Monday, July 27, 2015

The Issaquah Trolley

Rain was (erroneously) predicted for early afternoon yesterday.  We hate getting rained on with the bikes.  It puts dirt everywhere as well us getting us wet.  So we walked.  On the way through Issaquah we saw this.



Trolley Car #519 is a vintage electric trolley car originally manufactured by the J.G. Brill Company of Philadelphia, PA in 1925. It was shipped as a kit to Lisbon, Portugal where it was assembled and put into service.  At some point,  the trolley system went out of service in Lisbon.  The city of Aspen, CO bought several trolleys for a tourist-centric system.  However, they could not get a bond passed to pay for it.  After that, Issaquah bought the #519.  It spent two years in the barn being refurbished and painted.  It was also converted so that it could run in both directions.  The trolley trailers an electric generator set that produces the 600v required to drive the dual electric motors that power the trolley up and down the 1/2 mile section of track between the Historic Issaquah Depot and the East Fork Issaquah Creek crossing behind the Darigold Plant.
The seats are original, they look really good.


This thing is just cuter than a bug.

3 comments:

  1. I appreciate all the effort the guys in Issaquah put forth to preserve our rail history. Even if it came from Portugal. Good job guys!

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