Passenger Trains > .

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/21 16:37 by F40PHR231.

Thanks for the good work. Another system to ride! Portland is hard at work building what might ultimately be the finest transit system in the country.

Geez Chris.. Didn't even know that they were testing today.. You were only a block away from my work!!

Sweet pictures!!!


Zachary H. - SP8100

Regarding image 21 - Are Portland streetcar and MAX overhead separated? Do they use the same voltage? It's been toooo long since I was able to get to Portland!!

steeplecab

I visited Portland in June 2010 and recall the initial construction being done on the bridge next to Union Station for the extension. Good to see the progress that has been made! Thanks for the extensive coverage and great pictures!

-UPsac

Great coverage. Wow! 7 month wait!!

When I was stationed in Oregon in 1943 the BW-Broadway streetcars had already moved from the Broadway Bridge to the Steel Bridge. This means that streetcar restoration on that bridge comes about 70 years later!!!

VERY nice bunch of photos Chris...while the streetcar is "cute" the cost and traffic congestion it's gonna cause isn't worth it in my opinion.

Shot of the OPR yard and ORHF facility shows the forms being built for the massive concrete grade beams to support the two tracks inside the building on steel piling.

OPR yard rebuild will begin mid-March...everything outside the fenced compound where the Holiday Express train is stored will be replaced by our new yard scheduled for completion in May.

Passenger cars will move to ORHF facility and the four green office cars currently on the south end of yard will move to the area where the HE cars are now.

Dick Samuels
Oregon Pacific Railroad



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/12 07:25 by EMDSW-1.

If I may be so brash and open in my comments, those rail units are the ugliest design for Light Rail vehicles I have ever seen.

Jim

The yellow one looks like a school trolley

The bridge overhead looks interesting. Solid vs wire. Got any closeups of that especially at the break points?

Thanks for the great pictures, especially the one with the "Go by Train". The yellow certainly seems bright but it might be an advantage when Portland has rainy ,foggy weather.

Excellent report.

Very well done Chris. I had no idea that testing was to begin....sure glad you are "connected". Any info
on how the manufacturing of the new cars is going? The last I heard, and it has been many months, was that
the rail might be ready well before the new cars are completed. Thanks Chris. Arlen

asheldrake Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Any info on how the manufacturing of the new cars is going?
> The last I heard, and it has been many months, was that
> the rail might be ready well before the new cars
> are completed.


If the vehicles were here and broken in already, the route would've been set to open in March. Due to propulsion problems and increased costs by changing to a different (and likely more reliable) propulsion manufacturer, construction of all the new vehicles was delayed, and the increased costs caused the reduction of the fleet being constructed by one vehicle. Streetcar #15 was sent back to Oregon Iron Works because the propulsion system had too many problems, it should return sometime this spring to undergo more tests before entering service.

I really can't help but wonder what's with that complicated overhead cantenary on Broadway bridge?? Surely, 70 years ago, they just strung a wire, and it worked fine, right? So what all this complicated, expensive construction with all kinds of bolts and connector rods and channel steel and who knows what else???? Isn't LIGHT RAIL supposed to be CHEAP to build?? That's supposed to be the premise.

coach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I really can't help but wonder what's with that
> complicated overhead cantenary on Broadway
> bridge?? Surely, 70 years ago, they just strung a
> wire, and it worked fine, right? So what all this
> complicated, expensive construction with all kinds
> of bolts and connector rods and channel steel and
> who knows what else???? Isn't LIGHT RAIL supposed
> to be CHEAP to build?? That's supposed to be the
> premise.

Hoo boy, someone has been selling you some Washington D.C. Cool-Aid about LRT being cheaper to build.

Streetcars, which are sort of "light rail light" are only less costly because the track structure and equipment is [moderately] less-expensive than regular light rail. Rail transit, while sexy and novel to most folks nowadays, is very costly to build and operate. Most cities that have built light or heavy rail in the last few decades have had to curtail bus services and raise fares a lot to accomodate the high operating costs associated with rail.

Does rail attract more ridership? Perhaps. Is it enough to offset the higher cost of running rail instead of buses? Not even slightly.

I don't know how Portland funds its transit system, but so far Tri-Met hasn't had to cut service and raise fares as much as most systems that have built rail. Perhaps the voters don't have much say in tax increases for transit. Out here in the midwest, we're lucky to have enough funding to put a few buses on the street every day and comply with all of the unfunded mandates that Congress, the FTA and the EPA require of us!

As always, thanks for posting the photos, Chris!

timecruncher

Didnt see you up there when wr left on #11 that day

Posted from Android

... drivers on this segment of Highway 99E aren't used to seeing a streetcar operating in the opposite direction of this one-way road.

It looks like northbound on a southbound street is only about one-half block (Google Earth) so it shouldn't be too inconvenient. But hope they have better street stop-line markings than shown in your #6!

Great pictures as usual, Chris. And I always look forward to your postings here on TO. Hope to see some also as the ORHF takes shape.