Oregon Electric Railway Museum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Oregon Electric Railway Museum

Sydney car 1187 (built 1912) at the museum
Former name	Glenwood Electric Railway "Trolley Park"
Established	1959
Location	Brooks, Oregon, United States 45°03′06″N 122°58′47″W / 45.051677°N 122.979589°W / 45.051677; -122.979589

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 (formerly known as Antique Powerland).

History

The carbarn at the old site (1959–1995), in Glenwood, known as the Trolley Park

The original museum opened in Glenwood, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Portland, in 1959, with the first operation of streetcars taking place in 1963 and regular operation in 1966. It was named Glenwood Electric Railway "Trolley Park" or, more commonly, the Trolley Park, but its formal name in later years was the same as that of the present museum. The Glenwood museum was built on the site of a former steam logging railroad, and OERHS re-equipped the former sawmill building of the Consolidated Timber Company as a four-track carbarn. The museum property occupied about 26 acres (11 ha), and trolley cars were able to operate on a 1.7-mile (2.7 km) line.

Operation at the Glenwood site ended in autumn 1995.

Current operations

Carbarn at Brooks (2016)

The current museum opened in Brooks in 1996. The museum consists of about one mile of mainline track with overhead wire. There is a four-track carbarn to store the international collection of streetcars.

The museum is open from May through October with trolley operations on Saturdays. The big event of the year is the annual Steam-Up, held on the last weekend of July and the first weekend of August. Thousands of riders use the trolley during these two weekends.

Collection

Rolling stock at the Oregon Electric Railway Museum

No.	Image	Type	Mfr.	Built	Service	Acquired	Notes	Refs.
503		Streetcar (Council Crest)	Brill	1904	Portland Railway, Light and Power Company		One of the two Portland "Council Crest" Brill cars, No. 503, was loaned to San Francisco in 1983, and again in 1985, for operation in the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival, predecessor of the F Market & Wharves heritage streetcar line. In the late 1980s, Portland's transit agency, Tri-Met, used cars 503 and 506 as the models for new replica-vintage streetcars it was planning to purchase for use on the then-planned Portland Vintage Trolley service. Four faux-vintage Council Crest cars were eventually built by the Gomaco Trolley Company.
506						1975
813		Streetcar ("Master Unit")		1932			Renumbered to 4012 after regauging for Portland-Oregon City interurban line in 1949–50.
1067		Interurban	Milwaukie Shops	1907		1981	One of two donated to museum in 1981; the other (#1065) was scrapped. Both had been stripped for use as cabins at Cannon Beach since 1946.
48		Double-decker tram	Blackpool Tramway	1928	Blackpool Tramway	1964	Double-decker 48 ran on the Willamette Shore Trolley line in Portland before it was retired in 2004 and moved to the museum in 2006. Returned to service in 2017.
1187		O-class tram	Meadowbank Manufacturing Company	1912	Sydney Tramways	1959	Provides most of current revenue operations.
210		Streetcar	CCFP Company Shops	1940	Companhia Carris de Ferro do Porto (CCFP)	2006	Single-truck car; renumbered to 201 in 1994, at time of retirement from service.
74		Streetcar (Birney)	American Car Company	1919	Fresno Traction Company
326					Tacoma Railway and Power Company
1318		Streetcar	St. Louis Car Company	1923	Los Angeles Railway
1118		Streetcar (PCC)	St. Louis Car Company	1946	San Francisco Muni
1159							Originally built for St. Louis Public Service as car #1726.
1213		US SLRV	Boeing-Vertol	1977		2000	Originally numbered 1221, one of two prototypes to operate with a trolley pole; later fitted with a pantograph and renumbered to 1213.
12		Double-decker tram	Hong Kong Tramways	1952	Hong Kong Tramways	1999	Retired in 1985 and exhibited at Expo 86 in Vancouver, BC.
1455		Snow sweeper	McGuire	1899	Portland Railway, Light and Power Company		Originally built for East Side Railway; transferred to Oregon Water Power and Railway in 1902, and renumbered to 102 at that time, then to 1455 by PRL&P in 1906. Retired in 1954.
21		Steeple-cab locomotive	General Electric	1912	Oregon Electric Railway	2017
254				1916	Great Falls Reduction Department		Last used by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company
351				1903	Missoula Street Railway
401			Baldwin-Westinghouse	1912	Timber Butte Milling Company
604		Trolleybus	Twin Coach	1940	Seattle Metro	c. 1970s
648			Pullman-Standard	1944		2000	Removed from collection in 2018.
2411			CCF-Brill	1954	British Columbia Electric Railway	2002
19		Streetcar (work cars)	Les Tramways Bruxellois [fr]	1934	Brussels, Belgium	2015	Moved to the museum from storage in Port Mellon, British Columbia in 2015. Originally built as passenger cars and converted to work service in the 1970s.
25
26
31
34
1247				1937
1048		Streetcar (passenger)		1937			Moved to the museum from storage in Port Mellon, British Columbia in 2015. Originally built as #1608. Retired in 1975, it was sold in 1984 to the Grand Cypress Resort, a then-new 930-acre (380 ha) resort near Orlando, Florida, where a streetcar line opened in 1985 to carry guests around the vast property. The 3.5-mile (5.6 km) streetcar line closed in the mid-1990s, and two of its cars were eventually moved to B.C. after being acquired by the owner of the other ex-Brussels streetcars now at OERM.
2190		Trailer (passenger)		1931			Moved to the museum from storage in Port Mellon, British Columbia in 2015. History similar to # 1048.
7020		Streetcar (PCC)	La Brugeoise	1952			Retired in the 2000s.
96		Interurban		1930	Milan, Italy	2016	Acquired from Issaquah Valley Trolley

See also

• Heritage streetcar
• Streetcars in North America