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 a cool place where you can see and learn about old streetcars and trolleys! It's the biggest museum of its kind in the Pacific Northwest part of the United States. This museum is run by the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society. You can find it in Brooks, Oregon, inside a bigger park called Powerland Heritage Park. This park used to be known as Antique Powerland.

History of the Museum

The old building for streetcars at the Glenwood museum in 1986.

The museum first opened its doors in Glenwood in 1959. Glenwood is about 40 miles (64 km) west of Portland. Streetcars started running there in 1963, and regular rides began in 1966.

This first museum was often called "the Trolley Park." It was built where an old steam logging railroad used to be. The museum group used an old sawmill building to store their streetcars. This building could hold four tracks of cars! The museum property was quite large, about 26 acres (10.5 hectares). Visitors could ride the trolley cars on a 1.7-mile (2.7 km) long track. The museum stopped operating at the Glenwood location in the fall of 1995.

What's Happening Now?

The streetcar storage building at the Brooks museum in 2016.

The museum you can visit today in Brooks opened in 1996. It has about one mile (1.6 km) of main track. This track has "overhead wire," which is how electric streetcars get their power. There's also a large building with four tracks to store all the different streetcars. These cars come from all over the world!

The museum is open from May through October. You can ride the trolleys on Saturdays during these months. The biggest event of the year is called the Steam-Up. This special event happens on the last weekend of July and the first weekend of August. Lots of people come to ride the trolley during these two weekends.

Amazing Collection of Streetcars

The Oregon Electric Railway Museum has many different types of streetcars, trolleys, and other electric vehicles. Here are some of the cool ones you can see:

Rolling stock at the Oregon Electric Railway Museum

No.	Image	Type	Made By	Built	Used By	Acquired	Fun Facts
503		Streetcar (Council Crest)	Brill	1904	Portland Railway, Light and Power Company		Car 503 was loaned to San Francisco a few times for a special trolley festival. Later, new streetcars for Portland were designed to look like cars 503 and 506.
506						1975
813		Streetcar ("Master Unit")		1932			This car was renumbered to 4012 after its wheels were changed to fit a different track size.
1067		Interurban	Milwaukie Shops	1907		1981	This was one of two cars given to the museum in 1981. The other one was taken apart.
48		Double-decker tram	Blackpool Tramway	1928	Blackpool Tramway	1964	This double-decker car used to run on a line in Portland. It was moved to the museum in 2006 and started running again in 2017.
1187		O-class tram	Meadowbank Manufacturing Company	1912	Sydney Tramways	1959	This car is used for most of the rides at the museum today.
210		Streetcar	CCFP Company Shops	1940	Companhia Carris de Ferro do Porto (CCFP)	2006	This car has only one set of wheels at each end. It was renumbered to 201 in 1994.
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							This car was first built for St. Louis Public Service as car #1726.
1213		US SLRV	Boeing-Vertol	1977		2000	This car was originally numbered 1221. It was one of two test cars that used a trolley pole.
12		Double-decker tram	Hong Kong Tramways	1952	Hong Kong Tramways	1999	This car was retired in 1985 and shown at a big exhibition called Expo 86.
1455		Snow sweeper	McGuire	1899	Portland Railway, Light and Power Company		This vehicle was used to clear snow from the tracks. It was retired in 1954.
21		Steeple-cab locomotive	General Electric	1912	Oregon Electric Railway	2017
254				1916	Great Falls Reduction Department		These locomotives were last used by a mining company called 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	This trolleybus was removed from the collection in 2018.
2411			CCF-Brill	1954	British Columbia Electric Railway	2002
19		Streetcar (work cars)	Les Tramways Bruxellois [fr]	1934	Brussels, Belgium	2015	These cars were moved to the museum in 2015. They were first built as passenger cars, then changed into work cars in the 1970s.
25
26
31
34
1247				1937
1048		Streetcar (passenger)		1937			This car was moved to the museum in 2015. It was sold in 1984 to a resort in Florida, where it carried guests.
2190		Trailer (passenger)		1931			This car was also moved to the museum in 2015. It has a similar history to car #1048.
7020		Streetcar (PCC)	La Brugeoise	1952			This car was retired from service in the 2000s.
96		Interurban		1930	Milan, Italy	2016	This car came from the Issaquah Valley Trolley.
101		Light rail vehicle (LRV)	Bombardier	1983	Portland TriMet MAX Light Rail	2025	This car was moved to the OERM on July 17, 2025.

More to Explore

• Heritage streetcar
• Streetcars in North America