Sunday, July 8, 2007

My historical MAX


Today is Sunday. That means that its the one day of the week when Portland brings out their antique MAX trolley and parades it around downtown. It's pretty fun actually. There's usually an old man in costume, on a microphone, talking about how Portland used to look. You can find more information about the MAX's far reaching past here at Trimet's website.

8 comments:

pusa said...

that seems pretty cool!!! are passengers allowed to ride the trolley?

Fabrizio Zanelli said...

I love this kind of old tramway and your photo too. The only problem was their noise but a part that they still are very nice

Anonymous said...

What a brilliant idea. I like this picture too because it reminds me that I used to see trolleys that looked just like this in the early 1940s in nearby Dayton, Ohio.

Brookville Daily Photo

Tara said...

That's a great trolley! Too bad it only comes out once a week.

Susan said...

This is a great photo! I love these daily city photos - so often I see something that I never would associate with the city in which the photo was taken... like this. Very cool.

Unknown said...

i also love this tradition of portland. and i only just this last sunday rode it. it was amazing. i enjoyed it immensely. as i do your pic.

writing_here said...

That's the Vintage Trolley, and that car is one of several cars (four or five total I think) made in the late 1980s at the cost of 1/2 million USD each as reproductions of the original Council Crest Trolley cars that went out of use in the 1950s.

While the cars are operated by MAX operators from TriMet they are owned by the Vintage Trolley non-profit. Bill Naito for whom Naito Parkway is named was instrumental in many things that make Portland great, one of which was the buying of the reproduction Vintage Trolley cars and their "return" to running the rails in Portland.

writing_here said...

Yes, Passengers are allowed and welcomed. Unless things have changed since late 06, the ride is free with cash donations gladly accepted.