When TriMet's new MAX Orange Line between Portland and Milwaukie opens this September, its route may seem a bit familiar to some long-time Portland-area residents.
That's because some of it will run parallel to the right-of-way that was once followed by the area's first -- and last -- interurban line, which started business as part of the East Side Railway Company in 1893.
The interurban line was built in sections and eventually ran 16 miles. It is generally believed to have been the first "long-distance interurban service" in the region, according to the book "Fares, Please," a history of the area's streetcar and interurban systems.
According to PDXHistory.com, the line -- later known as the Oregon City Division of the Portland Railway Light & Power Company -- was the first using hydropower for its electricity.
Though ownership of the line changed several times over the years, and the route was altered at least once, the Portland-Oregon City line also has the distinction of being the longest operating such passenger line in the area. It carried passengers for 65 years.
Interurbans were somewhat like streetcars, but instead of carrying passengers around a city, they carried people between cities, much as MAX does today. At one time, interurbans ran from Portland to Vancouver, Gresham, Beaverton and Hillsboro; even to Corvallis and to Eugene.
The interurbans were extremely popular from the late 19th century until the 1920s. They were faster and cleaner than travel by horses and wagons and more dependable than early automobiles.
In the years following World War I, both automobiles and highways had improved to the point that the interurban lines began to fall from favor. Most were pretty much out of the passenger business as early as 1930, though some of the lines continued carrying freight into the 1980s.
But the line between Oregon City and Portland kept a commuter following decades longer than most. It continued to operate until the last passengers rode the train on Jan. 25, 1958.
In many places, the original East Side interurban route and new MAX route appear to be separated from each other by a dozen blocks or so. There are a couple of stretches where they essentially follow the same path, such as near Kellogg Lake on the south edge of Milwaukie.
In addition, the Orange Line will serve some of the same communities and neighborhoods served by the East Side line: Oak Grove, Milwaukie, Sellwood-Moreland and the Brooklyn neighborhoods, for example.
But TriMet's new "interurban," which will terminate in Oak Grove, won't go anywhere near as far south as the old line did.
After throwing the switch in 1893, it first ran south from Portland to Sellwood and eventually added Milwaukie and finally Oregon City to the route. For a time, it even went as far as Canemah Park, southwest of Oregon City.
Along the way, it crossed another interurban line heading to Gresham and Estacada at Golf Junction. That line's right of way is now used by the Springwater Trail.
The junction, where car barns stood until replaced by condos in the 1990s, was roughly where Southeast 13th Avenue now passes from Sellwood into the Garthwick neighborhood.
After passing through the junction heading south, the Oregon City line would have cried "fore" as it made its way through the middle of Waverley Country Club, which opened in 1896.
From there, the line continued south along U.S. 99E near Kellogg Lake for a time - a stretch where the new Orange Line will also run - before turning back to the south/southwest at Park Avenue and traveling along what is now known as as the "Trolley Trail," a bicycle/pedestrian greenway that opened along the old right-of-way a few years back.
That stretch passed through Oak Grove, Jennings Lodge and crosses McLoughlin Boulevard diagonally at Southeast Jennings Avenue, just north of Gladstone. Once in Gladstone, the old right-of-way has again been turned into a bike/pedestrian path that runs along Southeast Abernethy Lane.
It then merges with Portland Avenue near Gladstone High School and at the south end of Gladstone, the old commuter train used to cross the Clackamas River on the bridge that collapsed during high water in March of 2014.
From there, it traveled to Oregon City.
Evidence of the old line still exists in several places. One remnant is at Golf Junction, where Southeast 13th Avenue crosses over the still-used Oregon Pacific tracks and into the Garthwick neighborhood.
There you can still find a short stretch of north-south rails only about 30 feet long, surrounded by a low fence made of a single chain. Those tracks are a few feet from a short rail siding that comes off the Oregon Pacific tracks. That siding has been occupied by an home to an old passenger car - which appears to be under restoration -- for the past few years.
The tracks end at that point, but the route of the old right of way onto the golf course can be traced by eyeballing the power lines above as they head south. They show where the tracks once split the eastern portion of the course from the western portion.
Another bit of evidence is along the southeastern border of Waverley Country Club. A stretch of right-of-way is easily spotted through the trees that border the north/south stretch of Waverley Drive as it heads to the clubhouse.
And then there's the tiny stretch of rail that, for the time being, can be seen further north in Portland's Brooklyn Neighborhood, along Southeast Milwaukie Avenue.
Right where Milwaukie intersects with Southeast Bush, enough pavement has been worn away to expose a stretch of rail and some of the Belgian bricks, or blocks, that were commonly use to pave streets in early day Portland.
This stretch was apparently part of the interurban line until about 1904, when the interurbans switched over to the route that now runs through Oaks Bottom. Afterward, the track along Milwaukie remained in use by the city's streetcar system, until streetcars fell from favor.
It's likely the remnant of old rail will soon be paved over or removed. But for the moment, it's a reminder of a time when people who lived in Portland and its neighboring cities moved at a different pace.
-- John Killen
503-221-8538; @johnkillen
Sources: Oregon Encyclopedia, PDXhistory.com, "Fares Please," by John T. Labbe, Portland Archives and Records Center, Milwaukie Historical Society, Oregon Historical Society.