Portland Zoo Railway Historic District (Portland, Oregon)

Title: Portland Zoo Railway Historic District (Portland, Oregon)
LC Subject: Architecture, American Railroads Historic districts
Alternative: The Washington Park and Zoo Railroad (WP&ZRy) (Portland, Oregon)
Creator: Lawrence, Tucker & Wallmann (Portland, Or.)
Photographer: Darby, Melissa C.
Description: The Portland Zoo Railway Historic District (PZRy) is a 518th scale railroad designed and built by professional train designers and railroad engineers, and established as a recreational line for the entertainment of both children and adults in the post-war era of the 1950s. Constructed in the west hills of Portland in 1958, the railway also transports people between the Oregon Zoo and the Washington Park Station overlooking the International Rose Test Garden. Between 1960 and 2013 the track was 2.5 miles long, currently it is 1.56 miles in length, though almost a mile of track (.96 mile) is now unused due to deferred maintenance. Currently, the railroad is a single structural system consisting of three loops connected by one and one-half miles of track built on a series of grades that extend from a station in the zoo, past animal habitats, and into a forest on an east-facing hillside in Washington Park, where passengers travel through an overstory canopy made up of 150+ year old Douglas fir and western red cedar. The acreage of the nominated district is approximately five acres, and ranges in elevation from 674 to 705 feet AMSL. The first loop of railroad had been built and trains were running one year before the zoo opened, and ticket proceeds (as intended) helped fund the construction of more rail and the construction of zoo infrastructure. The railroad is considered here as a separate but integral entity of the zoo and Washington Park. There are fifteen total resources in the historic district. Nine are contributing and six are noncontributing. There are two contributing buildings, which are the Washington Park Station (1958), and the tunnel-roundhouse complex (1959). The railroad is the one contributing structure with its 30 gauge track, ties, switches, and gravel ballast on a 15' wide grade. The six contributing objects are the rolling stock and are as follows: 1) the diesel-powered Zooliner locomotive and its five cars that were built in the streamlined modern 'Aerotrain' design in 1958; 2) the steam-powered Oregon Locomotive No. 1 and its four passenger cars, (1959); 3) the much-remodeled diesel-powered Oregon Express locomotive 5 (1959) and three cars; 4) locomotive No. 3 (1929), known as the Work Train and the cars it pulls, which are a side-dump car, a rock car, and two flat cars; 5) Locomotive No. 6 (1938) is also used for work and track maintenance and pulls two passenger coaches; 6) the gas-powered speeder donated by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1961. The two non-contributing structures include a 1,200-gallon water tank elevated on a tower that feeds water to the steam engine, which replaced an earlier water tank and tower and is identical with the original and in the same location, and non-contributing trestle built in 2014 where a previous trestle was located. The new station (2016) at the main zoo terminal is the non_contributing building, though the train platform is original. The three non-contributing objects include a handcar (1996), a generator platform car (ca. 2000), and a push car that was used in the railroad's construction in 1958. The main character-defining elements of the railway are its scale, forested setting, and the classic trains designed to appeal to children. The apogee of the character-defining elements of the rolling stock are found in the space-age streamlining of the gleaming aluminum body of the Zooliner and the fully rendered details (diamond smoke stack, cow catcher, polished brass, red paint, gold leaf lettering, bells, and whistles) of the steam locomotive Oregon. While there have been changes to the PZRy over the years, particularly within the portion that passes through the Oregon Zoo, the PZRy possesses integrity of design, materials, setting, workmanship, and feeling because it is in its original setting, and retains its original rolling stock, track, tunnel-roundhouse complex, and one of the two original station buildings. The tracks, ballast, and grade of the PZRy are in good condition, though there is deferred maintenance on the Washington Park portion of the line.
View: exterior: Washington Park line, looking northwest
Work Type: railroads (infrastructure)
Date: 1958/1961
View Date: 2019-02-01
Identifier: OR_MultnomahCounty_PortlandZooRailway_0006
Rights: In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Dc Rights Holder: Oregon. State Historic Preservation Office
Source: Oregon. State Historic Preservation Office
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Measurements: 5 acres
Material: concrete, wood, asphalt
Set: Building Oregon
Primary Set: Building Oregon
Institution: University of Oregon
Citation: Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, Oregon State Historic Preservation Office, http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/HCD/SHPO/