This section of track is one of only two intact track segments along the right-of-way of the old Troutdale, Ore. branch of the Portland Railway Light & Power Co., and it is about to disappear as the old ROW becomes a recreational trail.

The two sections are just north of Division Street in Gresham, Ore. and total about a quarter-mile of track. The branch was built in 1907 and served as an interurban connection between Troutdale and Linneman Junction, where it joined the Cazadero (Springwater) Line between Portland and Estacada.

The last service along this line was in 1985 when East Portland Traction delivered TriMet's first light rail cars to the Ruby Junction shops, which occupy a section of the ROW north of this segment.

Since then, the rails and ties disappeared under 25 years of dirt and blackberry vines until trail construction crews uncovered them. The crews were unbolting rail joints and pulling spikes out of crossties as they prepared to haul away yet another remnant of the Portland area's interurban past.

By the end of the year, the new Gresham-Fairview Trail was opened on the old ROW from Halsey Street in Fairview to the old Linneman Junction site in Gresham, where it ties in with the Springwater Trail, built along the old Cazadero Line ROW after it was abandoned in the early 1990s.

Photographed by Thomas McCann, August 24, 2010.
Added to the photo archive by Thomas McCann, August 26, 2010.

Thomas McCann's awards:

» Contact the person who posted this photograph.