At about 6:40 this morning the first made-in-USA modern streetcar in a half century was being lined up on the wash track at the Portland Streetcar maintenance facility, and was being positioned under a portable crane for unloading!
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More photos after the jump…
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Gee, Chris, you took those pictures with some stealth, I didn’t see you there.
I have full video of the event which I’ll be trimming down and posting later today.
I love the BOB R vids!
Bravo Chris! I still think that when the orders pour in from around the country for streetcars, United Streetcar will want to take another look at the Western Star truck plant here on Swan Island…available June 2010.
I wish there’d been an announcement about this beforehand :-/ I’d have loved to see it come off the truck.
orders pour in from around the country
I don’t know about “pour”, but I do understand that Tucson is getting close to what is expected to be an order.
Not just Tucson, but I’ve heard Cincinnati and Columbus have mentioned OIW as their potential supplier if their streetcar plans pan out.
San Diego has talked about a streetcar connecting uptown to downtown on 4th and 5th Ave’s for decades. A friend down there mentioned OIW was mentioned fairly recently as a possible USA-based supplier that could help them get federal funding, as well as can handle the 4.5-7% grades on those streets. Since the 90’s San Diego has talked about returning streetcars to 4th and 5th, as well as El Cajon/Washington and University heading to the east. OIW may get to play a part in making that possible.
An urban planning/architect friend in the Bay Area mentioned he had heard of them for an East Bay development as well, so OIW may end up with more business than we might expect. I wish them the best, those cars look awesome!
How does the capacity of the current shop and yards under 405 compare with the number of vehicles planned to run on the loop? At what point will an additional yard be necessary?
The existing facility can handle several more vehicles, at least enough to serve the entire loop around the Central City, so we’re good through 2015 at least.
The real winner today, from a marketing perspective, was PortlandShrinkWrap.com