PORTLAND, Ore. — A new effort to restore the entire Washington Park and Zoo Railway is gaining steam.
If you were around Portland in the late 1950s, you know it was a pretty big deal.
For decades during the summer months, the train took passengers from the Oregon Zoo down a winding one-mile track, through the forested park, to a train station near the International Rose Test Garden, and then back again.
It was a ride Hilary Mackenzie remembers well.
"People love the train and everyone misses it," she said.
Mackenzie, along with thousands of others, are fighting to restore the historic Washington Park and Zoo Railway.
It shut down in 2013 when construction on the zoo's Elephant Lands exhibit started
About a year later, the section of the tracks inside the zoo re-opened, but that mile of track that wound through the park remained closed, even during the summer months.
"There was a safety issue there," said zoo director Dr. Don Moore.
Moore said small slides on the tracks and weak retaining walls were some of the problems.
A 2018 Washington Park master plan proposed replacing the tracks with a pedestrian path. But a revised version has the zoo now working with Portland Parks and Recreation on a potential plan.
"We need to assess the condition of the track, the slope integrity and everything in between our perimeter fence and the old train station before the train can come back," Moore said.
An online petition to restore the park section of the tracks already has nearly 22,000 signatures
A zoo report done a couple years ago estimated it would cost around $2 million dollars to repair the railway that runs through the park.
Supporters say their next step is to do their own study on what it would take to restore the route and then work to raise the money to do it.