Portland Leases last two Council Crest Replica Streetcars.

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3011

Quote:

Later this year, TriMet will send the last two of Portland’s four old-timey street trolleys to St. Louis. When it does, downtown Portland will lose a local icon and a little piece of its streetcar history. TriMet, which owns the streetcars, said in an era of cutbacks, it’s unavoidable. Critics say "you'll regret it."

The streetcars aren't actually vintage, being replicas built by Gomaco, but they're pretty faithful to the originals and look quite good. They got as close as they could while complying with the regs for new car construction.

The cars have run on a very infrequent basis the last few years. Apparently the powers that be at Tri-Met don't like them in the mix of regular streetcars. It's unfortunate, as the general public, especially tourists, love them!

They're giving St Louis a sweetheart deal, $80K for 10 years.

Quote:

Pending federal approval, TriMet will give St. Louis a 10-year lease on the two cars for $80,000. That city has been struggling to build a new old-fashioned streetcar loop to help revitalize one of its commercial districts.

Full story here:

http://www.kgw.com/news/Portland-vintag ... loses.html

kjohnson · **Posted:** Sun Mar 02, 2014 8:54 pm

Hi

Too bad for Portland. It will be interesting to see how it plays out in St Louis.

Mean while in San Francisco, there is a move to overhaul 16 PCC cars built in the late 1940's (and had been overhauled in the early 1990's) for a successful line there. Funding is lined up, potential vendors have been interviewed and a award should come in the next 4 to 6 weeks.

If there is the political will, and it helps to make sense, it can happen. Like anything else, if the political will is not there, it doesn't matter what sense it makes.

Stay dry

Karl J.

JimBoylan · **Posted:** Sun Mar 02, 2014 11:41 pm

What about the real Council Crest streetcar, which had run in San Francisco
for a while in the past, on different trucks? Where is it mouldering now?

Bob Davis · **Joined:** Sat Aug 28, 2004 3:25 am **Posts:** 1025

Portland Traction 503 is currently preserved at Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society's section of Antique Powerland in Brooks OR. As far as I know, it still has the Melbourne tram trucks (bogies) that it was fitted with to run on Muni's tracks back in the 1980 during the Summer Streetcar Festivals. It was originally 42" gauge. Portland 506 is also at OERHS, not sure what's underneath it.

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Mon Mar 03, 2014 11:06 am

Bob Davis wrote:

Portland Traction 503 is currently preserved at Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society's section of Antique Powerland in Brooks OR. As far as I know, it still has the Melbourne tram trucks (bogies) that it was fitted with to run on Muni's tracks back in the 1980 during the Summer Streetcar Festivals. It was originally 42" gauge. Portland 506 is also at OERHS, not sure what's underneath it.

506 still has its original Brill narrow gauge trucks, I believe.

The St. Louis project will be interesting, if built. They were originally going to use Milan Peter Witts, and a supporting group purchased two and placed them on display, one at each end of the proposed line. However, the plan calls for no loop at one end, so a double ended car is needed.

If Portland had 4 of these replicas, what happened to the other two?

o anderson · **Posted:** Fri Mar 07, 2014 10:46 am

The two cars being leased to St. Louis are TriMet cars, two other cars were transferred to the Portland Streetcar, and now are moved to the city of Lake Oswego (under lease?) to replace the historic cars from the group in Brooks, OR. I am forever confused about who actually runs the Lake Oswego operation, and why the equipment there seemed to be in poor shape.
Here is info about the move of one of the Portland Streetcar cars:
http://myplace.frontier.com/~trolley503/VTonWST.html
and other info:
http://vintagetrolleys.com/

I hope the Portland Vintage Trolley group at least has enough muster in it to run a fan trip over the system before the last of the cars get moved away. It looks like not too many transit systems in North America are maintaining a heritage fleet anymore, in times of hyper-austerity.