Nostalgia & History > Portland Traction Company Then & Now shots

We have a "then & now" photo page on our Oregon Pacific Railroad website and we've added a bunch more photos recently. Here's a few. The older photos were taken by OPR owner Richard Samuels of the predecessor railroad, Portland Traction Company and also Samuels Pacific Industries. The newer photos were taken by OPR volunteer Kevin Novak a few days ago.

Here's our Then & Now page if you want to see more....

http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/thenandnow.html

Photo 1: I think was taken sometime in the 1960s showing the No. 100 eastbound towards Boring at Linnemann Junction. The photographer, Richard Samuels, was standing on top of a boxcar that was set out on the spur that went to Ruby Jct and at one point went as far as the Bull Run Power Plant. The No. 100 is still owned and used by the OPR today. Do you think Richard ever dreamed at the time he was taking that photo that he would own the railroad and this very same locomotive decades later?

Photo 2: Taken by Kevin Novak shows the same view today with the same building in the background. The tracks were pulled up around 1990 and replaced with the Springwater bike trail.

Thanks for viewing.


Brian McCamish
Oregon Pacific Railroad
http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/12 02:47 by Brian894x4.

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Photo 1: I think was taken sometime in the 1970s by Richard Samuels, showing the No. 100 crossing Birdsdale Ave, westbound approaching Ruby Jct.

Photo 2: Taken by Kevin Novak shows the same view today. The Portland Traction Company tracks were replaced by Trimet Light Rail Max tracks.

Thanks for viewing.

Brian McCamish
Oregon Pacific Railroad
http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/

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Photo 1: I think was taken sometime in the 1980s by Richard Samuels showing what could be the No. 100 westbound on the Gresham Branch at Linnemann Junction.

Photo 2: Taken by Kevin Novak shows the same view today. The tracks were pulled up in the early 1990s and replaced with the Springwater Trail.

Thanks for viewing.

Brian McCamish
Oregon Pacific Railroad
http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/

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Photo 1: This photo was taken in Feb 1990 by Richard Samuels as he was preparing to scrap out the abandoned Boring Branch. The locomotive is a former SP GE 70 tonner owned by Richard that was renumbered to its original 5100 and repainted in SP colors and lettered for Samuels Pacific Industries. Richard would also form the East Portland Traction Company, which took over the remains of the Portland Traction Company a year later and now operates as the Oregon Pacific Railroad. This locomotive is still owned by the OPR and stored at the shops. Location of the photo is on SW Highland Drive Bridge near the intersection of W Powell Blvd and SE 182nd.

Photo 2: Taken by Kevin Novak shows the same view today. The tracks were pulled up and replaced with the Springwater Trail.

Thanks for viewing.

Brian McCamish
Oregon Pacific Railroad
http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/12 11:52 by Brian894x4.

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Well done. Very interesting.

KG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/12 06:13 by kgmontreal.

Really enjoy before and afters although the afters are usually a little depressing. Reality sometimes is.
JB

Love "then & nows". These are some of the best. The "now" photos are almost exactly from the same spot. Most are kinda close, but these are almost exact.

Very well done, capturing the angles and depth.

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

Always enjoy then and now shots. The Kansas City Star came out with a series of books called "Kansas City Then and Now". Its mostly business and residential scenes,but there are some railroad and railroad related type scenes as well.

Nice then and now . Hey remember when you saw an X sign at a crossing and slowed down to see if the train was coming and actually stopped and in a city or busy trackage crossing they had a manual gate and a person to stop the traffic. I liked it better that way. Im old

A photo I posted on the West board previously.

Sad to see little railroads disappear!

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

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Is #100 the unit that had trolley poles in its early days to activate grade crossing signals? (Pacific Electric had several that were so-equipped)

The Portland Traction Company had two SW1s (100 and 200) and both did have trolley poles attached. We have a few pics on our PTC history page...

http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/historyPTC.html

Plans are to eventually fabricate a trolley pole for the No. 100 to make it as original as possible. It otherwise already is pretty much as it rolled off the factory floor in , with some very minor differences. Trolley poles were removed after the trolley service was killed off and the lines came down in the late 1950s.

Photo 1 is a Don Ross Collection photo used by permission of the No. 100 in 1952. This engine was repainted and restored by Richard in the 1980s in it original colors and is due for another paint job, but is a great running engine still in use today on the same railroad it operated on since new.

Photo 2 is of the 200 at East Portland in 1956. This engine was sold off by the Portland Traction Company and is apparently still in use today, but in different colors.


Brian McCamish
Oregon Pacific Railroad
http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/

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Thanks for the photos of the SW-1's with trolley poles. I have a picture of a Baldwin VO-660 on the PE with a similar setup. As a boy, I thought that the locomotive drew power from the trolley wire when in electrified territory and only used the diesel engine where there was no wire. The slow RPM's of the Baldwin "mill" encouraged this line of thinking. It wasn't until the PE was long gone that I learned the truth.

You'd have thought as long as he was out there that he could have shot a local on the Estacada line (or however
you spell that).

rehunn Wrote:
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> You'd have thought as long as he was out there
> that he could have shot a local on the Estacada
> line (or however
> you spell that).

He has quite literally thousands of photos of the PTC and many other railroads going back to the 60s. This is just the tiniest of samplings. A bunch more on our PTC history page, but again only a sampling of the total...

http://www.oregonpacificrr.com/historyPTC.html

The line was cut back from Estacada to Boring, long before any of those photos were taken, though.

Brian McCamish
OPR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/12 16:10 by Brian894x4.

I was just a kid, like in the late fifties and walked a bunch of that line and even at point it hadn't seen
a train in years. Great shots, my Aunt lived in Milwaukie and my Uncle worked for the SP&S. Wish
I'd had a camera back then, am glad that Dick did.