Willamette Valley Railways tells the story of the electric interurban
railways that ran through Oregon's Willamette Valley and of the
streetcars that operated in the towns they served. Long before modern
light rail vehicles, electric trains were providing Portland and the
Willamette Valley with reliable, elegant transportation that was second
to none. Between 1908 and 1915, two large systems, the Oregon Electric
Railway and the Southern Pacific Red Electrics, joined smaller
competitors constructing railways throughout the region. Portland became
the hub of an impressive interurban network in a frenzy of electric
railway building. Yet all too soon, this brief but glorious interurban
era was over. Highway improvement and the growth of automobile ownership
made electric passenger trains unprofitable in the sparsely populated
valley. By the early 1930s, the company that had launched the nation's
first true interurban was the only one still offering passenger service
here.