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Oregon Zoo offers free train rides Nov. 22-23 in advance of next week's ZooLights
The Washington Park and Zoo Railway will take on its first passengers in more than a year this weekend. Officially, the train won't resume operations until ZooLights opens Nov. 28, but the zoo is inviting visitors to ride the rails for free during regular daytime hours on Nov. 22 and 23.
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"Tracks have been installed, locomotives have been refurbished, and our engineers have been making practice runs along the new route all week," said Craig Stroud, zoo deputy director. "We're thrilled to be bringing the train back right on schedule, and we figured a weekend of free rides would be a great way to thank visitors for supporting the many improvements taking place at the zoo."
The zoo's trains were temporarily taken out of service last year as part of a monumental, decade-long renovation, which has been carefully phasing in all projects funded by a community-supported 2008 bond measure. Rerouting the train was necessary to accommodate a service road and portions of Elephant Lands, the expansive and enriching new home for zoo's Asian elephant family, set to open in 2015. Passengers riding the train this weekend can look out over what will soon be the spacious North Meadow section of the habitat.
Next week, passengers can see the zoo in a whole new light: ZooLights, a winter wonderland of more than 1.5 million brilliant colored lights, opens Nov. 28, and the new railway route circles an elevated trestle through areas of the zoo that have never been lighted before.
The zoo's 30-inch-gauge railway line evolved out of plans for a children's train when the zoo moved to its current site in the late 1950s. The Old West–inspired Centennial steam locomotive and the sleek, retro-modern Zooliner both were featured during Oregon's 1959 centennial celebration. A photo from that time shows then-Sen. John F. Kennedy stepping off the train during a staged wild-west train robbery.
