Oregon Iron Works - Let the Revival of Streetcars Begin!
By Paul M. Weyrich (07/04/07)
There was a small victory for America last week. It went unnoticed. Still, it is important and has a great future. What am I referring to? The Oregon Iron Works, a company known mainly for defense contracts, won a contract to build streetcars for the new line in Portland. The line would travel toward the business district, in the direction of Mount Hood. It would consist of a few cars but represents the first order of new streetcars in America since the 1952 order of new PCC cars for San Francisco, built by the St. Louis Car Company.
President Conference Committee (PCC) is an effort to develop a modern streetcar. The first streetcar rolled off the assembly for a Brooklyn line in the mid-1930s. Currently, the PCC operates in four cities, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia and Kenosha. A single car operates in other cities.
As late as 1970 the United States had three American streetcar builders for subway, commuter rail and streetcars. All were closed. The era of electric rail in America was over. Wrong. Whereas there were only seven cities with streetcars today there are more than twenty. The number of cities with subway systems has grown from five to twelve. Several systems have placed orders for new commuter rail cars and several other cities are considering modern streetcars. Unfortunately, all orders have gone to Italy, Germany, Japan and other foreign nations.
Congress, following the demise of the United States railcar companies, passed a “Buy American” Bill. Fifty percent of railcars built by foreign firms must have half the parts manufactured within the United States.
This has been a thorn for American transit officials because they could not place their orders with American firms. It is not that rail cars built within America were a problem – indeed some of the cars built as early as the 1950s are still operating. It is that the prospects for new orders have been few and far between.
It could not be known that just a few years later the revival of electric railways and diesel commuter rail cars was to begin. The revival began in Edmonton, Alberta but Edmonton had to turn to Germany for its first set of railcars.
When the rail revival hit America in San Diego in 1981, again German-made railcars whisked passengers from the Santa Fe station in downtown San Diego to the Mexican Border at San Ysidro. City after city implemented so-called light rail service: Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Jersey City, Buffalo and so on. There are modern lines in Portland, Seattle, Tacoma and Washington, D.C. All orders have been placed in the Czech Republic.
Another dozen cities such as St. Louis and Minneapolis are considering modern streetcars. These cities use what is often referred as Heritage streetcar lines. In other words, older streetcars. The first cities to have such lines, Detroit and Seattle turned to England and Australia for their fleets. The United States has a manufacturer of replica Heritage streetcars. Charlotte, Little Rock and Tampa have American built Heritage cars. Gomaco Trolley Company of Iowa completes such orders.
But Gomaco must turn to Milan, Italy for electrical components. Some cities such as Memphis, have entire fleets which consist of three lines of foreign-built cars.
The majority of cities considering streetcars would choose a modern streetcar. That is the significance of the Oregon Iron Works contract. These cities will now have an American company which might bid on orders for new cars. There are light rail systems yet to be built, such as, Norfolk, Virginia, which might turn to Oregon iron, as a light rail car is just a souped-up streetcar. We need an American company to build subway and commuter rail cars.
It is hard to imagine any other business which all but died has come back as strongly as rail in America. Here is a toast to Oregon Iron Works. May the Portland contract be just the beginning!
Paul M. Weyrich
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