Smashing Portland? Ding dong the Trolley is... uh...ooh...KING!

[Ocklawaha]

Skoda Anti-Aircraft Gun

Based on the smashing success of Portland Oregon and the Portland Streetcar, not to be confused with the more interurban like MAX LRT lines. Comes a little deal from the former Eastern Block. Once upon a time, there was a bike maker named Skoda... In WWI, little Skoda became the arms maker to the forces of Austria-Hungary... By WWII, they were taken by Mr. Adolph that loved the fine craftsmanship of those infamous 88MM guns. When the Commies took over, Skoda suffered quality and a name change to "Vladimir Lenin Plants" which killed sales around the world. Renamed SKODA just 2 years later, they started rebuilding the damage, selling trolleys and trolley buses (real ones not PCT's) throughout the Eastern Bloc. By the time the Berlin Wall came down, Skoda was reaching over the barbed wire with their trolley poles. When Portland went shopping for a new low floor streetcar, at half the price of LRT they found eachother. Moreover, Skoda didn't have a toe-hold in the USA...



FLASH BACK: Once upon a time there was the Willamette Iron and Metal works in Portland, Oregon. Provider to the logging industry, Wilamette came out with a strange looking locomotive called the Wilamette SHAY. This little worm gear critter with the off center boiler could pull the socks off a rod engine. It danced over rought track and had super locomotive abilities, the logging, sugar and minning industries beat a path to Portland. By 1944, diesels had taken over, and we see the steel works undergo a change, Portland Iron Works is born, to provide for the heavy industry of the Northwest... ALL AMERICAN, ALL OF THE TIME!


Along comes the FTA with a buy American rule and a 70% US content on all new streetcars. It didn't take long for the good team in Portland, Skoda and Portland Iron to see a marriage made in heaven. Just when the BRT highway guys thought they had found the death nail for the modern trolley here comes the newbie on the block..."American Streetcar".

Suddenly Not just Portland but a few more orders have shown on the books!

Arlington, Virginia: in engineering and design for a 4.7 mile starter line from Pentagon City Metrorail Station to Lincolnia.

Cincinnati, Ohio: In study to link downtown with the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, expecting 5,000 riders a day and 1 BILLION in new developent.

Columbus, Ohio: Led by local activists (that's us guys) launched a study of High Street streetcar to connect several neighborhoods.

Grand Rapids, Mich.: Consultant has been hired to design a 2.4 mile circulator route.

Indianapolis, Ind: Local activist and business leaders have formed the Downtown indianapolis Streetcar Corp. and launched a feasibility study of a system for the WHOLE city.

Jacksonville, Florida: JUST KIDDING! Seriously we spent 5 times more to study wood rot on the riverwalk.

Miami, Florida: Study to link Metro-Rail, downtown Miami and Miami Beach

Portland, Oregon: Moving forward with a new loop to the east side of the Wilamette (wil-AM-it) River.

Toronto, Canada: Never having torn out their 118 mile streetcar network, they will buy 204 new cars and add extensive new routes.

Washington, D.C.: Installing rails on "H" street as I write, to link Benning Road and Union Station, also another line to the south, linking the Anacostia Metrorail station and Bolling AFB.

"...Wake up you sleepy heads, rub your eyes get out of bed..."

Ocklawaha
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