Portland's rail nexus and the Oregon Rail Heritage Center

My time in Portland was not spent exclusively visiting garden railroads as I had other things to do, including a visit to the Oregon Rail Heritage Center which I’ve been to before but not in several years. While my intent was to view the trains and displays in the building, but when we arrived we learned that an excursion train was going to leave in 10 minutes so we decided to do that instead. It was one of those days when the weather was absolutely perfect for a train ride in an open car along the river.

A northbound MAX Orange Line train passing in front of the ORHC and across the OPR tracks.

The ORHC is right next to the OMSI/SE Water Station, which is served by the Portland Streetcar Loop line, the MAX Light Rail Orange Line and multiple bus lines, all of which converge here to cross over the Willamette River on the Tilikum Crossing, a beautiful cable-stayed bridge designed just for transit vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists that opened in 2015.

The Portland Streetcar and the MAX light rail share tracks over the bridge which means they also have to share a common overhead line voltage. Aside from this bridge and a single curve of track near downtown, the streetcar and light rail systems are completely separate, and are even owned by separate entities. The streetcars are able to run on MAX rails if needed to move a streetcar to a repair facility, but MAX trains cannot operate on the streetcar tracks due to the larger size and weight of the MAX trains.

This pictures shows a southbound Orange line train. We walked one way across the bridge, and then took the MAX back across.

There are actually four rail systems that happen to cross paths here. In addition to the modern streetcar and MAX lines are two railroads, a Union Pacific (UP) main line and the Oregon Pacific Railroad (OPR) which operates a shortline along the Willamette river from a junction with the UP just north of the ORHC to an industrial park about five miles south. The OPR is the operator of the train we rode on.

The OPR line is a remnant of what was once a vast network of electric trolley lines in the Portland area. This line was built in 1904 by the Oregon Water Power & Railway Company as an electric trolley line. They also started construction on the Oaks Amusement Park along the Willamette River that same year to spur traffic on this new trolley line. The line has had a very colorful history and changed hands multiple times, and it's amazing it is still carrying both passenger and freight traffic today, 115 years later. A detailed history of the line can be found on the OPR website.

The UP line, meanwhile, is the main line connecting Portland with California, and is used by long distance freights as well as Amtrak regional and long distance trains. Although the alignment has changed a bit over the last 150 years, this stretch of track by the ORHC was the first railroad in the Portland area (and the second in the state of Oregon), constructed in 1868–69 by the Oregon Central Rail Road Company. In the following years as construction continued south toward California it was reorganized as the Oregon & California Rail Road Company. In 1887 it met up with the Southern Pacific Railroad which was building north from California. The Southern Pacific took control of the line in 1887 (and ownership in 1927) and operated it for 112 years until the merger with Union Pacific in 1996.

So we have a modern light rail line, a modern streetcar line, a 115-year-old former trolley line, and a 150-year-old section of a Class 1 main line all crossing paths at the same spot. I cannot imagine a more perfect location for a rail heritage museum.

The best way to visit a rail museum is by rail, of course. We arrived via this Portland Streetcar.

Here is another streetcar using a dedicated bridge to cross up and over the OPR and UP tracks.

Here's a view of the streetcar bridge from below. From left to right, it crosses a city street, three OPR tracks, two OHRC tracks, two UP tracks, and then one more city street. It's too bad the bridge design didn't include a pedestrian walkway.

The ORHC has various pieces of rolling stock stored on multiple tracks around the museum.

A view from the trip. For most of the distance it runs next to Springwater Corridor, a multiuse trail.

Just south of the museum is the Mt. Hood Brewing Co. restaurant with a wood-fired oven serving pizza and beer which can be enjoyed in an old passenger car. The windows are open, there's a light breeze, and the view is great.

A northbound MAX train crossing the OPR line, with the restaurant in the background.

Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of the train we rode on aside from this one from a distance. The locomotive, a restored GMD-1, was originally built for Canadian National in 1959. More information on the locomotive here. On the day we visited it was pulling two cabooses and an open air car with wooden benches.

An SD70AH leads a northbound train past the ORHC. We also saw a southbound Amtrak Cascades passing by while we were visiting.

There are four locomotives stored inside the ORHC building, including Oregon Railway & Navigation 197, a 4-6-2 Pacific built in 1905 (a year after the OPR's line was built). It was retired in the 1950s but was saved from the scrap heap, instead being put on static display near Oaks Amusement Park for many years before a group of volunteers began restoring it.

It's the end of the train! Former Northern Pacific caboose 1735, likely built in 1921. Now serving beer and looking pretty in a new coat of red paint.