Vintage and Modern StreetcarsIn addition to its well-known MAX light rail system, Portland, Ore. has a smaller streetcar operation.
Portland Streetcar original line connects the city's Nob Hill and South Waterfront areas with a route that serves the central business district, the museum district, Portland State University, the Riverplace marina complex along the Willamette River and the growing South Waterfront.
Just before service began in July 2001, Car #004 was in the yard at the Marshall Street shops with Portland Vintage Trolley car #514. Gomaco Industries, an Iowa-based manufacturer of replica streetcars, built four cars for Vintage Trolley , which began operations in 1991 along a stretch of the city's MAX rail line through downtown Portland. They are replicas of the city's old "Council Crest" streetcars.
Test crews used #514 to test the new line as it was built. Regular service is provided by a fleet of Skoda Inekon streetcars from the Czech Republic. A unique spotting feature of the Portland Streetcar fleet is that the end and one side of each car are in different colors, so that they appear different coming and going.
The system has since expanded to include a route on the east bank of the Willamette River. The original portion of this line opened in September 2012, crossing the Broadway Bridge, and became a true "loop" with the September 2015 opening of the Tilikum Crossing transit bridge, which also carries TriMet MAX light rail trains.
Photographed by Thomas McCann, June 13, 2001.
Added to the photo archive by Thomas McCann, November 30, 2006.
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