A Type 1 interurban car, still grinding out the miles 40(?) years after delivery
Tri-Met has been champing at the bit to get rid of these old warhorses for about 5 years now, and it looks like with the latest order of S70s they might actually get away with it. #116 is, at least according to the net of a billion lies, one of the last three cars in OG Tri-Met paint, and it might be one of the cars that didn’t go through the rebuild program a decade ago?
It’s possible that either (a) ridership will go up or (b) Tri-Met will get the money for the (hideously expensive, thanks to the American tradition of spending 10× what everybody else pays to put in a trolley line) Barbur line to Tigard, which might keep them in service, and failing that it’s very dimly possible that Tri-Met will start a heritage fleet and keep a few of these cars around for fantrips & specials. But I’m not holding my breath.
So until I either (a) win the lottery and can add buying a handful of Type 1s to my small list of planned frivolity or (b) the last of these cars are dragged off to the breakers I’ll just have to keep taking pictures of the trolleys that did it for Portland.