Passenger Trains > Uh, oh, there's a Snowflake in the forecast !!!

The local PDX media has been going crazy for nearly a week over the prospect of Portland getting some snow today.  Of course, if it happens, Amtrak President Anderson will surely have to annul trains 11, 14, 27, 28 and all Cascades service in the area since trains are no longer the all-weather mode of transportation.  President Anderson must have seen the comic strip at http://raesidecartoon.com/vault/winter-driving/ and decided it also applied to passenger trains.

Well, there's one railroad in Portland that doesn't think that a few snowflakes should stop passenger service.  Enjoy the 7½-minute ride (the view of which had to be truncated to the TO.com 6-minute limit) on the currently 2,608 foot route of passenger service on the Washington Park & Zoo Railway.

Amazingly there is still a faint glimmer of hope that service may be restored on the 1½ mile route down the 3½ percent grade to the International Rose Test Garden at Washington Park though the restoration is at least several years in the future.  If you have not already done so, please add your endorsement to that of currently 27,559 others on the petition at https://www.change.org/p/save-the-washington-park-and-zoo-railway.

EDIT:  The out-of-service 1½ mile line to Washington Park begins at the switch seen at 02:55 in the video.  The winter weather was affecting the operation of the crossing gates that day.  Other than an approach whistle to the zoo station made just prior to entering the tunnel, we are not allowed to whistle except in an emergency situation.

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Sounds like Amtrak assumed operation of the Zoo Railway. 
One car in the stainless train does not match - no fluted sides.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> Sounds like Amtrak assumed operation of the Zoo Railway. 
> One car in the stainless train does not match - no fluted sides.

To increase passenger capacity, that car was built later by the original builder of the train, Hirschberger ( https://bbhirschberger.com/ ), which is a local 118 year old firm.  Unfortunately, at the time the car was built the company discovered that they no longer had the dies used to produce the fluted siding used on the original passenger cars of the train which went into service on June 9, 1958, my late wife's 10th birthday.

Jim:  Thanks again for another special ride on the WP&Z.

John Bromley - Omaha