Portland Traction CO Ticket

Hmm, that ticket design definitely looks older than the 1940s. The Oregon Historical Society has a webpage with 1930s tickets, many with the name "Portland Traction Co" on them: https://www.ohs.org/blog/the-art-of...y-passes.cfm

Wikipedia has a table of Oregon railroads, where the start year for Portland Traction Co is 1930: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...on_railroads

I think the design has elements of art noveau in it, so that would place it around 1900. But that signature appears also on some of the 1930s tickets on that Oregon Historical Society webpage, so unless the VP of the company had an unusually long term, the ticket itself is probably not that old (and besides, the name "Portland Traction Co" was perhaps not used before 1930). Also, the 1930s tickets on the OHS webpage look much more modern, so I am confused ... could it be that the name "Portland Traction Co" was used during an earlier (undocumented) time period? There seems to have been a number of changes of ownership and names for this trolley operation during the first decades of the 20th century.

Confusing is right. I've seen images of weekly passes on the internet. Back then, each week, the weekly pass sported a new design for obvious reasons and went for $1.25 (late 30's) which averages out to .18 per ride for that seven day period. An 8 1/3 cent ticket for a ride might suggest an earlier era. I shot out an email question regarding this to the Pacific Northwest Numismatic Society so let's see if I get any feedback.

Correction: 18 cents average per day with the weekly pass would I assume unlimited rides. So that 8 1/3 cents per ride sounds reasonable for that time period. Does that help solve the mystery?