This is the first of an occasional series on where to go for train watching in the greater Portland Metropolitan Area. Wilsonville is a community about fifteen miles southwest of Portland. It is the south end of TriMet’s rail WES (Westside Express Service) route, and on the Portland and Western rail line between Albany and …
Essex, Montana. A flag stop on the Empire Builder’s trips back and forth on the northern transcon. Located fifty miles south of the Canadian border, and eight miles west of the Continental Divide at the Marais Pass, Essex is home to the Izaak Walton Inn. The inn is the epitome of what a great railroad …
The Oregon Rail Heritage Center introduces “ORHFlix,” volunteer-produced short videos of the rail experience found at the Center on SE Water Avenue in Portland, Oregon. The ORHFlix are found on YouTube. Currently there are four ORHFlix videos posted. They are What Makes A Steam Train Go, Holiday Express 2018, Welcome to the Center, and a …
In Memoriam Laurel Coryell Lyon May 1, 1950 – November 24, 2018 Full of warmth, invention, compassion, and wit, Laurel Lyon was a unique phenomenon. Laurel not only thought outside the box, she lived outside the box. World traveler, field trip maven, green thumb, imaginative cook, athlete, environmentalist, former hippie commune resident, she had a …
The Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation (ORHF) has acquired the last remaining historic element of the Brooklyn Yard, a 102’ railroad turntable. The turntable, built in 1924 by the American Bridge Company, was originally installed in 1925. Before Union Pacific demolished the Brooklyn Roundhouse in 2012, the company gave this turntable to the Oregon Rail Heritage …