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Port your comments, updates, and changes to TRAINS Magazine's Trackside Guide to Portland here! Here's one to start, from a November 4 post in Railroading forum: The Portland Trackside Guide in the December 2002 issue of Trains is excellent and very comprehensive. I would like to add some comments: 1. The map on pages 2-3 shows the P&W line over Cornelius Pass as being out of service. This line is actually used daily and has been since the P&W re-opened it in 1998. In addition to serving as the link between the Astoria District and the rest of the P&W system, it has also hosted several railfan trips, both steam (SP&S #700) and diesel. 2. On page 4, the description of the UP Kenton Line mentions that it is under Track Warrant control, but the notes underneath the small map indicate (correctly) that it is CTC. 3. As of late October 2002, the UP Brooklyn Sub is now two-main-track CTC from East Portland Junction to Willsburg Junction. UP performed the changeover Oct. 17-28. Also, as a result of the project, the crossovers from the Steel Bridge to the Graham Line were removed. Trains coming off the bridge can go to Albina yard on the north wye leg or south on the main Brooklyn Sub, but cannot go east on the Graham Line without reversing direction on the east and north legs of the wye. 4. Amtrak actually operates three, not four Cascades trains between Portland and Seattle. Two of these do operate to and from Eugene, Ore. Two other daily Cascades trains run north of Seattle: one to Vancouver, B.C. and one to Bellingham, Wash. Four Talgos in the Cascades color scheme cover the three trains south of Seattle and the Bellingham train, operating on a four-day cycle in which each Talgo covers every train and spends a night in the Talgo maintenance facility in Seattle before starting the cycle over again. A fifth Talgo set in the Pacific Surfliner scheme, originally planned for L.A.-Las Vegas service, covers the Seattle-Vancouver, B.C. train. 5. The East Portland Traction line through southeast Portland to Milwaukie is an interesting operation on its own. It is actually now part of the larger Oregon Pacific operation owned by the Samuels family, which includes a former SP branch from Canby (on the Brooklyn Sub south of Oregon City) to Molalla. The Oregon Pacific shops off Ochoco Street and McBrod Avenue in Milwaukie host an eclectic collection of motive power that rivals anything found in the late Ward Kimball's backyard. You are likely to find an ex-EPTC SW1 in orange, an ex-Alaska RR GP7u in OP red and white, an ex-SP GE 70-tonner in its original colors, an ex-GN NW5, an ex-SP yard slug from Eugene yard, and several other small diesels. 6. The large area map on pages 8-9 shows the TriMet MAX Red Line as having a loop at the Portland International Airport. This line actually terminates at a two-track, stub-end platform at the main terminal complex. 7. You can still travel the old Oregon Electric and SP Red Electric rights-of-way across the West Hills southwest of Portland. Barbur Boulevard and Bertha Boulevard follow the old SP alignment, while Interstate 5 and Multnomah Boulevard follow the old OE alignment. 8. In addition to the new MAX line through North Portland, plans are now underway to extend the Portland Stretcar from its present southern terminus to the RiverPlace marina complex. Future extensions could take this service all the way to Lake Oswego on the ex-SP Red Electric line now used for the seasonal Willamette Shore Trolley. The WST route also has operating wigwags at three grade crossings. Discussions are also underway to extend MAX into northern Clackamas County south of Portland. Trimet and local governments are looking at two different alignments: along the Interstate 205 corridor from Gateway Transit Center to Clackamas Town Center, and from downtown Portland to Milwaukie. 9. The old Brooklyn roundhouse, in addition to the locomotives mentioned on page 15, also has several others currently in residence: an ex-GN F7 in the road's classic orange and green; and an ex-SP&S FA1, the last one built, that most recently served as a push-pull cab on the Long Island RR. 10. As of October 2002, the P&W leased the BNSF, ex-Oregon Electric line from Salem to Eugene for 15 years. BNSF's daily local from Portland to Albany, Ore., which now uses the UP Brooklyn Sub to Salem, is likely to return to its old OE routing across Cornelius Pass (but now by way of Banks and P&W's ex-SP Tillamook branch line, since the old OE line south of Bowers Junction was removed to make way for MAX light rail between Beaverton and Hillsboro. 11. Several former Portland-area interurban lines are now rail trails. The Springwater Trail follows the old Cazadero Line right-of-way through southeast Portland to Gresham and Boring; an extension of this trail, paralleling the existing East Portland Traction line from Sellwood to downtown Portland is scheduled to open in 2003; the City of Gresham is working on a trail along the old Troutdale branch from a connection with the Springwater Trail at the site of the old Linneman Junctionstation; and a Milwaukie to Gladstone segment of the old East Side Railway right-of-way to Oregon City, the first interurban in the U.S. (1893), was recently purchased by Metro, the Portland-area regional government organization, for future improvements as the Trolley Trail linear park.
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