First Through the TunnelTriMet MAX Type 2 #206 became the first light rail car to travel through the West Hills tunnel in the run-up to the opening of the Westside MAX line in 1997.
A trackmobile pulled the car into downtown Portland, since the tunnel did not yet have its overhead catenary installed. The cars had been delivered by rail to an unloading ramp on the Willamette & Pacific spur from St. Marys in Beaverton.
A Type 1 car took the 206 out to the Ruby Junction shops in Gresham. It was one of 12 Type 2 cars that entered service in August 1997, the first low-floor light rail cars used in North America.
Photographed by Thomas McCann, May 27, 1997.
Added to the photo archive by Thomas McCann, May 6, 2010.
» Contact the person who posted this photograph.