys would be needed as spares on the Portland Streetcar line, in case more than one modern car were unavailable for the scheduled service, but the modern cars proved to be sufficiently reliable that the use of vintage trolley cars as spares was never needed.[29]
Vintage Trolley service on Portland Streetcar was temporarily suspended around the end of November 2005,[30] in part because of maintenance problems with the two cars, and in part because the opening of the Portland Streetcar's extension from PSU to RiverPlace in March 2005 caused operations difficulties with the Vintage Trolley cars. This suspension eventually became permanent,[31] and after November 2005 Portland Vintage Trolley operated only on its original route, between Downtown Portland and Lloyd Center, until that route was also discontinued (modified), in mid-2009.
2009 route change
Until mid-2009, the Portland Vintage Trolley continued to serve the route it had followed since opening 18 years earlier, from the
2011 reduction
Effective in 2011, the service was heavily reduced, as a result of budgetary constraints caused by the
Discontinuation
In early 2013, it was announced that two of the four replica "Council Crest" streetcars, Nos. 513 and 514, would be transferred to the Willamette Shore Trolley line, to replace a historic streetcar that had been serving that line since 1996 but had broken down in 2010 and not been repaired.[34] Car 514 was moved to the Willamette Shore Trolley line in March 2013,[9] and car 513 was moved on September 8, 2014.[14] Those two cars had not run in service since the end of Vintage Trolley operation on the city-owned Portland Streetcar line, in 2005. All Vintage Trolley service on the TriMet-owned MAX system since 2001 had used cars 511 and 512.
On December 6, 2013, TriMet announced that it had tentatively decided to sell the two remaining cars (511 and 512) to a group in
The cars
The four streetcars/trolleys—these two terms are synonyms in most parts of the United States[36]—were built by the Gomaco Trolley Company, of Ida Grove, Iowa, in 1991 and early 1992. They were designed to replicate, as closely as practicable, a design of streetcar which the J. G. Brill Company supplied to Portland in 1904. Those ten cars were originally numbered 201–210, but were renumbered 501–510 in 1905[37] and kept those numbers for the remainder of their working lives, which ended in 1950 with the abandonment of Portland's last three city streetcar lines. Although Brill cars 501–510 were not restricted to the Council Crest route, they provided all of the service on that line, and so came to be known by Portlanders as the "Council Crest cars". Two of the original Council Crest streetcars, 503 and 506, are preserved by the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society at its museum in Brooks,[38] and Gomaco was able to use those cars as patterns for the replicas.[3] The first of the faux-vintage trolley cars, No. 511, arrived on August 16, 1991,[3] while the last arrival, No. 512, was delivered on April 23, 1992.[20]
The four cars built in 1991–92 by Gomaco have the same red-and-cream colors as the original 1904 cars and include most of the latter's features, such as padded
See also
- Heritage streetcar
- Portland Streetcar
- Willamette Shore Trolley
- Oregon portal
- Pacific Northwest portal
References
- ^
Cornelius Swart (March 2, 2014). "TriMet to ship off Portland's iconic trolleys". Portland, Oregon: KGW. Archived from the original on March 5, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
Later this year, TriMet will send the last two of Portland's four old-timey street trolleys to St. Louis. When it does, downtown Portland will lose a local icon and a little piece of its streetcar history. TriMet, which owns the streetcars, said in an era of cutbacks, it's unavoidable. Critics say "you'll regret it."
- ^ a b Mayer, James (November 30, 1991). "Clang, clang, clang went Portland's new trolleys". The Oregonian, p. B2.
- ^ from the original on June 6, 2018. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
- ^ a b c Tramways & Urban Transit, April 2011, p. 152. LRTA Publishing Ltd.
- ^ a b c "Portland's Vintage Trolley". TriMet. 2013. Archived from the original on September 13, 2013. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
- ^ Korn, Peter (May 29, 2008). "Q & A with Neal Berlin and Bill Binns". Portland Tribune. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
- ^ a b Tramways & Urban Transit, February 2014, p. 92. UK: LRTA Publishing Ltd.
- ^ a b Bowen, Douglas John (December 13, 2013). "TriMet sells heritage trolleys to St. Louis". Railway Age. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
- ^ a b Hansen Murphey, Kara (March 28, 2013). "New trolley almost ready to roll in Lake Oswego". Lake Oswego Review. Archived from the original on December 21, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Willamette Shore Trolley's Facebook page, August 4, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
- ISSN 1460-8324.
- ^ a b "Portland's Vintage Trolley". TriMet. 2014. Archived from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
- ^ a b "Vintage Trolley Has Ceased Operation". Portland Vintage Trolley website. September 2014. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
- ^ a b c "Portland double-track is brought into use". Tramways & Urban Transit. LRTA Publishing. November 2014. p. 454.
- ^ "Old Town trolleys proposed". (August 25, 1976). The Oregonian, p. E12.
- ^ a b Alesko, Michael (December 13, 1979). "Trolley proposal advances". The Oregonian, p. D3.
- ^ a b Federman, Stan (January 29, 1987). "Tri-Met trolley plan gets go-ahead bell". The Oregonian, p. B2.
- ^ a b Mayer, James (November 27, 1991). "Rose City went off its trolley 41 years ago; it has returned". The Oregonian.
- ^ "Antique trolleys to return" (February 28, 1989). The Oregonian.
- ^ ISSN 0144-1655.
- ISSN 0144-1655.
- ^ "Portland Vintage Trolley 2003 Schedule". Portland Vintage Trolley website. Archived from the original on December 10, 2004. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ a b Tramways & Urban Transit, April 2000, p. 150. Ian Allan Publishing/Light Rail Transit Association (UK).
- ^ ""Vintage" Trolley". TriMet. June 2, 2002. Archived from the original on June 6, 2002. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ ISSN 1460-8324. Archived from the originalon March 27, 2019. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
- ISSN 1460-8324.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4671-3355-5. Archivedfrom the original on September 15, 2023. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
- ISBN 0-7385-3115-4.
- ISSN 1460-8324.
- ^ Tramways & Urban Transit, March 2007, p. 108. Ian Allan Publishing/Light Rail Transit Association.
- ISSN 1460-8324.
Brill replica tram 513 entered service on the Willamette Shore Trolley line at the beginning of the 2018 season. ... This was its first time carrying passengers since 2005, when Vintage Trolley service on the Portland Streetcar line ended.
- ^ a b "Vintage Trolley 2012 Schedule on the Portland Transit Mall". Portland Vintage Trolley website. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ "Portland's Vintage Trolley". TriMet. 2011. Archived from the original on December 24, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
- ^ Edwards, Victoria (March 26, 2013). "After three-year hiatus, historic trolley from Lake Oswego to Portland will run this summer". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on May 16, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Rose, Joseph (December 6, 2013). "TriMet on verge of sending Portland's vintage holiday trolleys to St. Louis". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on December 10, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ISBN 0-9647279-2-7). St. Louis: Archway Publishing.
- ISBN 0-87004-287-4.
- ISBN 0-7385-3115-4.