MAX Trains near the Beaverton Creek Station

 

Beaverton Creek is a station on TriMet’s Westside MAX Blue Line in Beaverton, Oregon, between Portland and Hillsboro, which opened on September 12, 1998. This station features a Park and Ride lot and is near the Nike World Headquarters. I took these pictures of MAX light rail trains near the Beaverton Creek station on March 28, 2006.

The car on the right is a MAX Type 1 light rail vehicle. A total of 26 MAX Type 1 cars numbered #101-126 were built by Bombardier Corporation in a joint venture with La Brugeoise et Nivelles (BN) of Belgium. They are based on a Brazilian Cobrasma design used under license by BN for a group of cars for Rio de Janeiro. Bombardier built the frames in Quebec, with 80% of the production and assembly in Barre, Vermont, and electrical propulsion equipment from Brown, Boveri & Company. The cars were delivered in 1984 and service began on September 5, 1986. The cars have 76 seats and a total capacity of 166 passengers. These original cars would be the only MAX cars not built by Siemens, the only high-floor MAX cars, and the only MAX cars that lack regenerative braking. When built, the cars featured bell cords and hand-cranked destination signs and lacked air conditioning, though all these features were changed over the years. Because of the high floors of these cars, wheelchair lifts had to be installed at every MAX station. Once the low-floor Type 2 and Type 3 MAX cars were delivered, the Type 1 cars always ran coupled to a low-floor car so the lifts could be eliminated.

These two cars are MAX Type 2 light rail vehicles. A total of 52 MAX Type 2 Siemens SD600 cars numbered #201-252 were built from 1996 to 2000. They were the first low-floor light rail vehicles used in the United States and the first MAX cars delivered with air conditioning. They have a capacity of 166 passengers and were built with 72 seats, though 8 seats were removed later for bicycle storage. The initial 39 cars numbered 201-239 were ordered in May 1993 to expand the fleet for the Westside MAX Blue Line. The first car #201 was delivered in July 1996 and the first nine of these cars entered service on August 31, 1997. The initial order was expanded to 46 cars with cars 240-246 built by 1998. The order was expanded again to a total of 52 cars, with the final car being delivered in April 2000.

The car on the left is a MAX Type 3 light rail vehicle. A total of 27 MAX Type 3 Siemens SD660 cars numbered #301-327 were built from 2003 to 2005. They have 64 seats and a capacity of 166 passengers. They are virtually identical to the Type 2 cars, but feature improved air conditioning, more ergonomic seats, and automatic photoelectric passenger counters. They were also delivered in Trimet’s new paint scheme that was introduced in 2002. These cars were purchased to expand the fleet for the new Interstate MAX Yellow Line from downtown Portland to the Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center in North Portland, which opened on May 1, 2004. The first of these cars was delivered in February 2003 and entered service in September 2003. The initial order was for 17 cars, with 10 more added to the order in 2002. The final car was delivered in March 2005.