Number One Shot
I finally got lucky while having my Nikon on hand and of the dozen or so shots I took of 103 approaching my location here, this one is by far and away my favorite. With the retirement of 102 now official, only 103 and 116 remained in service with their original paint as of the time of this photograph. The bridge in the background is Murray Boulevard (originally 145th Avenue) and parts of the structure date back to this being a BN branch line.
On April 9, 1984, 103 was the first MAX light rail car ever delivered to TriMet, rolling off a specialized flatcar after having a ceremonial bottle of champagne smashed against one of its couplers. For the next year or so, 103 was TriMet's guinea pig and in addition to being paraded around and used for PR, it was also the first MAX car to ever run under its own power on the system. Although it's aged along with the rest of us and has seen its fair share of changes, to say that it's historic is an understatement.
On the other side of that historical coin, while 103 was having its finishing touches applied at Bombardier's plant in Barre, Vermont in 1983, this right-of-way was a Burlington Northern branch line that was slowly fading into obscurity. Once a very busy line, it was bypassed in 1984 as it sliced right through the middle of downtown Beaverton, albeit on a different path than MAX follows east of Cedar Hills Boulevard today. The 100-plus car long trains combined with 10 mph track speed and its diagonal path through the city center meant that traffic could be gridlocked for miles in virtually all directions when the freight trains rolled through. An agreement between BN and Southern Pacific allowed a connection between the two to be built and the low-speed trackage to be bypassed. The bypass still exists today as a dead end but as a result, is used only for occasional railcar storage. TriMet would purchase this right-of-way for the extension of the Blue Line to Hillsboro opening in 1998 although a short segment of freight trackage would remain near here to serve a General Motors parts warehouse. When GM went bankrupt in 2008, the parts warehouse closed and the final fragment of freight service through this area would finally be abandoned with rails being lifted not long after.
Number One Shot
I finally got lucky while having my Nikon on hand and of the dozen or so shots I took of 103 approaching my location here, this one is by far and away my favorite. With the retirement of 102 now official, only 103 and 116 remained in service with their original paint as of the time of this photograph. The bridge in the background is Murray Boulevard (originally 145th Avenue) and parts of the structure date back to this being a BN branch line.
On April 9, 1984, 103 was the first MAX light rail car ever delivered to TriMet, rolling off a specialized flatcar after having a ceremonial bottle of champagne smashed against one of its couplers. For the next year or so, 103 was TriMet's guinea pig and in addition to being paraded around and used for PR, it was also the first MAX car to ever run under its own power on the system. Although it's aged along with the rest of us and has seen its fair share of changes, to say that it's historic is an understatement.
On the other side of that historical coin, while 103 was having its finishing touches applied at Bombardier's plant in Barre, Vermont in 1983, this right-of-way was a Burlington Northern branch line that was slowly fading into obscurity. Once a very busy line, it was bypassed in 1984 as it sliced right through the middle of downtown Beaverton, albeit on a different path than MAX follows east of Cedar Hills Boulevard today. The 100-plus car long trains combined with 10 mph track speed and its diagonal path through the city center meant that traffic could be gridlocked for miles in virtually all directions when the freight trains rolled through. An agreement between BN and Southern Pacific allowed a connection between the two to be built and the low-speed trackage to be bypassed. The bypass still exists today as a dead end but as a result, is used only for occasional railcar storage. TriMet would purchase this right-of-way for the extension of the Blue Line to Hillsboro opening in 1998 although a short segment of freight trackage would remain near here to serve a General Motors parts warehouse. When GM went bankrupt in 2008, the parts warehouse closed and the final fragment of freight service through this area would finally be abandoned with rails being lifted not long after.