Portland Vintage Trolley
Encyclopedia
The Portland Vintage Trolley is a heritage streetcar service in downtown Portland, Oregon
, United States
. Service is provided with replicas of a type of Brill streetcar, nicknamed the "Council Crest"
cars, which last served Portland in 1950. The Vintage Trolley is managed by Vintage Trolley Inc., a non-profit
corporation, and the cars are operated by TriMet
, Portland's transit agency. The service currently operates along a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) section of Portland's MAX Light Rail system, on the transit mall
in downtown Portland, from Union Station
to Portland State University
(PSU). In the past, it has also run on a different part of the MAX system and on the Portland Streetcar
system.
Introduced in 1991, Vintage Trolley service has operated on most weekends or at least most Sundays, from March through December, in all past years. However, in 2011 the service has been heavily reduced and is scheduled for just seven dates. Rides are narrated by a conductor who identifies historic points of interest along the way. Rides are free, but donations are accepted.
and Galleria/SW 10th Avenue station in the West End of downtown, including crossing the Willamette River
on the Steel Bridge
.
The idea of operating vintage streetcars in Downtown Portland
had been proposed at least as early as the mid-1970s, as a way to lure back to the city center shoppers who increasingly preferred suburban shopping malls. One of its most enthusiastic and influential proponents was Portland businessman Bill Naito
(who later became the first president of Vintage Trolley, Inc.).
However, the idea only finally began to garner growing support following the 1978 approval to construct a light rail
system in Portland, the "Banfield Light Rail" project, renamed Metropolitan Area Express, or MAX, shortly before its 1986 opening. Another impetus for the plans was a concern by the Portland Historical Landmarks Commission that introducing a modern light rail system would have a detrimental impact on the character of two downtown historic districts though which the line would pass, the Skidmore/Old Town
and Yamhill Historic Districts. Operating vintage streetcars during off-peak hours was seen as a way of alleviating those impacts.
Plans to operate a vintage trolley service on a portion of the MAX line were approved by TriMet
in 1987. Some of the costs would be paid by TriMet, some by the federal government, and some by Vintage Trolley, Inc. An order for three replica trolleys was placed (a fourth car was added later), a carbarn was built in the Coliseum (now Rose Quarter
) area, and a short length of track and overhead wire
were built along Northeast 11th Avenue near Lloyd Center
mall. The first two vehicles were delivered in August and November 1991, and service was inaugurated on November 29, 1991, operating daily for the first month.
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. 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 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.
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, and all rides have remained free since that time. This was the case even though the route extended, at that time, 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, and it was renamed the Free Rail Zone in 2010.)
line from Northwest Portland to Portland State University
(PSU) on Saturdays and Sundays, year-round. Two of the four streetcars 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.
The Portland Streetcar line opened on July 20, 2001, and vintage trolley service on it began on July 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 Skoda
streetcar. 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. Vintage Trolley service on Portland Streetcar was temporarily suspended around the end of November 2005, 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, 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.
to Galleria/SW 10th Avenue station in downtown Portland, running on Sundays from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., half-hourly, using two cars, but the final day of service along that route was August 23, 2009. In September 2009, the service was changed to a completely different route, but which is also a section of the MAX system. Commencing on September 13, 2009, Vintage Trolley service operates along the recently rebuilt Portland Transit Mall
, on 5th and 6th avenues in downtown, between Union Station
and Portland State University
. The service now uses only one car and runs from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. on its days of operation, which initially continued to include most Sundays from March through December (through the end of 2010, when another major change was made). Passengers can board or alight at any of the MAX stations along the 1.5 miles (2.4 km) route. A round trip takes approximately 30 minutes, and the headway
varies between 30 minutes and 45 minutes. The ride remains free, but donations are welcomed.
, 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 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, Oregon
, and Gomaco was able to use those cars as patterns for the replicas.
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 rattan
seats with reversible backrests, carved oak interiors, brass handrails, pull-down window shades and doors which can only be manually opened and closed, by the motorman (operator) or conductor. They were given fleet numbers 511–514 as a continuation of the earlier cars' number series, and in tribute to them. On the front of the new Vintage Trolleys is painted a slogan that once adorned the ends of their antecedents, See Portland from Council Crest, a reference to the views of the city available from the route's upper terminus, atop Council Crest
. The old trolleys had all-wood bodies, whereas the replicas have steel frames, concealed by wood, for better safety and durability. Because they share the same route as MAX, they also use a more modern style of current-collector to draw power from the overhead wires, a cross between a pantograph
(the type of collector used by MAX) and a bow collector
, instead of the trolley pole
s which the city's original trolley cars used.
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Service is provided with replicas of a type of Brill streetcar, nicknamed the "Council Crest"
Council Crest 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 vista point, and a wedding site that can be reserved. The park, operated by Portland Parks & Recreation, is open...
cars, which last served Portland in 1950. The Vintage Trolley is managed by Vintage Trolley Inc., a non-profit
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
corporation, and the cars are operated by TriMet
TriMet
TriMet, more formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon...
, Portland's transit agency. The service currently operates along a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) section of Portland's MAX Light Rail system, on the transit mall
Portland Transit Mall
The Portland Transit Mall is a set of public transit corridors through the center of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. More specifically, it is a pair of one-way streets—one for northbound traffic, the other for southbound—along which two of the three lanes are restricted to...
in downtown Portland, from Union Station
Union Station (Portland)
Union Station is a train station near the west shore of the Willamette River in the Old Town Chinatown section of Portland, Oregon, United States....
to Portland State University
Portland State University
Portland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in...
(PSU). In the past, it has also run on a different part of the MAX system and on the Portland Streetcar
Portland Streetcar
The Portland Streetcar is a streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, that opened in 2001 and serves areas surrounding downtown Portland. It is currently a single line that is almost long and serves some 12,000 daily riders, but a second line is expected to open in 2012.As with the heavier-duty MAX...
system.
Introduced in 1991, Vintage Trolley service has operated on most weekends or at least most Sundays, from March through December, in all past years. However, in 2011 the service has been heavily reduced and is scheduled for just seven dates. Rides are narrated by a conductor who identifies historic points of interest along the way. Rides are free, but donations are accepted.
Early history
Portland Vintage Trolley service began operation on November 29, 1991, on a 2.3 miles (3.7 km) section of TriMet's first MAX line, between Lloyd CenterLloyd Center
Lloyd Center is a shopping mall in the Lloyd District of Portland, Oregon, United States, just northeast of downtown. It is owned by Glimcher Realty Trust and anchored by Macy's, Nordstrom, Sears, Marshalls and Ross. The mall features three floors of shopping with the third level serving mostly...
and Galleria/SW 10th Avenue station in the West End of downtown, including crossing the Willamette River
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...
on the Steel Bridge
Steel Bridge
The Steel Bridge is a through truss, double lift bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries road traffic and light rail , making the bridge one of the most multimodal in the world...
.
The idea of operating vintage streetcars in Downtown Portland
Downtown Portland
Downtown Portland, the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States, is located on the west bank of the Willamette River. It is in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and is where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found....
had been proposed at least as early as the mid-1970s, as a way to lure back to the city center shoppers who increasingly preferred suburban shopping malls. One of its most enthusiastic and influential proponents was Portland businessman Bill Naito
Bill Naito
William Sumio Naito , better known as Bill Naito, was a noted businessman, civic leader and philanthropist in Portland, Oregon, U.S...
(who later became the first president of Vintage Trolley, Inc.).
However, the idea only finally began to garner growing support following the 1978 approval to construct a light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
system in Portland, the "Banfield Light Rail" project, renamed Metropolitan Area Express, or MAX, shortly before its 1986 opening. Another impetus for the plans was a concern by the Portland Historical Landmarks Commission that introducing a modern light rail system would have a detrimental impact on the character of two downtown historic districts though which the line would pass, the Skidmore/Old Town
Old Town Chinatown, Portland, Oregon
Old Town Chinatown is a neighborhood in the Northwest section of Portland, Oregon. The Willamette River forms its eastern boundary, separating it from the Lloyd District and the Kerns and Buckman neighborhoods...
and Yamhill Historic Districts. Operating vintage streetcars during off-peak hours was seen as a way of alleviating those impacts.
TriMet
TriMet, more formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon...
in 1987. Some of the costs would be paid by TriMet, some by the federal government, and some by Vintage Trolley, Inc. An order for three replica trolleys was placed (a fourth car was added later), a carbarn was built in the Coliseum (now Rose Quarter
Rose Quarter
The Rose Quarter is a 30 acre sports and entertainment district located in Portland's Lloyd District on the east bank of the Willamette River, just east of downtown. The Rose Quarter is bounded on the west by NE Interstate Avenue, on the north by NE Broadway and NE Weidler Streets, on the...
) area, and a short length of track and overhead wire
Overhead lines
Overhead lines or overhead wires are used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses or trains at a distance from the energy supply point...
were built along Northeast 11th Avenue near Lloyd Center
Lloyd Center
Lloyd Center is a shopping mall in the Lloyd District of Portland, Oregon, United States, just northeast of downtown. It is owned by Glimcher Realty Trust and anchored by Macy's, Nordstrom, Sears, Marshalls and Ross. The mall features three floors of shopping with the third level serving mostly...
mall. The first two vehicles were delivered in August and November 1991, and service was inaugurated on November 29, 1991, operating daily for the first month.
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
Lloyd Center
Lloyd Center is a shopping mall in the Lloyd District of Portland, Oregon, United States, just northeast of downtown. It is owned by Glimcher Realty Trust and anchored by Macy's, Nordstrom, Sears, Marshalls and Ross. The mall features three floors of shopping with the third level serving mostly...
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. 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 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.
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, and all rides have remained free since that time. This was the case even though the route extended, at that time, 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, and it was renamed the Free Rail Zone in 2010.)
Operation on the Portland Streetcar line
From mid-2001 through 2005, Portland Vintage Trolley also served a second route, operating on the Portland StreetcarPortland Streetcar
The Portland Streetcar is a streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, that opened in 2001 and serves areas surrounding downtown Portland. It is currently a single line that is almost long and serves some 12,000 daily riders, but a second line is expected to open in 2012.As with the heavier-duty MAX...
line from Northwest Portland to Portland State University
Portland State University
Portland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in...
(PSU) on Saturdays and Sundays, year-round. Two of the four streetcars were transferred from TriMet to the City of Portland
Government of Portland, Oregon
The Government of Portland, Oregon, a city in the U.S. state of Oregon, is based on a city commission government system. Elected officials include a Mayor, a City Council, and a City Auditor. The mayor and commissioners are responsible legislative policy and oversee the various bureaus that...
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.
The Portland Streetcar line opened on July 20, 2001, and vintage trolley service on it began on July 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 Skoda
Škoda 10 T
The Škoda 10 T is a three-carbody-section low-floor bi-directional tram, developed by Škoda.The vehicle is four-axled, and is based on the Škoda 03 T, a uni-directional model operating in a few cities in the Czech Republic...
streetcar. 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. Vintage Trolley service on Portland Streetcar was temporarily suspended around the end of November 2005, 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, 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 has followed since opening 18 years earlier, from the Lloyd DistrictLloyd District, Portland, Oregon
The Lloyd District is a primarily commercial neighborhood in the North and Northeast sections of Portland, Oregon. It is named after Ralph Lloyd , a California rancher, oilman, and real estate developer who moved to and started the development of the area.The Lloyd District is bounded by the...
to Galleria/SW 10th Avenue station in downtown Portland, running on Sundays from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., half-hourly, using two cars, but the final day of service along that route was August 23, 2009. In September 2009, the service was changed to a completely different route, but which is also a section of the MAX system. Commencing on September 13, 2009, Vintage Trolley service operates along the recently rebuilt Portland Transit Mall
Portland Transit Mall
The Portland Transit Mall is a set of public transit corridors through the center of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. More specifically, it is a pair of one-way streets—one for northbound traffic, the other for southbound—along which two of the three lanes are restricted to...
, on 5th and 6th avenues in downtown, between Union Station
Union Station (Portland)
Union Station is a train station near the west shore of the Willamette River in the Old Town Chinatown section of Portland, Oregon, United States....
and Portland State University
Portland State University
Portland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in...
. The service now uses only one car and runs from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. on its days of operation, which initially continued to include most Sundays from March through December (through the end of 2010, when another major change was made). Passengers can board or alight at any of the MAX stations along the 1.5 miles (2.4 km) route. A round trip takes approximately 30 minutes, and the headway
Headway
Headway is a measurement of the distance/time between vehicles in a transit system. The precise definition varies depending on the application, but it is most commonly measured as the distance from the tip of one vehicle to the tip of the next one behind it, expressed as the time it will take for...
varies between 30 minutes and 45 minutes. The ride remains free, but donations are welcomed.
2011 reduction
In 2011, the service has been heavily reduced, as a result of budgetary constraints caused by the recession's impact on TriMet's finances, from about 30-35 dates per year in recent years to just seven dates. Although the 2011 schedule includes Vintage Trolley service on every Sunday during the peak holiday shopping season, in the last weeks of the year, otherwise the only scheduled operating dates of the entire year are the three Sundays nearest to Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day — specifically May 29, July 3 and September 4, 2011. The route, frequency and hours of operation (on days of operation) remain unchanged.The cars
The four streetcars/trolleys—these two terms are synonyms in most parts of the United States—were built by the Gomaco Trolley CompanyGomaco Trolley Company
The Gomaco Trolley Company is a manufacturer of vintage-style streetcars , located in Ida Grove, Iowa, United States...
, of Ida Grove, Iowa
Ida Grove, Iowa
Ida Grove is a city in Ida County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,350 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Ida County.-Geography:Ida Grove is located at...
, 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 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
Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society
The Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society operates a railroad museum and a heritage railroad for electric streetcar and railway enthusiasts.-History:...
at its museum in Brooks, Oregon
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 . The census definition of the area may not precisely correspond to local understanding of the area with the same...
, and Gomaco was able to use those cars as patterns for the replicas.
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 rattan
Rattan
Rattan is the name for the roughly 600 species of palms in the tribe Calameae, native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Australasia.- Structure :...
seats with reversible backrests, carved oak interiors, brass handrails, pull-down window shades and doors which can only be manually opened and closed, by the motorman (operator) or conductor. They were given fleet numbers 511–514 as a continuation of the earlier cars' number series, and in tribute to them. On the front of the new Vintage Trolleys is painted a slogan that once adorned the ends of their antecedents, See Portland from Council Crest, a reference to the views of the city available from the route's upper terminus, atop Council Crest
Council Crest 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 vista point, and a wedding site that can be reserved. The park, operated by Portland Parks & Recreation, is open...
. The old trolleys had all-wood bodies, whereas the replicas have steel frames, concealed by wood, for better safety and durability. Because they share the same route as MAX, they also use a more modern style of current-collector to draw power from the overhead wires, a cross between a pantograph
Pantograph (rail)
A pantograph for rail lines is a hinged electric-rod device that collects electric current from overhead lines for electric trains or trams. The pantograph typically connects to a one-wire line, with the track acting as the ground wire...
(the type of collector used by MAX) and a bow collector
Bow collector
A bow collector is one of the three main devices used on tramcars to transfer electric current from the wires above to the tram below. While once very common in continental Europe, it has now been largely replaced by the pantograph.-Origins:...
, instead of the trolley pole
Trolley pole
A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a "live" overhead wire to the control and propulsion equipment of a tram or trolley bus. The use of overhead wire in a system of current collection is reputed to be the 1880 invention of Frank J....
s which the city's original trolley cars used.