New Book Explores Portland’s Railway

Nov. 20, 2012 - PRLog -- New to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of Rail series is Portland’s Interurban Railway by local author Richard Thompson. This pictorial history boasts more than 200 vintage images and provides readers with a unique opportunity to reconnect with the history that shaped their community.

At the end of the 19th century, Portland led the nation in the development of interurban electric railways. The city became the hub of an electric rail network that spread throughout the Willamette Valley. This is the story of the pioneering local railways that started it all as they built south along the Willamette River to Oregon City and east to Estacada and Bull Run in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

Hundreds of historical images illustrate Portland’s Interurban Railway from its rudimentary beginnings through the peak years, when passengers rode aboard the finest examples of the car builders’ art to the sudden end in 1958.

Highlights of Portland’s Interurban Railway include:
•   Steam Interurbans: The Dummy Lines
•   The First True Interurban: The Oregon City Line
•   The Longest Run: The Estacada Line
•   Branching Out: The Bull Run and Troutdale Lines
•   Save Our Streetcars: The Last Lines

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.