Yakima trolley a nostalgic way to ride

YAKIMA — To mark her 30th birthday, Rose Fryar boarded a Yakima trolley. She sat in her seat, braced herself against the cold, and waited, eagerly, as the wheels churned into motion.

As the trolley rolled through downtown Yakima, she couldn't help but remember her dad, how she sat by his side on the trolley when she was 5 years old.

And now, here she was, a grown woman with a husband and a son of her own.

"It was exhilarating. It made me feel all warm inside," said Fryar, of Yakima. "You feel like you are in a different time."

That nostalgia is something Yakima Valley Trolleys (YVT) wants to rekindle as the trolley system celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. A host of commemorative events are in the works along with plans for the trolleys' continued growth.

Yakima should take pride in its trolley service, said trolley President Paul Edmondson, who's been a board member since the late 1990s and president for the past five years. It's part of Yakima's culture, its history.

"It brings back feelings of a bygone era," Edmondson said. "You just don't get the same feeling riding a metal bus."

After several failed attempts by different business leaders, Yakima Valley Transportation succeeded in opening Yakima's first electronic railroad on Christmas Eve 1907.

According to historian Ken Johnsen's book, "Apple Country Interurban: A History of the Yakima Valley Transportation Company," adults paid 5 cents for a one-way trip within city limits. Children paid even less to go to and from school. City officials, policemen and firemen rode for free.

The trolley system began as a city transit line with three miles of track but soon expanded into an interurban freight line delivering lumber, fruit and other perishable goods nationwide. It also went to fruit-packing houses in such places as Selah and Wiley City. At its height, the track extended 44 miles.

But the popularity of passenger service declined with the emergence of the automobile. It ended by 1947, and freight service followed in 1985.

Passengers returned to riding the rail line again in 1974 after Johnsen convinced the Yakima City Council that trolley rides would boost tourism.

That accomplishment was no small feat, Johnsen said, but the greatest victory to date is the trolley's survival.

"All the railroads like it have long since died," said Johnsen, a Maple Valley resident who is secretary of the YVT. "When passenger trolleys came back, that changed things."

Tough times for the trolley

Still, Johnsen and Edmondson said the trolley system had its fair share of obstacles to overcome.

One of the biggest involved George Inness of Portland, president of the Yakima Interurban Lines Association, a nonprofit group that operated the trolleys from the mid-1970s to about 2000.

Inness secured a $516,000 state loan to restore a 12-mile Naches Valley railroad spur once owned by BNSF Railway. The rehabilitation effort to reclaim freight service on the line was never completed because funds ran out.

A Yakima bank foreclosed on two loans totaling $184,000 that Inness obtained but never paid back. And federal officials reclaimed railroad equipment that Inness improperly obtained through a surplus-property program.

A state audit and collection lawsuits revealed Inness' wrongdoings. Those actions forced Yakima Interurban to cease streetcar operations in 2000 and become a real-estate holding company.

"[Inness] ended up in trouble with the bank, with the city, with the state," Johnsen said. "That was definitely the low point." That's when an association of new board members, calling itself the Yakima Valley Trolleys, took the helm.

New challenges

More recently, the association has battled against thieves. More than two miles of electric copper wiring, prized for its high resale value to scrap-metal merchants, has been stripped from the trolley lines since 2005.

This has necessitated the use of a motor-generator car to power the trolley line into Selah. Regular runs to Selah have ceased for the time being.

The cost of replacing the overhead wire, which carries the electricity that powers the trolleys, has been estimated at more than $400,000. Trolley officials are getting estimates on the damage and will decide on a game plan once they have all of the information. Edmondson said pursuing grants will be a priority. "We'll try to restore service to Selah. We hope to do so this year."

YVT is investigating ways to keep thieves at bay. This includes replacing the copper wire with aluminum wire, which has a cheaper resale value, and outfitting the wire with a trigger that will alarm police when it's cut.

The trolley line typically runs on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Trolleys depart from the storage barn at South Third Avenue and Pine Street and travel across the Naches River, through Selah Gap to just inside Selah city limits.

"People need to know they own the trolleys," Edmondson said. "It's their system. It's owned lock, stock and barrel by the city. We'd love to have people come downtown and ride the trolleys."