08/27/2026
What noteworthy event happened in Yakima 52 years ago Saturday? Yakima's two Bicentennial Trolleys were unloaded off of the railroad flatcars that brought them to Yakima on August 29, 1974.
The first one off was trolley #1776. It was lifted with a crane and placed on interurban tracks of the YVT railroad. Paul Class, the person who bought them for Yakima, put 1776's trolley pole onto the YVT wire and the lights came on and the air compressor started chug chugging.
We ran the car up Pine Street and into the YVT yard. Gravel over the tracks in the YVT yard derailed the trolley and the head of the trolley project, Councilman Wray Brown, was suddenly not feeling festive. He had invited members of the press to come and see the new trolleys, and now one of them was off the rails! The press was due any minute!
Thinking very quickly, Paul Class ran the #1976 trolley up Pine Street to a place where #1776 was not visible to the members of the press. When they arrived, he and Wray Brown took them on the first passenger trip up Pine Street since February 1, 1947! They were never the wiser about the derailment.
KJ photo of #1776 being unloaded in the Union Pacific yards in Yakima on August 29, 1974.
