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Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=36119		 Page 1 of 3
Author:  Rainier Rails [ Fri Jan 17, 2014 8:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
Just out of curiosity--

How many of these substations are still in use today?

Specifically, substations where at least some of the original structures/buildings (the historic fabric) are intact? (But where the original buildings are not necessarily still in use.)

I can think of one example, but there are probably others (researching substations is not exactly my forte):

Oregon Water, Power & Railway Company's 1905 substation in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland, OR, is still used by Portland General Electric (PGE), with the original stone building from 1905 still standing. OWP&RyCo was folded into the original PGE (along with Portland Railway Company) in 1906 to form Portland Railway, Light & Power Co. The controlling corporation, Willamette Falls Electric, became Portland Electric Power Company (PEPCO) in 1932. The subsidiary for electrical generation/distribution was PGE, and the subsidiary for electric railway operation was Portland Traction Company (PTC). The bankruptcy of PEPCO in 1939 led to the sale of PTC in 1946. PTC was later bought out jointly by UP/SP.

The Sellwood Substation is located at the former Gold Junction. Gold Junction was where PTC's Estacada (Boring) and Oregon City lines diverged after leaving the Willamette River, with the Estacada line heading in a general easterly direction towards Gresham, and the Oregon City line branching south via Milwaukie towards Gladstone and Oregon City. Gold Junction was also the location of the Sellwood Carbarn and crew clubhouse, which like the substation, survived as intact buildings for many years after the last cars operated over the Oregon City line in 1958 (the last interurban/streetcar line in the Portland area). The carbarn was occupied by a confectionary company for many decades, and some of the original tracks were used for corn syrup deliveries by the Portland Terminal Company (successor to the old Portland Traction Co. while under UP-SP ownership). The company later vacated the carbarn, and it was razed several years ago to make way for a housing development, directly across the street from the substation. The clubhouse, however, survives as apartments.

The Oregon City line (past Gold Jct.) was abandoned and ripped up after the last cars ran in 1958, but part of the Estacada line (which had been cut back to Boring) still remains in use. In the 1980's (I believe), the UP cut back from Boring to Milwaukie*, and the line beyond the Milwaukie industrial park is now the Springwater Corridor Trail. The remnant of the Boring line is now owned and operated by the Oregon Pacific Railroad as far as the Milwaukie industrial park. The OPR (as far as Oaks Amusement Park on the Willamette River-only a few miles to the north of Gold Junction) hosts the annual Santa Trains pulled by SP&S #700 and SP #4449.

*As a side note, one of the last freight shipments past Milwaukie on the Boring line was the delivery of brand new Siemens Brothers light rail vehicles for the original segment of Tri-Met's now-extensive Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) light rail system, which follows many of the old interurban corridors in the Portland area (just not the two that diverged at Gold Junction). The LRV delivery diverged from the Boring line up the old Troutdale branch to Tri-Met's new maintenance facility, which is located where the PTC Troutdale branch crossed the former interurban line out to Bull Run (the Bull Run alignment was used for the original MAX segment)

Any other surviving streetcar substations?
Author:  kevin kohls [ Fri Jan 17, 2014 9:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
I know that there are still standing (brick) sub stations in Cleveland, Ohio and I have seen brick substations along the B&O RR in Indiana where the Indiana RR and B&O RR parallel each other.

Kevin K.
Author:  dinwitty [ Fri Jan 17, 2014 9:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
Obviously the South Shore still has substations in use and through time upgraded.

I believe there may be a few North Shore buildings about but I would have to pop the question on the NS forum. CA&E I don't know.

I would bet there may be quite a few more out there hiding quietly.
Author:  Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
Just the structures, or functional hardware/transformers as well?
Author:  EDM [ Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
There is an old substation from the Princeton-Trenton Traction Company still standing on the road between Lawrenceville and Pennington here in NJ. I believe the building is (or was) in use as a dentist's office. You can still see the porcelain insulating bushings in the brick walls where some of the wires came through.
Author:  Rainier Rails [ Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:
Just the structures, or functional hardware/transformers as well?


Either way.
Author:  Dave [ Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
At least one Piedmont and Northern substation remains.....but since the line hasn't been electric since I've been around to see it, it's just a building.

dave
Author:  Al Stangenberger [ Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
The building for the Baltimore Park substation on the old Northwestern Pacific right of way in Larkspur, CA still exists, but is no longer in use.
Author:  Evan [ Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
See this link for a story of a still standing Schenectady interurban substation:

http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2010/06/30/powering-the-troy-schenectady-trolley-line
Author:  Evan [ Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:23 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
Kingston NY has a standing former trolley powerhouse, recently vacated by a scrap recycler.

http://woodstock.ulsterpublishing.com/printer_friendly/20612708
Author:  dlayland [ Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
There are two surviving (out of service) substations on the old BC Electric Fraser Valley line. (Southern Railway of BC now runs over that track.)

One at Coghlan:

http://vancouvertraces.weebly.com/coghl ... ation.html


and the Sumas Substation at the foot of Vedder Mt.

http://www.theprovince.com/Sumas+Substa ... story.html
Author:  trolleyira [ Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
The Portland Company sub-station still stands in Scarborough, Maine and is restored.
Author:  Dennis Storzek [ Sat Jan 18, 2014 1:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
At least two TMER&LCo. substations survive in the outer reaches of the Milwaukee, WI metro area... The East Troy substation still powers the railroad (although I don't know if it has been upgraded with a rectifier unit), and a similar substation at the end of the Burlington line still stands about a half mile NE of downtown Burlington, WI, almost completely surrounded by more modern distribution equipment.

The TM's substations were quite substantial; there may be more.

There also used to be a large Chicago Surface Lines substation building standing in the vicinity of North Ave. and Pulaski Rd, last used to power trolley bus lines until the system came down in the early seventies. As of the eighties it was still standing and owned by the CTA; I haven'[t been by that way in a long time, but I'd be surprised if it was gone.
Author:  Tavor [ Sat Jan 18, 2014 2:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky are blessed with a lot of still standing infrastructure.
Here is a page on nothing but carbarns, substations, and shops.

http://jjakucyk.com/transit/carbarns/index.html
Author:  Brian Norden [ Sat Jan 18, 2014 3:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Surviving Streetcar/Interurban Substations
Here in the greater Los Angeles area there are a number of former Los Angeles Railway and Pacific Electric substations that have survived. Some have secondary lives as offices or residences and others set unused. Several of the buildings are on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Just a few blocks from my condo there is a former Vineland PE substation (brick) building that in decrepit condition behind a fence. The land it is on is part of a city-owned lot with parking for the nearby Metrolink Baldwin Park station stop.

In Altadena there is one of the older and larger PE substation buildings that has been used for decades as office space.

A few blocks from LARy's "Division 5" car barn there is a former substation building that is now a residence that was even written up a few years ago in the LA Times. (Division 5 has been used for overnight storage and light maintenance of transit vehicles for more than 100 years!).

Walk out the front side of LAUPT (excuse me, it is now called LA Passenger Station) and look across the street at the Plaza and northerly to the back site of the buildings along Olivera Street one will see LARy Plaza substation building.

And there are more. A one-time Los Angeles Pacific (PE predecessor) substation building halfway between downtown LA and Hollywood has been an office building for decades.

Out at Culver City the LAP/PE substation building is now restored and used as a community theater

There are more. I expect that Bob Davis who posts here from time to time can add more in the LA area.
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