April 15, 2010 - Follow the Museum on Facebook

The Oregon Electric Railway Museum has entered the modern age with a Facebook fan page. Facebook is the large social networking website. By becoming a fan of the museum on Facebook, you will learn about special events or other quick information. Click the banner below to see the museum fan page.

February 20, 2010 - Museum Breaks Ground on new Interpretive Center

The Oregon Electric Railway Museum and the OERHS are proud to announce the start of construction for our new interpretive center. The building is patterned after a classic 2 level railroad station with an attached freight house. The build will house the museum ticket office, historic/interpretative exhibits, a library and caretakers quarters.

Funding for this project comes from the sale of BCE car #1304, donations, and volunteer labor. The OERHS is actively pursue additional grants and donations for full build out of this major project.

The building is located along the trolley right-of-way at Antique Powerland. It is located across the "street" from the Pacific Northwest Truck Museum, near where the trolley crosses the main street in Powerland. Stay tuned for further updates!

2009 NEWS

September 20, 2009 - Ride our Trolleys, get a pumpkin!

For two weekends in October, the trolleys will be operating at the museum to take passengers to our pumpkin patch. In addition there will by pumpkin coloring, model trolleys, miniature train rides an maybe even a steam tractor operating!  This is a great family event!

Dates: Oct 10/11,  Oct 17/18, Oct. 24/25 from 11am-4pm
Fee: $5 adults, 12 and under are free.

April 22, 2009 - BC 1304 Leaves Museum for Canada

Click on image to enlarge

On display in 2006

The "smoking" section, note the stick plates between the windows

The main, or "family" section of the car

Peeking outside of the carbarn.

Lined up with other cars

Banner noting the new home of the museum.

1304 on out "tail track"

Through agreements between the OERHS, Seashore Trolley  Museum and the Fraser Valley Heritage Railway of British Columbia, Canada, the large BC Electric Railway 1304 Interurban is returning to BC on Friday April 24th 2009.

1304 was last in Canada in 1955 before it was acquired and moved to Oregon. It has been part of the OERHS collection ever since. Upon return to Canada, the FVHRS will restore 1304 back to full operating condition to again operate in it home territory.

History of 1304

It was built and named the "Duke of Connaught" in honor of the Duke visiting Canada in 1911. It was a private elegant car. Soon after the Duke's visit, economics called for it to be converted into more typical commuter passenger car in 1912.

1304 ran on the Fraser Valley line between Vancouver and Chilliwack. It served the city streets of Vancouver and open country to the farming communities along the way to Chilliwack. It could obtain a top speed of 80mph! The car's motors can output 400 horsepower and it is able to Multiple-unit or MU with up to four cars.

Disaster struck in 1944. As the story goes, 1304 was the last car of a 3-car train. When the train pulled into a station along the line, someone yelled to the motorman that their "flat car" was on fire. The "flat car" was 1304, or what was left of it. The car was insured by Lloyds of London. The insurance carrier paid BCE to rebuild the car. It was re-built in 1946 in the New Westminster Shops. Thus giving it the title of the last wooden interurban built in North America. 

The car is built with two passenger sections, a smoking and non-smoking section. The smoking section is the smaller of the two. There are brass "strike" plates mounted between the windows. During its time, men were typically the only people in the smoking section making it sort of a men's club. Families typically sat in the non-smoking section. This was definitely a different time!

BCE slowly started abandoning the interurban service in 1950, the last interurban line was closed in 1958. Much of this RoW that 1304 used is gone, however, a good portion of Vancouver's Skytrain Expo line follows the original alignment of the BCE route. It shows that once a transit corridor, always a transit corridor.

1304 was sold for $1 and moved to Oregon in the mid-1950's. It has operated at our original museum in Glenwood, and has been part of revenue trains at our current museum in Brooks, and was stored inside our carbarn.

1304 will be missed by the museum, but look forward to seeing it restored and operational back on its home turf in Canada!

April 22, 2009 -- OERHS moving to new web host

The OERHS websites, including the Oregon Electric Railway Museum and the Willamette Shore Trolley are transitioning to a new web host. The website is in the middle of transferring pages to the new host, along with a different design. There may be some issues with links and missing pages. This should all be rectified by June 2009

NEWS ARCHIVE