Lost Oregon Streetcars - Paperback

by Richard M. Thompson (Author)

The streetcars that plied Oregon's small-town streets were every bit as diverse as those in Portland and their history even more fascinating. Learn of the devastating 1922 fire that scorched Astoria's plank road railways and put a halt to its once-thriving streetcar network. Muse over the tale of a beloved white horse named Old Charlie that proved more efficient at powering Albany's streetcars than the alternative steam locomotive. Laugh at the spectacle of university students being carted back to their dormitories on the Eleventh Street Line's special midnight drunk express trains. Take pride in the tiny town of Cherry Grove, which became the first in the West to embrace new battery technology. Local historian Richard Thompson celebrates the lost trolley lines that transported Oregon's people across the state for decades.

Author Biography

Richard Thompson is a native Oregonian whose family first settled in Linn County, Oregon, in the 1880s. A graduate of the University of Oregon, Thompson has been a trolley crew coordinator, librarian, historical museum director, archivist, college instructor and archaeological field worker. Now semi-retired, he works as a public historian, writer and consultant. Thompson is the author of six books on electric railway history and has appeared in several documentaries, including Streetcar City, produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting. He has also written more than a dozen entries for the online Oregon Encyclopedia. For nearly twenty years, Richard was an active volunteer for the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society, operating trolleys at its museum, as well as editing its newsletter and serving on the board of directors. He is also a past president of the Portland Chapter of the Victorian Society in America and a member of the Oregon Historical Society, the Light Rail Transit Association and the Market Street Railway.