The Orange Line is the newest MAX line which opened in September of 2015. It links Milwaukie to downtown Portland, with many trains through-routed on the Yellow Line to North Portland and the Expo Center.
This section of the Orange Line between downtown Milwaukie and Park Ave, is along the Trolley Trail. It is called the Trolley Trail as the Interurban Line between downtown Portland and Oregon City also ran here. It ended in the late 1950's with the city of Portland the Multnomah County rebuilt the Hawthorne Bridge without tracks for the Interurban to get into downtown. Passenger counts dropped when they were forced to get off the swift interurban to transfer to a slow bus to go to work. The State of Oregon tried to intervene, but the city and county considered the Interurban antiquated when compared to the automobile.
Enter the 1970's, traffic was building but residents were tired of building freeways destroying established neighborhoods. Thus Light Rail was born to basically replace what the region once had. Electric Interurban train service to Gresham, Hillsboro and Milwaukie to Portland. All 3 cities are now again have this service via MAX. Strange how what is old is new again
If you are interested in the old Interurbans, you can see them at the Oregon Electric Railway Museum in Brooks, Oregon. Or ride the Trolley Trail to see where they once went
The cache is along the trolley trail, think of what once was here as a modern MAX train rolls by