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Oregon Electric Railway Museum

Museum in Brooks, Oregon, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Oregon Electric Railway Museum is the largest streetcar/trolley museum in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.[1] It is owned and operated by the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society and is located in Brooks, Oregon, on the grounds of Powerland Heritage Park.[2]

FormernameGlenwood Electric Railway "Trolley Park"
Established1959
LocationBrooks, Oregon, U.S.
Coordinates45.051677°N 122.979589°W / 45.051677; -122.979589
Quick facts Former name, Established ...
Oregon Electric Railway Museum
Sydney car 1187 (built 1912) at the museum
Former nameGlenwood Electric Railway "Trolley Park"
Established1959
LocationBrooks, Oregon, U.S.
Coordinates45.051677°N 122.979589°W / 45.051677; -122.979589
Websitemuseum.oregontrolley.com
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History

The carbarn at the old site (1959–1995), in Glenwood, known as the Trolley Park

The original museum opened in Glenwood, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Portland, in 1959, with the first operation of streetcars taking place in 1963[3][4] and regular operation in 1966.[5] It was named Glenwood Electric Railway "Trolley Park"[6] or, more commonly, the Trolley Park, but its formal name in later years was the same as that of the present museum. The Glenwood museum was built on the site of a former steam logging railroad,[3][7] and OERHS re-equipped the former sawmill building of the Consolidated Timber Company as a four-track carbarn.[4] The museum property occupied about 26 acres (11 ha),[8] and trolley cars were able to operate on a 1.7-mile (2.7 km) line.[7]

Operation at the Glenwood site ended in autumn 1995.[3]

Current operations

Carbarn at Brooks (2016)

The current museum opened in Brooks in 1996. The museum consists of about one mile of mainline track with overhead wire. There is a four-track carbarn to store part of the international collection of streetcars.

The museum is open from May through October with trolley operations on Saturdays. The big event of the year is the annual Steam-Up, held on the last weekend of July and the first weekend of August. Thousands of riders use the trolley during these two weekends.

Collection

More information No., Image ...
Rolling stock at the Oregon Electric Railway Museum
No.ImageTypeMfr.BuiltServiceAcquiredNotesRefs.
503 Streetcar (Council Crest) Brill 1904 Portland Railway, Light and Power Company One of the two Portland "Council Crest" Brill cars, No. 503, was loaned to San Francisco in 1983,[9] and again in 1985, for operation in the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival, predecessor of the F Market & Wharves heritage streetcar line.[10] In the late 1980s, Portland's transit agency, Tri-Met, used cars 503 and 506 as the models for new replica-vintage streetcars it was planning to purchase for use on the then-planned Portland Vintage Trolley service.[11] Four faux-vintage Council Crest cars were eventually built by the Gomaco Trolley Company.[11] [12][13][14]: 34 & 110 
506 1975
813 Streetcar ("Master Unit") 1932 Renumbered to 4012 after regauging from narrow to standard gauge for Portland-Oregon City interurban line in 1949–50. [1][15]
1067 Interurban Milwaukie Shops 1907 1981 One of two donated to museum in 1981; the other (#1065) was scrapped. Both had been stripped for use as cabins at Cannon Beach since 1946. [16]
48 Double-decker tram Blackpool Tramway 1928 Blackpool Tramway 1964 Double-decker 48 ran on the Willamette Shore Trolley line in Portland before it was retired in 2004 and moved to the museum in 2006. Returned to service in 2017. [4][17]
1187 O-class tram Meadowbank Manufacturing Company 1912 Sydney Tramways 1959 Provides most of current revenue operations. [1][18]
210 Streetcar CCFP Company Shops 1940 Companhia Carris de Ferro do Porto (CCFP) 2006 Single-truck car; renumbered to 201 in 1994, at time of retirement from service.[1] [19]
74 Streetcar (Birney) American Car Company 1919 Fresno Traction Company [20]
326 Tacoma Railway and Power Company [20]
1318 Streetcar St. Louis Car Company 1923 Los Angeles Railway [21]
1118 Streetcar (PCC) St. Louis Car Company 1946 San Francisco Muni [20]
1159 Originally built for St. Louis Public Service as car #1726. [22]
1213 US SLRV Boeing-Vertol 1977 2000 Originally numbered 1221, one of two prototypes to operate with a trolley pole; later fitted with a pantograph and renumbered to 1213. [1][23]
12 Double-decker tram Hong Kong Tramways 1952 Hong Kong Tramways 1999 Retired in 1985 and exhibited at Expo 86 in Vancouver, BC. [24]
1455 Snow sweeper McGuire 1899 Portland Railway, Light and Power Company Originally built for East Side Railway; transferred to Oregon Water Power and Railway in 1902, and renumbered to 102 at that time, then to 1455 by PRL&P in 1906. Retired in 1954. [14]: 97  [25]
21 Steeple-cab locomotive General Electric 1912 Oregon Electric Railway 2017 [26]
254 1916 Great Falls Reduction Department Last used by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company [27]
351 1903 Missoula Street Railway [28]
401 Baldwin-Westinghouse 1912 Timber Butte Milling Company [29]
604 Trolleybus Twin Coach 1940 Seattle Metro c. 1970s [30][31]
648 Pullman-Standard 1944 2000 Removed from collection in 2018.[31] [32]
2411 CCF-Brill 1954 British Columbia Electric Railway 2002 [33][31]
19 Streetcar (work cars) Les Tramways Bruxellois [fr] 1934 Brussels, Belgium 2015 Moved to the museum from storage in Port Mellon, British Columbia in 2015. Originally built as passenger cars and converted to work service in the 1970s. [34][35]
25 [36]
26 [37]
31 [38]
34 [39]
1247 1937 [40]
1048 Streetcar (passenger) 1937 Moved to the museum from storage in Port Mellon, British Columbia in 2015. Originally built as #1608. Retired in 1975, it was sold in 1984 to the Grand Cypress Resort, a then-new 930-acre (380 ha) resort near Orlando, Florida, where a streetcar line opened in 1985 to carry guests around the vast property. The 3.5-mile (5.6 km)[41] streetcar line closed in the mid-1990s,[34] and two of its cars were eventually moved to B.C. after being acquired by the owner of the other ex-Brussels streetcars now at OERM. [42]
2190 Trailer (passenger) 1931 Moved to the museum from storage in Port Mellon, British Columbia in 2015. History similar to # 1048. [43]
7020 Streetcar (PCC) La Brugeoise 1952 Retired in the 2000s. [1][44]
96 Interurban 1930 Milan, Italy 2016 Acquired from Issaquah Valley Trolley [45]
101 Light rail vehicle (LRV) Bombardier 1983 Portland TriMet MAX Light Rail 2025 Moved to the OERM on July 17, 2025. [46]
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