This narrow-gauge pay-as-you-enter (PAYE) car saw service all over Portland (apart from the routes with very steep hills) from 1911 to 1938. The “Mount Tabor Car” name above reflects what the car was called in newspaper reports once it became part of the collection at Glenwood. After retirement, the body—without trucks—ended up in the hands of a farmer in Marquam, who planned to turn it into a dwelling. However, he only got as far as installing a wood stove.

By mid-1955, the car was listed as an asset in the Willamette Valley Electric Railway Association’s annual report, but it doesn’t seem to have left the farm until July 24, 1956, when it was trucked to the Trolley Park at Glenwood via the Ross Island Bridge. The car was noted as being in very poor condition after spending some 18 years out in the open. Car No. 611 was thus the first car to arrive at Glenwood, some four months before No. 1318 from Los Angeles.

Some attempt at restoration was made – the museum acquired some “maximum traction” trucks (where one wheel is bigger than the other in each pair) from Brisbane, Australia in February 1961 and some parts were scavenged from sister standard-gauge car No. 715 – but by 1972, Paul Class determined that restoring the car to operating condition was impossible. The car was shortened by about five feet and shipped to Newport Beach, California, where it became the trademark centerpiece of an Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant to this day.

Car No. 611 in the Old Spaghetti Factory in Newport Beach, California. Photo: Old Spaghetti Factory.

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