RAILFAN GUIDES of the U.S.

 

Todd's Railfan Guide to
PORTLAND OR
Milwaukie and UP's Brooklyn Yard

Map
Sights
Floobydust
USGS Maps
 

PORTLAND RAILFAN GUIDE HOME
RAILFAN GUIDES HOME
RAILROAD SIGNALS HOME


The Portland Railfan Guide is divided up into the following sections:
Portland Home Page
Map 1 - the Amtrak Station area
Map 2 - UP and the east side of the Willamette
Map 3 - BNSF and the west side of the Willamette
Map 4 - South of Downtown - Milwaukie and UP's Brooklyn Yard
Map 8 - the Amtrak Station in Vancouver

I have the following transit maps available for the Portland area:
   Portland Transit Home
    MAP 2 ..... the Portland Streetcar
   
MAP 3 ..... WES - the Westside Express Service Commuter Train
   
MAP 4 ..... the Downtown Area
   
MAP 5 ..... the Westside Light Rail Guide
   
MAP 6 ..... the Eastside Light Rail Guide
Please note, these are only maps, and not guides, so there are no pictures or information contained within.


Map

The above map is available as a PDF

 


Sights


    1        UP's Brooklyn Yard

Albina Yard is UP's "showpiece" of the Portland area, followed by the Milwaukie Yard, which it acquired along with the Southern Pacific.   There is no one good place to get pictures of the yard.   For the north end of the yard, you can give the end of Rhine Street a try on the west side, which is at the throat of the yard, or off the end of Bush Street on the east side, altho this is often obscured by freights in the yard.  You try looking for a place to park somewhere around the intersection of Holgate and 24th, and then walk up the Holgate Blvd overpass which is in the middle of the yard.  And for the south end, you can try the  end of Reedway off the end of SE 26th on the east side of the yard, or the parking lot at the intersection of Harold and McLoughlin.


    2        the ex SP Roundhouse and Turntable

This is where SP's Daylight steamer #4449 and SP&S steamer #700 have been kept for the past couple of decades.  Due to the growth in intermodal shipping, Union Pacific has decided to expand it's operation at Brooklyn, and unfortunately for us, kick Doyle McCormack's trains out of the yard.

For more info, check these links out:
     http://www.neighborhoodnotes.com/news/2009/10/oregon_rail_heritage_foundations_new_facility_on_track_in_hosfordabernethy/
     http://www.sps700.org/gallery/brooklyn.shtml
 

  Photos by Terry Thompson

 


Floobydust



Doyle McCormack inside the Brooklyn roundhouse.

 


Historical USGS Maps


Courtesy of the University of Texas Library, click here for their index page.  This capture is from a 1912 version of the Oregon City quadrant.


Disclaimers:

I love trains, and I love signals.  I am not an expert.  My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page.  This is something I have fun with while trying to help others.  My webpages are an attempt at putting everything I can find of the subject in one convenient place.  There are plenty of other good websites to help me in this effort, and they are listed in the links section on my indexa page, or as needed on individual pages.  Please do not write to me about something that may be incorrect, and then hound the heck out of me if I do not respond to you in the manner you would like.  I operate on the "Golden Rule Principle", and if you are not familiar with it, please acquaint yourself with how to treat people by reading Mathew 7:12 (among others, the principle exists in almost every religion).  If you contact me (like some do, hi Paul) and try to make it a "non-fun" thing and start with the name calling, your name will go into my spambox list! :-)

Please Note:  Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them.  For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.

If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct.  Once in a while, an error may creep in, especially if restaurants or gas stations open, close, or change names.  Most of my maps are a result of personal observation after visiting these locations.  I have always felt that a picture is worth a thousand words", and I feel annotated maps such as the ones I work up do the same justice for the railfan over a simple text description of the area.  Since the main focus of my website is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them.  Since most of us railheads don't have just trains as a hobby, I have also tried to point out where other interesting sites of the area are.... things like fire stations, neat bridges, or other significant historical or geographical feature.  While some may feel they shouldn't be included, these other things tend to make MY trips a lot more interesting.... stuff like where the C&O Canal has a bridge going over a river (the Monocacy Aqueduct) between Point of Rocks and Gaithersburg MD, it's way cool to realize this bridge to support a water "road" over a river was built in the 1830's!!!  

My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning.  Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented.  Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost!  I belong to AAA, which allows you to get local maps for free when you visit the local branches.  ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the railroads on them.  If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.  Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.

Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit is always given! BE NICE!!! Contact info is here

Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.

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New 10/23/2011
last Modified: 03 Jul 2014