Dave Knows Portland

Construction Begins on New Home for Portland’s Locomotives

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Oregon Enginehouse and Rail Heritage CenterThe locomotives of Portland will soon have a new home.

Dignitaries including Portland Parks Commissioner Nick Fish, former Commissioner Mike Lindberg, and Congressman Earl Blumenauer were present this morning for the groundbreaking for the Oregon Enginehouse and Rail Heritage Center.

This new steel building will combine modern technology with traditional design elements in the 19,200 square foot Enginehouse. The Enginehouse will be the new home for Portland’s three heritage steam engines: the Southern Pacific 4449; the Spokane Portland and Seattle 700; and the Oregon Railway and Navigation 197. These machines were the engines that fueled the economy to make Portland what it is today.

The locomotives will have to be relocated before the planned 2012 expansion of the Union Pacific’s Brooklyn Yard, where the historic locomotives have been stored, out of public viewing, up until now. Volunteers with the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation have successfully raised over $4.5 million for the center’s construction. About a $1 million more is needed!

Opening in late summer 2012 across the street from OMSI, the new center will include a public viewing area, interpretive displays, and a gift shop. Future plan call for an expansion of the 2nd floor overlooking the shop and adding spurs that radiate from the historic Brooklyn turntable outside for displaying vintage cars.

Amtrak 40th Anniversary Exhibit Train Stops in Portland (October 29-30, 2011)

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Amtrak Exhibit Locomotive (photo credit: Mike Milburn)As part of Amtrak’s 40th Anniversary celebration the Amtrak Exhibit Train, a traveling display showcasing historic memorabilia, will make a stop at Portland’s Union Station on Saturday and Sunday, October 29 and 30, 2011.

The Exhibit Train showcases Amtrak history over the decades, displaying memorabilia such as vintage advertising, past menus and dinnerware, and period uniforms. The Exhibit Train will also include a train-themed kids’ activity area, Chuggington Depot, based on the popular television series on Disney Junior and designed for kids ages 2-7 and their families. In addition, commemorative 40th anniversary merchandise will be available for purchase onboard the train.

There will als be exhibits inside the station from railroad history and railroad safety groups, tourist destinations, and other local travel partners. The exhibit is open 10am to 4pm each day and is free and open to the public. This stop is the Exhibit Train’s only stop in Oregon.

October 20, 2006: Portland Streetcar Begins Service to South Waterfront

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Portland StreetcarThe modern Portland Streetcar that debuted in 2001 connected the Good Samaritan Hospital in Northwest Portland to the Portland State University campus in Southwest.

In 2005, the line was extended to Riverplace, and on Friday, October 20, 2006 the line finally reached the South Waterfront district (The Oregonian, 21 October 2006).

The Portland Streetcar launched service Friday into the South Waterfront district, complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and music to mark the line’s extension to Southwest Moody and Gibbs. Bela Balogh of the Meester and Meester Trio –part of the Portland group 3 Leg Torso –performs Friday with his partners during a charter ride of the extension, which stops adjacent to the Oregon Health & Science University’s Center for Health & Healing.

In 2007 an eight-block extension to Lowell Street was completed. Construction began on the Eastside Loop in 2010, with the first tracks being laid east of the Willamette on February 1st of that year.

October 15, 1912: Oregon Electric Railway Connects Portland and Eugene

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Rendering of future Eugene station (Morning Oregonian, 15 October 1912)

Eugene‘s citizens took great pleasure in welcoming the Oregon Electric Railway line from Portland on October 15, 1912 (Morning Oregonian, 15 October 1912).

Not since the Hill and Harriman forces invaded Central Oregon has there been a more important event than the opening of the Oregon Electric to Eugene . . . for it marks the passing in the Willamette Valley of the towns without competition in transportation facilities.

Though the A.E. Doyle designed Oregon Electric Station (now a restaurant) was still about two years from completion, a crowd of 25,000 strong greeted the first train.

The interurban line endured until 1933.

TriMet Launches New Site: What Makes This Place Great?

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What Makes This Place Great?TriMet has just launched a new site dedicated to the people, places and things that make our region unusually wonderful: What Makes This Place Great?

What Makes This Place Great is an online collection of stories about the people, places and things that make the Portland region wonderful. It’s sponsored by TriMet with the intent of celebrating and sharing all the things – big and little – that make us happy we live here.

So it’s kinda like the site TriMet Diaries [of which I am an editor] . . . but only the heartwarming stories, and not exclusively about transit. It’s also got elements of I Live Here: PDX.

Go check it out: What Makes This Place Great?