Trolley Timeline

This is a horribly complicated subject that we a re still trying to parse out.

It's really not important to understand all the companies in order to know when and where the trolleys ran.

So this will be one of the last pages that we work out!! --JM

In reading about early trolley era, you are besieged with a plethora of company names. These companies competed for franchises to operate on city streets and to acquire rights of way on private properties. The refusal by any party could tank a proposed line. There was a continual series of buyout, mergers and finally a consolidation period which lasted untell the automobile dealt a death blow.

Here is a paragraph about these companies... The Oregon Electric, The Red Electric, The Metropolitan Railway Co, The Oregon & California (O&E), The Southern Pacific RR, bought Oregon Electric?

The trolley that ran to Fulton Park in 1890, and then extended to Greenwood Hills and Riverview in 1891, was the second electrified line in Oregon (second only to the Albina Line, just 6 months earlier) and the longest electrified line in what? Oregon? West of the Mississippi?

A Working Timeline for Portland—Fulton·Park—Cemeteries 'F' Line

This is a Work in Progress. We are working on a graphical representation of the timeline.

Jan 1 1890 Portland—Fulton·Park—Cemeteries Line inaugural run to Fulton Park.

May 1891 Portland—Fulton·Park—Cemeteries Line operational to River View Cemetery. A depot is built in River View.

1892 Consolidation of several trolley companies...

1897 Changed gauge throughout the 'system' to match..

1898 August 1, the outer end of the Fulton line serving the cemeteries still remained standard gauge, which necessitated a transfer to complete the trip.

1899 Dec 21, 1899 - [Labbe,p93] Portland Traction Company [?] was granted a franchise for a new line out Corbett Street to River View Cemetery, designed to replace the old line on the hill. See River View Cemetery Line below.

1900 August, the remnants of the standard gauge line of the old Metropolitan were being dismantled, and two months later the new Fulton Park extension had been completed. [Labbe,p93] (Meaning what, exactly!? — JM)

This is all confusing, because when the Fulton Park line was first built - it used a different gauge than what was adopted 'system wide' a few years later. So, it first operated on one gauge, and for a while, half new and half old! (The transfer was made at Abernathy. ?) It seems the F line may have been cut altogether rather than completing the conversion. Any service to River View Cemetery via Greenwood Hills was switched to the new lower N-S line. See N-S Line page.

Time line of Construction

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Time Line of Companies

METROPOLITAN RAILWAY OWNERSHIP/NAMES
18__ Metropolitan Railway
1892 Multnomah Street Railway
1892 Portland Consolidated Street Railway Co. (acquired Metro, Multnomah, Vancouver, Portland Traction)
1896 Portland Consolidated Railway Co.
1897 City & Suburban Railway Co. (dismantled Fulton powerhouse)
1900 Portland Traction Co. of California

Consolidation of trolley companies (timeline)

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