# Oregon Electric Railway Museum

The Oregon Electric Railway Museum is the largest streetcar/trolley museum in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. 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 (formerly known as Antique Powerland).

## History

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 and regular operation in 1966. It was named Glenwood Electric Railway "Trolley Park" 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, and OERHS re-equipped the former sawmill building of the Consolidated Timber Company as a four-track carbarn. The museum property occupied about 26 acres (11 ha), and trolley cars were able to operate on a 1.7-mile (2.7 km) line.
Operation at the Glenwood site ended in autumn 1995.

### Current operations

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 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

Rolling stock at the Oregon Electric Railway Museum :
| No. | Type | Mfr. | Built | Service | Acquired | Notes | Refs. |
| 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, and again in 1985, for operation in the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival, predecessor of the F Market & Wharves heritage streetcar line. 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. Four faux-vintage Council Crest cars were eventually built by the Gomaco Trolley Company. | $^{:34&110}$ |
| 506 | Streetcar (Council Crest) | Brill | 1904 | Portland Railway, Light and Power Company | 1975 | One of the two Portland "Council Crest" Brill cars, No. 503, was loaned to San Francisco in 1983, and again in 1985, for operation in the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival, predecessor of the F Market & Wharves heritage streetcar line. 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. Four faux-vintage Council Crest cars were eventually built by the Gomaco Trolley Company. | $^{:34&110}$ |
| 813 | Streetcar ("Master Unit") | Brill | 1932 | Portland Railway, Light and Power Company | | Renumbered to 4012 after regauging from narrow to standard gauge for Portland-Oregon City interurban line in 1949–50. | |
| 1067 | Interurban | Milwaukie Shops | 1907 | Portland Railway, Light and Power Company | 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 1187 | O-class tram | Meadowbank Manufacturing Company | 1912 | Sydney Tramways | 1959 | Provides most of current revenue operations. | |
| 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. | |
| 74 | Streetcar (Birney) | American Car Company | 1919 | Fresno Traction Company | | | |
| 326 | Streetcar (Birney) | | | Tacoma Railway and Power Company | | | |
| 1318 | Streetcar | St. Louis Car Company | 1923 | Los Angeles Railway | | | |
| 1118 | Streetcar (PCC) | St. Louis Car Company | 1946 | San Francisco Muni | | | |
| 1159 | Streetcar (PCC) | St. Louis Car Company | 1946 | San Francisco Muni | | Originally built for St. Louis Public Service as car #1726. | |
| 1213 | US SLRV | Boeing-Vertol | 1977 | San Francisco Muni | 2000 | Originally numbered 1221, one of two prototypes to operate with a trolley pole; later fitted with a pantograph and renumbered to 1213. | |
| 12 | Double-decker tram | Hong Kong Tramways | 1952 | Hong Kong Tramways | 1999 | Retired in 1985 and exhibited at Expo 86 in Vancouver, BC. | |
| 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. | $^{:97}$ |
| 21 | Steeple-cab locomotive | General Electric | 1912 | Oregon Electric Railway | 2017 | | |
| 254 | Steeple-cab locomotive | General Electric | 1916 | Great Falls Reduction Department | | Last used by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company | |
| 351 | Steeple-cab locomotive | General Electric | 1903 | Missoula Street Railway | | Last used by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company | |
| 401 | Steeple-cab locomotive | Baldwin-Westinghouse | 1912 | Timber Butte Milling Company | | Last used by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company | |
| 604 | Trolleybus | Twin Coach | 1940 | Seattle Metro | c. 1970s | | |
| 648 | Trolleybus | Pullman-Standard | 1944 | Seattle Metro | 2000 | Removed from collection in 2018. | |
| 2411 | Trolleybus | CCF-Brill | 1954 | British Columbia Electric Railway | 2002 | | |
| 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. | |
| 25 | 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. | |
| 26 | 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. | |
| 31 | 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 | 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. | |
| 1247 | Streetcar (work cars) | Les Tramways Bruxellois [fr] | 1937 | 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. | |
| 1048 | Streetcar (passenger) | | 1937 | Brussels, Belgium | 2015 | 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) streetcar line closed in the mid-1990s, 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. | |
| 2190 | Trailer (passenger) | | 1931 | Brussels, Belgium | 2015 | Moved to the museum from storage in Port Mellon, British Columbia in 2015. History similar to # 1048. | |
| 7020 | Streetcar (PCC) | La Brugeoise | 1952 | Brussels, Belgium | 2015 | Retired in the 2000s. | |
| 96 | Interurban | | 1930 | Milan, Italy | 2016 | Acquired from Issaquah Valley Trolley | |