SITE UPDATE: 7/19/2026 — Articles: 2,725 (+27 this week) Maps: 145 (—) Streetcar companies: 87 (—) Streetcar lines: 85 (—) Interurban lines: 24 (—) People: 10 (—) Rolling stock: 17 (—) Remnants/Removals: 74 (—) Main area of focus: Track paving/removal

As we all know, a majority of Portland's historic streetcar rail still exists just under the road surface all over town. But it almost wasn't that way! During WWII, a serious effort was begun to salvage most of that rail as scrap steel for the war effort. 🧵

As we all know, a majority of Portland's historic streetcar rail still exists just under the road surface all over town. But it almost wasn't that way! During WWII, a serious effort was begun to salvage most of that rail as scrap steel for the war effort. 🧵

SITE UPDATE: 7/12/2026 Articles: 2,698 (+21 this week) Maps: 145 (—) Streetcar companies: 87 (+1) Streetcar lines: 85 (—) Interurban lines: 24 (—) People: 10 (+1) Rolling stock: 17 (—) Remnants/Removals: 74 (—) Main area of focus: Alvadore Welch

A great photo of Car No. 602, a narrow-gauge pay-as-you enter car built by the American Car Co. of St. Louis, entering service in Portland in 1911. The location looks to be on Savier Street outside the PRL&P shops there, with shop men getting their picture taken with the car.

A great photo of Car No. 602, a narrow-gauge pay-as-you enter car built by the American Car Co. of St. Louis, entering service in Portland in 1911. The location looks to be on Savier Street outside the PRL&P shops there, with shop men getting their picture taken with the car.

We're starting to uncover some cobblestone. We know that there are old streetcar tracks down there, but we aren't removing them. We only grind down about 2-inches and then we'll add new asphalt on top.

PBOT is milling and resurfacing Killingsworth Street between Williams and Borthwick over the next couple of weeks. I wonder if they'll come across any historic streetcar track while they're at it? I might head down to take a look myself, but if anyone's in that area, let me know if you see anything!

Alvadore Welch is probably the single most influential man when it comes to electric traction in Oregon. Started the Oregon Electric. Held streetcar franchises in Eugene, Albany, Salem, Vancouver (and other WA towns). Started the Portland, Eugene & Eastern (which became the "Red Electrics").

Alvadore Welch is probably the single most influential man when it comes to electric traction in Oregon. Started the Oregon Electric. Held streetcar franchises in Eugene, Albany, Salem, Vancouver (and other WA towns). Started the Portland, Eugene & Eastern (which became the "Red Electrics").

SITE UPDATE: 7/5/2026 Articles: 2,677 (+44 this week) Maps: 145 (—) Streetcar companies: 86 (+2) Streetcar lines: 85 (—) Interurban lines: 24 (—) People: 9 (—) Rolling stock: 17 (—) Remnants/Removals: 74 (—) Main area of focus: Streetcars in Vancouver, WA

Yesterday, I set out to walk along the route of the Vancouver Heights streetcar line and on along the Sifton interurban line if possible. I only made it as far as Vancouver Mall in the end, but here's some thoughts and observations! (A thread, maybe with some video)

Just added some pre-1920 track in Vancouver (WA) to the research map: the original 1889 line up Main Street to the race track and the spur to the garrison on 10th; and a line along 22nd and F that was abandoned in 1919 when maintenance got too expensive. www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...

So, all the brush and blackberry has been cut back next to the Gresham-Fairview trail north of Division Street, revealing that the ties (but no track) for the old PRL&P Troutdale division are pretty much all still in place. No idea if removal of the ties is planned. 📸 Larry Nealey/Facebook.

Just added some pre-1920 track in Vancouver (WA) to the research map: the original 1889 line up Main Street to the race track and the spur to the garrison on 10th; and a line along 22nd and F that was abandoned in 1919 when maintenance got too expensive. www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...

So Dr. Waldo H. Coe (of the Crystal Springs Sanitarium/Morningside Hospital that we've previously mentioned here) apparently also tried to get a streetcar franchise in Vancouver in 1905 as the St. Helens Public Service Company! The council seems to have granted the franchise, but nothing got built.

Say WHAT? "The hiring of thin conductors has been suggested to the Oregon–Washington Corp. The streetcars here are not pay-as-you-enter, and the conductors are compelled to go through the aisles to collect fares. If the conductors are thin they will not jostle the passengers as much as fat men."

Here's another Vancouver, WA streetcar photo – an Orchards–Sifton interurban car crossing the 860-feet-long Burnt Bridge Creek trestle, c. 1923. I believe this is an outbound car on the eastern end of the bridge where Nicholson Road (which follows the old ROW) begins.

Photos of the small Vancouver streetcar system are harder to come by than Portland, but here's one from the Vancouver Traction Company's first day of operation on September 26, 1908. The banner optimistically claims the start of 100 miles of road in Clark County (less than 20 were constructed).

Apart from buried track, some streetcar-sized corners and roads and park paths following interurban ROW, very little remains of Vancouver's streetcars. EXCEPT for the 1908 car barn at 33rd/St. Johns Blvd, hiding under the ugly cladding of a car collision center. Here it is on a 1959 aerial photo.

The City of Vancouver is currently resurfacing Main Street in the downtown area. Guess what? They found streetcar track, buried for almost 100 years. When the streetcar failed in 1926, track on asphalt roads was paved over, but track on gravel roads and private ROW was removed entirely.

Photos of the small Vancouver streetcar system are harder to come by than Portland, but here's one from the Vancouver Traction Company's first day of operation on September 26, 1908. The banner optimistically claims the start of 100 miles of road in Clark County (less than 20 were constructed).

SITE UPDATE: 6/28/2026 (Been a while, sorry!) — Articles: 2,633 (+266 since 3/15/26) Maps: 145 (+2) Streetcar companies: 84 (+12) Streetcar lines: 85 (+5) Interurban lines: 24 (+1) People: 9 (—) Rolling stock: 17 (—) Remnants/removals: 74 (—) Main area of focus: Streetcars in Vancouver, WA

SITE UPDATE: 6/28/2026 (Been a while, sorry!) — Articles: 2,633 (+266 since 3/15/26) Maps: 145 (+2) Streetcar companies: 84 (+12) Streetcar lines: 85 (+5) Interurban lines: 24 (+1) People: 9 (—) Rolling stock: 17 (—) Remnants/removals: 74 (—) Main area of focus: Streetcars in Vancouver, WA

In November 1926, Vancouver, Washington's ailing streetcar system shut down and was replaced by buses. It probably says a lot about the dire state of affairs that a "fleet" of just three 21-passenger Studebaker buses promised a "greatly increased service for residents here."

Thoughts on a trend I'm seeing a lot on streetcar-related Facebook groups: someone posts an old photo of a streetcar, and then someone else uses AI to add color to it. It seems harmless, until you realize some wider implications. (A thread)

Thoughts on a trend I'm seeing a lot on streetcar-related Facebook groups: someone posts an old photo of a streetcar, and then someone else uses AI to add color to it. It seems harmless, until you realize some wider implications. (A thread)

It's... BEAUTIFUL. This restoration has been a long time coming, but it seems to have been so worth it. That green tile on the inside walls is just perfect (see the photo below of the interior when the depot first opened in 1912).

Having talked about the Interstate Bridge and streetcars so much lately, it seems like the time is right to expand the scope of the wiki north of the river and add articles about Vancouver's little streetcar system as well. Stay tuned!

Continuing the saga of getting streetcar service across the Interstate Bridge, there was drama at the northern end in Vancouver as well. PRL&P wanted to loop track around their electrical substation at the northern end of the bridge (which is still there) because it was cheap to do do so. BUT!

The jitney crisis of 1916 also had a major impact on another aspect of streetcars in Portland – the new Interstate Bridge project. The original plan called for double-track from the bridge all the way down the proposed Union Avenue approach to Columbia Boulevard...

Disruptive unregulated alternative transportation almost killed off streetcars in Portland in 1916. Jitneys, the early 20th-century version of Uber or Lyft, were stealing so much business away from the traction company that they seriously doubted whether they'd last another five years.

Disruptive unregulated alternative transportation almost killed off streetcars in Portland in 1916. Jitneys, the early 20th-century version of Uber or Lyft, were stealing so much business away from the traction company that they seriously doubted whether they'd last another five years.

Interesting ridership comparisons: In 1914, PRL&P carried 94.0M passengers with a fleet of 534 streetcars on 305 miles of track (185 within the city limits). In 2025, TriMet carried 65.3M passengers with a fleet of ~1000 different vehicles (bus, rail, paratransit) with about 75 miles of track.

A full-page newspaper advertisement for the Portland Traction Company's freight services in 1956, two years before interurban passenger service ended. Note the unusual spelling of "Lenneman Junction" on the stylised map of the network – it's normally "Linneman."

Another first for me: this 1912 photo showing the Oregon Electric substation at Pirtle and the operators' cottage in relation to each other: the cottage was some way to the north. The cottage was noted as being in poor condition in a 1984 Linn County historic survey and is no longer extant.

The first photograph I've come across of the Oregon Electric's Moffatt substation on the Forest Grove branch. Unlike all the other OE substations, it was built of brick rather than concrete.

TriMet won't turn away anyone riding to or from a cooling center who cannot pay fare between 11 a.m. and 10 p.m. today, Monday, June 15. Please tell your bus operator that you're heading to or from a cooling center.

A full-page newspaper advertisement for the Portland Traction Company's freight services in 1956, two years before interurban passenger service ended. Note the unusual spelling of "Lenneman Junction" on the stylised map of the network – it's normally "Linneman."

Every so often, the idea of a tunnel under the Willamette for MAX trains comes up, but it's really nothing new. The idea of a tube under the river for electric rail goes back at least as far as 1906 when Y. L Keady and Thomas McCusker submitted such an ordinance to the city council for review.

Every so often, the idea of a tunnel under the Willamette for MAX trains comes up, but it's really nothing new. The idea of a tube under the river for electric rail goes back at least as far as 1906 when Y. L Keady and Thomas McCusker submitted such an ordinance to the city council for review.

Just when you think you've pretty much covered every streetcar line in town, both built and never-built, along comes another one! In 1913, the board of the Mount Scott Park cemetery tried to force the Portland Railway, Light & Power Co. to extend the Mount Scott line from Lents to the cemetery. 🧵

I just realized that there at at least two "streetcars posing in front of the boss's house" photographs showing B. S. Josselyn's imposing home at SE Belmont and 66th. This was originally the Massachusetts Building at the Lewis & Clark Fair, moved here to become a mental hospital in 1906.

Just when you think you've pretty much covered every streetcar line in town, both built and never-built, along comes another one! In 1913, the board of the Mount Scott Park cemetery tried to force the Portland Railway, Light & Power Co. to extend the Mount Scott line from Lents to the cemetery. 🧵

I just realized that there at at least two "streetcars posing in front of the boss's house" photographs showing B. S. Josselyn's imposing home at SE Belmont and 66th. This was originally the Massachusetts Building at the Lewis & Clark Fair, moved here to become a mental hospital in 1906.

At a State Utility Commission hearing on abandonment of passenger service in early 1933, precisely ONE person showed up to protest the line's passing.

Old Vancouver streetcar line right-of-way south of Marine Drive at Faloma. Of course, the track was on a trestle across empty slough back then, but the path is still apparent.

Old Vancouver streetcar line right-of-way south of Marine Drive at Faloma. Of course, the track was on a trestle across empty slough back then, but the path is still apparent.

Newspapers did a pretty good job of documenting when streetcar track was paved over, which happened in a series of programs from 1936 onwards as lines were abandoned. Here's a page on the site that collects articles related to the subject: pdx-streetcar-history.notion.site/Historical-T...

I think I've found the shortest span of time between track being abandoned and then paved over. On April 29, 1940 the Mississippi line's outer terminus was cut back to N Lombard and Interstate. The abandoned track to Kenton on Lombard and Denver was paved over on May 6, 1940, just a week later.