| Portland Vintage Trolley | |
|---|---|
 One of the replica Brill cars at the PSU Urban Center station in September 2009 | |
| Overview | |
| Status | Ceased operation |
| Owner | TriMet and Vintage Trolley, Inc. |
| Locale | Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
| Service | |
| Type | Heritage streetcar |
| System | MAX Light Rail of TriMet (1991–2014); also Portland Streetcar (2001–2005) |
| Operator(s) | TriMet |
| Rolling stock | 4 Gomaco-built 1903 Brill replicas |
| History | |
| Opened | November 29, 1991 |
| Closed | July 6, 2014 |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Electrification | Overhead lines, 750 V DC |
The Portland Vintage Trolley was a heritage streetcar service in Portland, Oregon, United States, that operated from 1991 to 2014. It operated on a portion of the MAX light rail system, and for a brief time also operated on the Portland Streetcar system, in downtown and nearby areas.[1] Service was provided with replicas of a type of Brill streetcar, nicknamed the "Council Crest" cars, which last served Portland in 1950.[2][3] The service was managed by Vintage Trolley Inc., a non-profit corporation, and the cars were owned and operated by TriMet, Portland's transit agency. For 18 of its 23 years, the service followed a 2.3-mile (3.7 km) section of what is now the MAX Blue Line, between Lloyd Center and the west end of downtown. In September 2009, the route was changed to a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) section of the MAX system, along the transit mall in downtown Portland, from Union Station to Portland State University (PSU).
Introduced in 1991, Vintage Trolley service operated on most weekends or at least most Sundays, from March through December, in all past years through 2010, and ran seven days a week from 1994 through 1999. However, starting in 2011 the service was heavily reduced, operating on just seven dates per year,[4][5] and it remained at that reduced level for its final four seasons. Rides were narrated by a conductor who identified historic points of interest along the way. After May 1994, rides were free, but donations were accepted.[6]
On December 22, 2013, the service operated for what was, at the time, scheduled to be the last time,[7] as a result of a decision by TriMet on December 11 to sell the two remaining Gomaco-built Brill-replica streetcars (511 and 512) to a group planning a streetcar line in St. Louis, Missouri.[8] Earlier in 2013, the other two Gomaco cars were transferred from Portland Vintage Trolley service to the Willamette Shore Trolley (WST) fleet,[9] although their entry into service there was delayed to 2014[10][11] (and one of the two cars was not moved to the WST line until 2014). However, after the transfer of streetcars 511 and 512 to St. Louis was delayed from spring to September 2014, TriMet scheduled two additional dates of Vintage Trolley service: May 25 and July 6, 2014,[12] and the latter was the final day of service.[13][14]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Kgw2014-03-02was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Mayer, James (November 30, 1991). "Clang, clang, clang went Portland's new trolleys". The Oregonian, p. B2.
- ^ Morgan, Steve (Spring 1992). "Portland's New/Old Trolleys". The New Electric Railway Journal. Free Congress Foundation. ISSN 1048-3845. Archived from the original on June 6, 2018. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
- ^ Tramways & Urban Transit, April 2011, p. 152. LRTA Publishing Ltd.
- ^ "Portland's Vintage Trolley". TriMet. 2013. Archived from the original on September 13, 2013. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
- ^ Korn, Peter (May 29, 2008). "Q & A with Neal Berlin and Bill Binns". Portland Tribune. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
- ^ Tramways & Urban Transit, February 2014, p. 92. UK: LRTA Publishing Ltd.
- ^ Bowen, Douglas John (December 13, 2013). "TriMet sells heritage trolleys to St. Louis". Railway Age. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
- ^ Hansen Murphey, Kara (March 28, 2013). "New trolley almost ready to roll in Lake Oswego". Lake Oswego Review. Archived from the original on December 21, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Willamette Shore Trolley's Facebook page, August 4, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
- ^ "Museum News". Tramways & Urban Transit. UK: Light Rail Transit Association. October 2014. p. 441. ISSN 1460-8324.
- ^ "Portland's Vintage Trolley". TriMet. 2014. Archived from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
- ^ "Vintage Trolley Has Ceased Operation". Portland Vintage Trolley website. September 2014. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
- ^ "Portland double-track is brought into use". Tramways & Urban Transit. LRTA Publishing. November 2014. p. 454.