Random Photos of Trolley Cars

Well, I'll jump in on  this one.  My favorite trolley photo is of an Albany, N.Y. 4-wheel, double end, 4 door car.  I really don't know why this car appeals as much as it does to me.  It's just a well built vehicle, well designed to do a specific job.  I have a model under construction, and I'll post a picture of the model when it's finished.  (Don't hold your breath...I don't work fast).

Where in Albany did the trolley system run? Are there any vestiges of that trolley system left? I occasionally travel through Albany, so I am curious.

The Johnstown car is by Western Hobbycraft. The Lehigh Valley and Third Avenue cars are by MTH.

Lets see your trolley photos!

Somewhere in Brooklyn there is a trolley graveyard pit with many Third Avenue and BRT cars buried in it. Does anyone where the grave is, and something about its history?

Pittsburgh and New Orleans meet

BOBBY OGAUGE, I stumbled onto this site years ago.

I think you'll find something to interest your trolley taste here

http://newdavesrailpix.com/

JayJay,

Thanks for the link. I enjoyed visiting that site.

The "pit" is there but the cars were stripped and burned. Large metal parts were removed during the ww2 scrap drive. There is nothing to see. I remember riding the Peter Witts on route 68. I can still remember the sounds of the air compressors.

Here is one from my Brooklyn Neighborhood. Its 1945 and we are on Manhattan ave and Nassayu Avenue. That is a Graham avenue car coming at us and it has come over the double bascule bridge carrying Manhattan avenue to Vernon Boulevard and Jackson Avenue in Long Island City.

When the car passes us, it will wind its way down to Broadway and then head west at Flushing Avenue to Downtown Brooklyn at Sand Street and then ascend the Brooklyn Bridge crossing to Park Row In Manhattan. This route was one of a handful that connected three boroughs in the city.

I have dozens of trolley photos from my layout (MTH, Western Hobbycraft, Minitoy) recent and a bunch taken in the 1950s.

Here are a few:

Most of the old trolley cars were burnt and the metal was saved for scrap. The BRT dropped many old trolley bodies into a sand pit at 108th St. In Canarsie Brooklyn  on a short spur off the Canarsie line. TARS dropped trolley bodies into a pit at the Garden Ave shops in Yonkers. Other cars were sold to scrap dealers and other transit companies or burnt in many locations in the Bronx  and Brooklyn along with subway and elevated cars. Many el cars were burnt in 239th St. Yard, East 175th St. Along the NYW&B right of way and the Bronx River, Classon Point, Coney Island yard and probably more.

Is it time for Lionel to make a legacy trolley?

Museum items.......................

Susquehanna Traction Co #10 in Lock Haven, Pa

Penn Central Rwy #2 near South Fork, Pa

Lyle H. Cain's Toonerville Trolley

St. Charles Line streetcar on Canal Street Line in New Orleans

Riverfront Line along the Mississippi in New Orleans. The clerestory conceals air conditioning components.

The motorman is changing poles at the Uptown end of the St. Charles line in Carrollton, New Orleans

Riding the St. Charles line

A Lionel Birney trolley in a Reading paint scheme (6-83426) shares the Reading Society of Model Engineers layout with a Lionel M-10000

This stop: Plasticville union Station

Hi Bob... Here are some trolleys from my neck of the wood's......Google    Holyoke Trolleys: the Final Days.....You might see your car in some of the clips...

See you soon Gene

Another shot of Penn Central Rwy #2 near South Fork, Pa

Below is the restored PCC trolley in the Heinz museum in Pittsburgh. 

And here is a picture of a similar Corgi Pittsburgh PCC with an S gauge chassis running on my Christmas layout. 

Here are 2 trolley's in the Exporail in Montreal Can. We got to ride in the first one. It is a nice place to visit if you are ever in Montreal.

Lorain Street Rwy, Flat Motor

More New York & North Shore Traction cars on Long Island.

Stratford CT

Peck's Pond trolley disaster.

This is a followup to Gene's post regarding the trolley system in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Nice color movie of the Holyoke trolley system.

https://archive.org/details/Ho...TrolleysTheFinalDays

How about some vintage film of snow (ice) clearing operations in Ottawa?

Supposedly the system was knocked out for a few days because of this particular event:

---PCJ

 I always liked this early video titled "Trolley Ride Through New York City Early 1900s". Lotsa trolleys, no automobiles,  I suspect this is old Thom Edison and his new moving picture camera.....

Trolley in New Orleans.

Remember Nicky luv long time Storm 2017 NY

Fortescue J. Gi-raffe says, "Did somebody say TROLLEYS?" 

Mitch

Ohio Public Service RR Motor Flat 79

ITS steeple cab #104

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Fortescue J. Gi-raffe says, "Did somebody say TROLLEYS?" 

Mitch

Nice collection. What make is the 3rd from the left? I don't believe I've ever seen that before.

jonmuse posted:

Nice collection. What make is the 3rd from the left? I don't believe I've ever seen that before.

That's a freelance kitbash done by a chap in Springfield, MO.  It's an SF cable car body on an MTH bump and go chassis:

And, yes, I did.

Mitch

Hagerstown and Frederick #171

Roo.

Hey, Roo...I like that display of the partly buried trolley.  How about some more information.  Such as, where is it, the circumstances that led to it's display, etc.   Most streetcars worked long and hard...and did their job well.  It's good to see them memorialized.

          Logan

The trolley was pushed into the sand pit at 108th St. In Canarsie Brooklyn and came out the other end of the planet.

Nate posted:

The trolley was pushed into the sand pit at 108th St. In Canarsie Brooklyn and came out the other end of the planet.

Shocking! That trolley exit point would be somewhere in the Indian Ocean south-west of Australia 

Nate posted:

The trolley was pushed into the sand pit at 108th St. In Canarsie Brooklyn and came out the other end of the planet.

Firewood posted:

Shocking! That trolley exit point would be somewhere in the Indian Ocean south-west of Australia 

It took a left toin at Albakoiky!

Mitch

Any Staten Island trolley photos?  I know they went to Prohibition Park (now Westerleigh Park).

Omaha Trolley

This is link to the old Omaha Nebraska Trolley, the noob is having trouble uploading pictures. I will review the instructions again.

Rob

Hagerstown & Frederick 9 and 172 along Rt. 15 below Catoctin Furnace near Thurmont

Its 1948 and a New Bob Hope Jane Russell movie is playing at the Brooklyn Paramount. You could ride the DeKalb ave car right up to the box office window.

Really like the Cony Island one.

TheDude23112 posted:

Really like the Cony Island one.

These were TCA special run trolleys done in support of the 2015 National Convention.  There were 500 made of both schemes and unfortunately just sold out within the last year.  There is one on eBay now at a bit above original sales prices (not mine).  While not accurate to the prototype model, the paint scheme is fairly accurate.  They are just the Lionel bump and go trolleys.

Hagerstown & Frederick 168 and 172

Michigan Rwy 2003........wood steeplecab body

LIRR Steamer posted:

Its 1948 and a New Bob Hope Jane Russell movie is playing at the Brooklyn Paramount. You could ride the DeKalb ave car right up to the box office window.

An interesting side note about the Brooklyn Paramount:

It's now a university gym, but a lot of the old theatre was preserved!

http://www.scoutingny.com/scou...mount-movie-theatre/

Pittsburgh Railways 4300-series double-end “Jones low-floor” car.  This is the same type of car that I am operating in my avatar photo taken at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in 2014. Can anyone identify the location of this photo?  Hint: it's running on the 59 Homeville route.

Bill

Thank you for that wonderful photo of the Paramount interior. The Paramount was as many other movie palaces of the ages , equipped with  Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ. I believe that this pipe organ is also preserved within the Gym Transformation. It is thought to be in working order and supposedly played from time to time. These instruments had a magical sound.

Two of my favorite places

National Capital Trolley Museum

http://www.dctrolley.org/carcollection.html

and the Baltimore Streetcar Museum

http://www.baltimorestreetcar.org/carstock.html

Car 369 in Dallas TX.

Tampa FL. 2016

The Hagerstown and Frederick trolley #150 in Myersville.

jonmuse posted:

Pittsburgh and New Orleans meet

Is this the western railway museum in Rio Vista Junction?

PRT Coal & Ash Motor

WftTrains posted:

Pittsburgh Railways 4300-series double-end “Jones low-floor” car.  This is the same type of car that I am operating in my avatar photo taken at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in 2014. Can anyone identify the location of this photo?  Hint: it's running on the 59 Homeville route.

Bill

 

     I want to say that's It is coming off of Ravine St onto 8th Avenue. Now I want a slice of De Sallas pizza!

Greg Nagy posted:

WftTrains posted:

Pittsburgh Railways 4300-series double-end “Jones low-floor” car.  This is the same type of car that I am operating in my avatar photo taken at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in 2014. Can anyone identify the location of this photo?  Hint: it's running on the 59 Homeville route.

Bill

 

     I want to say that's It is coming off of Ravine St onto 8th Avenue. Now I want a slice of De Sallas pizza!

Greg:

You got it – the Munhall Junction!  And DeSalla’s Pizza at the Junction was the best around.  It was the very first pizza I ever tasted.  But they probably weren’t there yet when this picture was taken.  The streetcars are long gone but DeSalla’s is still in business.  Can’t wait to eat a few slices on our trip “home” for the TCA Convention in June.

And attached is a photo of the restored model at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in “Little Washington”.

Bill

WftTrains posted:

Greg Nagy posted:

WftTrains posted:

Pittsburgh Railways 4300-series double-end “Jones low-floor” car.  This is the same type of car that I am operating in my avatar photo taken at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in 2014. Can anyone identify the location of this photo?  Hint: it's running on the 59 Homeville route.

Bill

 

     I want to say that's It is coming off of Ravine St onto 8th Avenue. Now I want a slice of De Sallas pizza!

Greg:

You got it – the Munhall Junction!  And DeSalla’s Pizza at the Junction was the best around.  It was the very first pizza I ever tasted.  But they probably weren’t there yet when this picture was taken.  The streetcars are long gone but DeSalla’s is still in business.  Can’t wait to eat a few slices on our trip “home” for the TCA Convention in June.

And attached is a photo of the restored model at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in “Little Washington”.

Bill

Respectfully disagree. If the system was still in operation in the 80s, I'd tell you to transfer to the 68 and get off at Latina's across from Kennywood, or take the 65 up to Lincoln Place for some Rocko's. But, then again, it's all good.

Robert Way posted:

Omaha Trolley

This is link to the old Omaha Nebraska Trolley, the noob is having trouble uploading pictures. I will review the instructions again.

Rob

So two more from Brooklyn and Queens.

This one tales us to Bridge Plaza at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge. It looks like it could be evening rush hour judging by the 4 lanes of traffic open eastbound. and the number of trolleys in the plaza. A BMT standard train is on the approach.

Ok so lets go to Queens at Queensboro Plaza. WE see a Steinway car on the way to the bridge to Manhattan. This was the last trolley line in Ndew York City, ending service in 1957. This photo was at least 10 years earlier. A lt of Rapid Transit action on the BMT side of the Elevated station. This complex is reduced in size today withoperations much simplified.

This is a good looking car, but unfortunately it is a terrible runner. It has a sliding pickup shoe that needs to be converted to a pair of rollers. 

I do not anything about this interurban car, but the color scheme is fantastic. Who built this beauty, and where is it now?

Bobby Ogage posted:

 

This is a good looking car, but unfortunately it is a terrible runner. It has a sliding pickup shoe that needs to be converted to a pair of rollers. 

Agreed.  I'll research the subject a bit and see what rollers might work well.

I do not anything about this interurban car, but the color scheme is fantastic. Who built this beauty, and where is it now?

http://mywalworthcounty.com/?p=4319

Mitch

The photo of Queens plaza depicts BMT Q cars on the structure.  They were running in joint operation with the IRT who ran Steinways and Worlds Fair cars which were compatable with the Steinways. The Q cars were  rebuilt for the Worlds  fair as well. They were originally open gate cars.  Some of them were subsequently transfered  to the IRT  3rd Ave el. Then  transferred back to the BMT and ended their career on the Myrtle Ave el. When they ran to the Worlds fair they were the fastest cars on the system. When they went to Mahattan the trucks and motors were changed to maximum traction  and they became the slowest cars n the system. Needless to say the had quite a history. It did not end then. One unit, 3 cars were rebuilt back in to gate cars and now reside in the Transit Museum along with a single closed car. Another closed single car resides in the Trolley Museum in Kingston New York.

A PRT Coal Motor

Interesting story behind that PRT car:  The ashes they hauled wound up as fill in sites owned by PRT officials, who eventually covered the fill with dirt and built houses on them...

https://philadelphianeighborho...king-after-25-years/

I was born and raised in Melbourne and lived there for 24 years until I moved to the Wild west.

Trams have always been a part of Melbourne since the early 1900's the tram stuck into the dirt is just a arty memorial for trams, Melbourne people like those type of things I tried to find a photo of the sign which I thought I snapped but maybe I didn't.

Trams in Melbourne today are like mini trains they are getting bigger and bigger here is one of their latest. Roo.

Trams, Australia=Trolleys, America.

Androscoggin and Kennebec Coal Motor 652

ROO. Very cool story, you share well. I appreciate your posts. Salute!

#ROO. My commute ride, she's sleek and pretty. Light rail in Minnesota. Unfortunately, no out back, Roos, cattle or snakes .... I don't care for snakes

Frank..

It's a great looking Tram...Errr, trolley.

I was born in a suburb where everyone in it were ordinary workers most never had  cars and never had any money, so trams and trains is what we travelled on for years. I loved every minute of it so public transport to me was an extension of my life.  This tram is in Bendigo, Victoria a large town north west of Melbourne I think it might be just a tourist tram nowadays we rode on it. The double crossover is Elizabeth Street, Melbourne it's spring loaded but can be switched by the driver by a lever they carry on the tram. Christmas is a big thing in Australia we still follow tradition for how long I don't know.

I like all the photos here even though I have never modelled traction......or trams! Roo. 

From the 1992 book “Touring Pittsburgh by Trolley”, this photo shows Pittsburgh Railways PCC streetcar #1657 inbound on Route 48 Arlington on a short private right-of-way between two residential homes in 1961.  As the author, Harold A. Smith, states in the caption to this photo, “it was perhaps the ultimate in backyard railroading”.

Bill

RoyBoy posted:

jonmuse posted:

Pittsburgh and New Orleans meet

Is this the western railway museum in Rio Vista Junction?

Roy:

No, that photo was taken at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, PA.

Bill

Member, PTM

Mitch,

Thanks for identifying this great looking car as Interurban No. 26, originally manufactured for the Sheboygan Light Power & Railway in 1908 and meticulously restored by East Troy Electric Railroad volunteers in 2005.

Conestoga Traction plow #310

New York & North Shore Traction Company Car southbound to Mineola. This is likely a Kuhlman built car. The Roslyn Clock Tower was a trolley stop and the tower still stands today.

This may be the same car northbound to Port Washington. It is about to climb a hill and cross Northern Boulevard (Rt 25A).

Have any Kuhlman cars of the early 1900s been saved?

Conestoga Traction 122

Conestoga Traction # 51

MWB raised my curiosity about the Conestoga Traction Company. Here's a link to some more info about the Conestoga Traction Company including some color photos, and surviving Birney #236.

https://www.google.com/search?...tion+comapny,+images

Schenectady Railway Car No. 561 heading into Ballston Spa, New York

The last trolley car to run in New York City on the Queensborough Bridge. Unfortunately, this car was not preserved.

VERY SAD! I remember those cars very well on trips into Manhattan in my younger years. Also my all-time favorite NYC bridge!

RE: Paramount Theater in Brooklyn -  my mother once worked there as an usher in her youth with a then aspiring singer named Vic Damone.

Conestoga Traction #48

Bobby,

The Seashore Trolley Museum has a 1914 Kuhlman. Trolley Stats Page

They may have more examples but the search is a little clunky, to say the least, and I'm in a rush.  Great pictures everyone.

Tomlinson Run Railroad

The Huntington Railroad on Long Island. This company ran a trolley line from Halesite to Amityville via New York Avenue (AKA Rt 110).

Chevy Chase, MD

Capital Transit on the Cabin John Line

Among my favorite trolley cars are the Connecticut Company's Yale Bowl cars. The numbers of passengers that jammed these cars was spectacular and unprecedented. 

I have often made posts on this forum begging MTH to market a Rail King Osgood Bradley open car. I realize that a can motor and PS 3 electronics would need to protrude above the floor over and between the car's trucks.  However, the protruding items can easily be hidden by loads of people just in the pictures of the Yale Bowl cars.

Look at the list of this Yale Bowl car jammed with passengers.

Bobby Ogage posted:

 I realize that a can motor and PS 3 electronics would need to protrude above the floor over and between the car's trucks.

Maybe not.  Consider the use of magic carpet drives; possible to put most electronics in the ceiling?

Is there any hope that the Queensborough Bridge Car 601, the last trolley car to run in New York City, can be restored to operating condition?

Lake Harriet (Minneapolis/St.Paul Minnesota) in the days... she has been fully restored and runs today

Capital Traction Steeple Cab

I'd like to have that one in my back yard.  The neighbors would love it.

Pan Handle Traction Co. in WV

Thw Queensboro car 601 was in immaculate condition in 1959 when stored at St. George Staten Island. I helped touch up rust spots on the car that year. I can't believe what happened to it. Gross negligence.

Altoona & Logan Valley Trolley 102

Pittsburgh Railways deck roof box motor F6, used for store door delivery

(Charlie Dengler photo courtesy of the Ken Josephson collection)

Philadelphia Suburban Work Flat Motor 05 in1943

Trolley ambulance.

Tommy posted:

Trolley ambulance.

This pic intrigued me, so I did a bit of research:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/...n,_February_1918.jpg

A trolley ambulance at Bartlett Yard in Boston in February 1918. Car #1657 was a nine-bench open car built by American Car and Foundry Company in 1899, and the last of its type in use on the Boston Elevated Railway. In early 1918, it was converted to carry stretchers to transport wounded soldiers from the Boston wharves to inland hospitals. However, the growing popularity of automobiles rendered it ineffective, and no others were built. The car was converted to carry advertising after the war, then burned for scrap at Forest Hills in 1922.

Mitch

Boston:

Richmond:

and New York:

... found these when I was researching to make my own tinplate trolleys, wanted to find some good prototypical names & graphics.  

david

W & OD RPO trolley

PRT Work Car Z-8

Johnstown Traction 300 Series cars are among my favorites, and two of the Western Hobbycraft models roam my railroad. Here are cars 353, 355 and 357. Several of the 300 Series cars have been saved by museums.

Bobby Ogage posted:

Johnstown Traction 300 Series cars are among my favorites, and two of the Western Hobbycraft models roam my railroad. Here are cars 353, 355 and 357. Several of the 300 Series cars have been saved by museums.

And here’s Johnstown #350 at the PA Trolley Museum in 2004.  Fortunately it’s now stored indoors and it remains in virtually the same condition as it was in its last days of service in Johnstown.

Here’s a link to a list with photos of all the equipment in the collection of the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, PA: Collection

Bill

The Pennsylvania trolley museum is well worth a visit. They have an excellent loop to loop demonstration trolley ride.

Hello Tom !

I know that area quite well --- I rode that Yonkers Ave TARS Trolley with my uncle back in 1950 and 51 on his day joyride trips with me -- up there usually for him to go to Yonkers Raceway from our Manhattan neighborhood, to bet the horses !  We also rode the TARS Maclean Avenue Trolley line.  To this day I remember those trips clearly !  

Sometimes my uncle  (who never drove nor ever had a car)  and I took the NY Central old MU Commuter train north from the then very dimly lit and dank tunnel station platforms of the NY Central RR Grand Central Terminal -- north to the Yonkers Station and took the Trolley ride westtward from there (and a stop at of course, YONKERS Raceway, heh) . Other times we took the Manhattan 3rd Ave EL train  (MUDC EL Cars)  from our upper East Side EL Station straight up to the Bronx and up to the lower level platforms of the double-decked Gun Hill Road EL Station,  and went to the upper level on that EL Station complex to change to the White Plains Rd EL train (Low-V Subway Cars) further north to its end at E.241st St Terminal Station, and hopped on the White Plains Rd TARS Trolley to W. 1st Street  into Mt Vernon and changed to the Mt. Vernon Ave-Yonkers Avenue TARS trolley westbound  to the Racetrack up by Central Ave.  What great memories of those times and the way things were back then !   We always hit a luncheonette or ice cream parlor for a snack !

Here BELOW is a current close photo of that one-time long ago Gas Station in the scene with the Trolley -- at corner of Ridgefield Ave.

Yonkers Avenue in the distance starts an uphill many blocks long "C" shaped right curve,  and an immediate reverse "C" curve and then straight west to top of hill at Central Park Avenue which parallels the NY State Thruway which runs along both side of it in a deep open cut.  I remember when that was simply called CENTRAL Avenue and was just another a wide Avenue and NO Thruway (which is called the Major Deegan Highway in the Bronx).  I remember when the Deegan and Thurway were being constructed thru the early-mid 1950's -- what a mess Central Avenue was then --- my father and his dad and I drove from the Bronx way up into "Westchester County"  to Central Ave into Yonkers to a Food Fair supermarket to shop at times. 

I drove to NYC in August 2015 in very early morning darkness -- hitting the Bronx and driving  up Broadway under the IRT EL to W.242nd St Station terminal (Van Cort Park) and headed further north into Yonkers. I turned east on Yonkers Ave to head towards Mt Vernon, and stopped at the Clairmont Diner at 6AM for breakfast,  across the street from the old Yonkers Raceway -- now Empire City Casino. I then headed east down Yonkers Ave at daybreak -- past the scene in the photo, and across the Bronx River Parkway and thereby into Mt. Vernon,  to check out any NYW&B Railway remains (hardly none left) and entered the Bronx by the ex-NYW&B's still existing part there now operating as the IRT Dyre Ave Line.

Here BELOW are some photos of the TARS streetcar line in my Manhattan area my  3rd Avenue of then back in the 1940's -- seen running under the old IRT 3rd Avenue "EL".

Regards - Joe F 

This is a "headlight" car in 1910. Streetcars at that time had removable headlights, which required constant servicing. They were distributed each night by the headlight car. Note the collection of headlights on the platform.

Joseph Frank posted:

Hello Tom !

I know that area quite well --- I rode that Yonkers Ave TARS Trolley with my uncle back in 1950 and 51 on his day joyride trips with me -- up there usually for him to go to Yonkers Raceway from our Manhattan neighborhood, to bet the horses !  We also rode the TARS Maclean Avenue Trolley line.  To this day I remember those trips clearly !  

Sometimes my uncle  (who never drove nor ever had a car)  and I took the NY Central old MU Commuter train north from the then very dimly lit and dank tunnel station platforms of the NY Central RR Grand Central Terminal -- north to the Yonkers Station and took the Trolley ride eastward from there (and a stop at of course, YONKERS Raceway, heh) . Other times we took the Manhattan 3rd Ave EL train  (MUDC EL Cars)  from our upper East Side EL Station straight up to the Bronx and up to the lower level platforms of the double-decked Gun Hill Road EL Station,  and went to the upper level on that EL Station complex to change to the White Plains Rd EL train (Low-V Subway Cars) further north to its end at E.241st St Terminal Station, and hopped on the White Plains Rd TARS Trolley to W. 1st Street  into Mt Vernon and changed to the Mt. Vernon Ave-Yonkers Avenue TARS trolley westbound  to the Racetrack up by Central Ave.  What great memories of those times and the way things were back then !   We always hit a luncheonette or ice cream parlor for a snack !

Here BELOW is a current close photo of that one-time long ago Gas Station in the scene with the Trolley -- at corner of Ridgefield Ave.

 

Yonkers Avenue in the distance starts an uphill many blocks long "C" shaped right curve,  and an immediate reverse "C" curve and then straight west to top of hill at Central Park Avenue which parallels the NY State Thruway which runs along both side of it in a deep open cut.  I remember when that was simply called CENTRAL Avenue and was just another a wide Avenue and NO Thruway (which is called the Major Deegan Highway in the Bronx).  I remember when the Deegan and Thurway were being constructed thru the early-mid 1950's -- what a mess Central Avenue was then --- my father and his dad and I drove from the Bronx way up into "Westchester County"  to Central Ave into Yonkers to a Food Fair supermarket to shop at times. 

I drove to NYC in August 2015 in very early morning darkness -- hitting the Bronx and driving  up Broadway under the IRT EL to W.242nd St Station terminal (Van Cort Park) and headed further north into Yonkers. I turned east on Yonkers Ave to head towards Mt Vernon, and stopped at the Clairmont Diner at 6AM for breakfast,  across the street from the old Yonkers Raceway -- now Empire City Casino. I then headed east down Yonkers Ave at daybreak -- past the scene in the photo, and across the Bronx River Parkway and thereby into Mt. Vernon,  to check out any NYW&B Railway remains (hardly none left) and entered the Bronx by the ex-NYW&B's still existing part there now operating as the IRT Dyre Ave Line.

Here BELOW are some photos of the TARS streetcar line in my Manhattan area my  3rd Avenue of then back in the 1940's -- seen running under the old IRT 3rd Avenue "EL".

Regards - Joe F 

 

Joe, Ha! Great stuff...Let me know the next time you are in the neighborhood and we can eat lunch at the Clairmont. My wife and I are there once a month or so...love the French Onion soup and the goulash! Since you knew the area, my first job in life, during those crucial life changing Mt. St. Michael years (!), was working at nearby Cross County Shopping Center, working at the now long gone Finast Supermarket. 

On your list of options to travel to the trotters, there could have been another one, which would have probably been pretty direct, Grand Central to Mt. Vernon West station on the Harlem Division followed by riding the TARS west up Yonkers Ave. 

Tom 

MNCWMEMBER

7 HOURS AGO

Joseph Frank posted:

Hello Tom !

I know that area quite well --- I rode that Yonkers Ave TARS Trolley with my uncle back in 1950 and 51 on his day joyride trips with me -- up there usually for him to go to Yonkers Raceway from our Manhattan neighborhood, to bet the horses !  We also rode the TARS Maclean Avenue Trolley line.  To this day I remember those trips clearly !  

Sometimes my uncle  (who never drove nor ever had a car)  and I took the NY Central old MU Commuter train north from the then very dimly lit and dank tunnel station platforms of the NY Central RR Grand Central Terminal -- north to the Yonkers Station and took the Trolley ride westward from there (and a stop at of course, YONKERS Raceway, heh) . Other times we took the Manhattan 3rd Ave EL train  (MUDC EL Cars)  from our upper East Side EL Station straight up to the Bronx and up to the lower level platforms of the double-decked Gun Hill Road EL Station,  and went to the upper level on that EL Station complex to change to the White Plains Rd EL train (Low-V Subway Cars) further north to its end at E.241st St Terminal Station, and hopped on the White Plains Rd TARS Trolley to W. 1st Street  into Mt Vernon and changed to the Mt. Vernon Ave-Yonkers Avenue TARS trolley westbound  to the Racetrack up by Central Ave.  What great memories of those times and the way things were back then !   We always hit a luncheonette or ice cream parlor for a snack !

Here BELOW is a current close photo of that one-time long ago Gas Station in the scene with the Trolley -- at corner of Ridgefield Ave.

 

Yonkers Avenue in the distance starts an uphill many blocks long "C" shaped right curve,  and an immediate reverse "C" curve and then straight west to top of hill at Central Park Avenue which parallels the NY State Thruway which runs along both side of it in a deep open cut.  I remember when that was simply called CENTRAL Avenue and was just another a wide Avenue and NO Thruway (which is called the Major Deegan Highway in the Bronx).  I remember when the Deegan and Thurway were being constructed thru the early-mid 1950's -- what a mess Central Avenue was then --- my father and his dad and I drove from the Bronx way up into "Westchester County"  to Central Ave into Yonkers to a Food Fair supermarket to shop at times. 

I drove to NYC in August 2015 in very early morning darkness -- hitting the Bronx and driving  up Broadway under the IRT EL to W.242nd St Station terminal (Van Cort Park) and headed further north into Yonkers. I turned east on Yonkers Ave to head towards Mt Vernon, and stopped at the Clairmont Diner at 6AM for breakfast,  across the street from the old Yonkers Raceway -- now Empire City Casino. I then headed east down Yonkers Ave at daybreak -- past the scene in the photo, and across the Bronx River Parkway and thereby into Mt. Vernon,  to check out any NYW&B Railway remains (hardly none left) and entered the Bronx by the ex-NYW&B's still existing part there now operating as the IRT Dyre Ave Line.

Here BELOW are some photos of the TARS streetcar line in my Manhattan area my  3rd Avenue of then back in the 1940's -- seen running under the old IRT 3rd Avenue "EL".

Regards - Joe F 

 

Joe, Ha! Great stuff...Let me know the next time you are in the neighborhood and we can eat lunch at the Clairmont. My wife and I are there once a month or so...love the French Onion soup and the goulash! Since you knew the area, my first job in life, during those crucial life changing Mt. St. Michael years (!), was working at nearby Cross County Shopping Center, working at the now long gone Finast Supermarket. 

On your list of options to travel to the trotters, there could have been another one, which would have probably been pretty direct, Grand Central to Mt. Vernon West station on the Harlem Division followed by riding the TARS west up Yonkers Ave. 

Tom 

Pennsylvania Railroad/Lionel Prewar Semi-Scale Switchers http://steamswitcher.com 

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 Hello Tom !

Yes, next time I come up there perhaps it will be arranged to be on a weekend or day you are off work.  Lunch sounds good,  perhaps some NYW&B hunting  (not much left to hunt, heh)

I now realize that it WAS the the fairly new Cross County Shopping center (and there was a diner up there we ate at also) in the 1950's that my father, grandpop and I went to -- and that supermarket store WAS "Finast" -- not Food Fair.  The Food Fair was closer to where my father lived in the Bronx near the Polo Shuttle.

Well, its not like I am a Supermarket historian -- but I did get the first letter (F) correct heh !

YES, heh - As we both know, the ACTUAL "Yonkers" Station of the NYCRR is on Dock Street in downtown Yonkers on the HUDSON Mainline of the former NYCRR - now AMCRASH !

I in error seem to always call, as it runs parallel to Bronx River Parkway,  the NY Central RR HARLEM  LINE's "West Mt. Vernon" Station on Mt. Vernon Ave,  the "Yonkers" Station.  As you know -- just a short walk west across the Mt. Vernon Ave. roadway  past (under) the commuter tracks and its overhead West Mt. Vernon Station,   and the roadway bridge over the Parkway Lanes and parallel small Bronx River,  is Bronx River Road (aka Webster Avenue a bit further south) -- and Yonkers begins along its west curb line. 

My uncle, -- who then was a manager of a LOEW'S Theater  in my upper Manhattan neighborhood -  and I  usually walked west over to the beginning of Yonkers Avenue  from the RR Station, where he sometimes took me to a small movie theater there where he knew an employee, perhaps its manager.  We stopped at a very close nearby then-luncheonette or soda shop, whatever, on the uphill curve of Yonkers Ave, near the Theater,  for a snack.  Then we usually caught the TARS Trolley uphill westbound to either ride it to "downtown" Yonkers" or go to the Racetrack at Central Avenue so he could place his bets on the horses ! His brother Townsend was a well known race horse  Sulky Driver -  and they named a tournament class after him when he died decades later.

One day in 1950, he boosted me up to a small stripped, breeze-flapping  awning outside  a small barber shop in the row of small stores on Yonkers Ave just west of Bronx River Road near the Theater.  I had developed somehow,   a childhood slight fear of canvas awnings for some reason, heh  -- and my uncle  told me it was OK, don't be afraid..and to go ahead and feel, touch,  the hanging stripped awning canvas.  Well, I down-yanked  hard on the darned ancient tattered thing and something snapped and part of the awning collapsed slightly !!!! 

Thankfully the Red & Cream TARS trolley was banging across Bronx River Ave on onto Yonkers Ave and groaning up the hill on the curve.  We ran out to the street to catch the trolley as it rattled to its carstop in front of the Theater !  As we both enters the trolley - the doors closed and the barber came running out from his shop waving his arms and yelling ....and we watched him as the trolley groaned and whines on its uphill ride on Yonkers Ave.  Here is a color movie of how it looked to me back then with Trolleys seen running along the curves of Yonkers Avenue.

COLOR MOVIE - TARS Trolleys on Yonkers Avenue

Below  photo in east Yonkers looking Northwest up the curving hill on Yonkers Avenue at Crescent Place (right) in 2014 -- this is a long block west of Bronx River Road and the Mt. Vernon border...

 The ABOVE photo is at the same location as top photo - in east Yonkers looking Northwest up the curving hill on Yonkers Avenue at Crescent place (right) with an eastbound TARS # 7 trolley heading downhill towards Bronx River Avenue and Mount Vernon.  This is a short block west just above the Movie theater & Row of Shops (and that broken awning) just behind the photographer  as I mentioned in my message above.  This is exactly how it looked and what I saw in 1950 in this exact area !

Regards - Joe F

As you may recall, the Kimball Theatre and those other few stores was approximately where the photographer in your picture above would have been standing to take that picture.

Unfortunately, as time marches on, the theatre and the handful of stores (i believe they were all mostly long closed) were recently torn down.

http://www.lohud.com/story/new...atre-razed/95374098/

All that was left were the telephone poles with the wanted poster for some young child and an older man who did some 1950's awning vandalism! 

I had seen a few James Bond movies in the 1970's at the Kimball along with a sci-fi "Logan's Run" there.

Sadly, the trolleys in Yonkers were gone before I came along. 

Tom 

Thanks for the color trolley movie, very nice. Never had seen that before. Interesting to see how the cars interacted with the trolleys. At around 2:03 into it you can see the marquee for the Kimball Theatre sticking out on the right side of the street. 

Tom 

Hello Tom 

Here BELOW is the way the scene looked where I broke the awning and we caught the trolley --  I remember that the barber shop was at the end of the row because the wind was blowing south along its east facing side wall and my Uncle and I stood under the awning near the right edge of the right hand window to keep out of the wind flow.  And that awning was flapping. I'm glad that trolley came along when it did - as my uncle (already in his 60's) would have caught hell - or worse - from the barber - heh .  I was just an innocent kid back then, ha ha ...  We ran down hill and caught the trolley about just where my yellow description text line is written on the image

Yes Tom,  Yonkers and Mt Vernon are a sad shadow these days of the once beautiful and great places they were in the 1900's thru early 1960's.  Sad to hear these structures in the photo were demolished...oh well...time marches on and we get older.........  Regards - Joe F

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MNCW posted:

Thanks for the color trolley movie, very nice. Never had seen that before. Interesting to see how the cars interacted with the trolleys. At around 2:03 into it you can see the marquee for the Kimball Theatre sticking out on the right side of the street. 

Tom 

Hello Tom

Here is a better quality movie -- from 2015,  of the fully restored TARS Trolley # 678 at the National Capital Trolley Museum in Wheaton Maryland.  This is the type of TARS streetcar we rode on Yonkers Ave & Maclean Ave back in that 1949-51 period.  This video had all the sounds and feel of the actual car  - both exterior and filmed inside the car behind the operator worth a look to see what it was like to ride one.  I can close my eyes and I'm riding in Yonkers again !  Even with the chatter of the "other passengers..."   LINK BELOW

RIDING ON A T.A.R.S. TROLLEY CAR in 2015 - IN COLOR

BELOW also are two photos of my model of TARS CAR # 629  shown on the street in the shadows of my overhead Elevated Train Line -- Car # 629 which is the sister to # 678 seen operating in the Museum movie !!

Regards - Joe F

Joe (& all), I found a part II of the TARS YouTube video that is pretty cool. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAE4Qf8IA1I

I liked seeing the cobblestone streets of Yonkers in the 1940's and some cool looking cars and trucks including one woody wagon. Also, since this was before my time, I thought I noticed a tendency of drivers to want to pass the trolleys whenever possible. Was it any worse than being behind today's local buses? 

At 18:10, there is Yonkers Ave and Walnut St., which I knew very well as my wife and her family lived 2 blocks up and I used to buy her flowers at that very corner (the building diagonally across the street looks like it was then a luncheonette with a Coke sign on it, later it would be Cascade Florist, closed for maybe 10-20 years now). 

Tom 

Thank you every nice video   

York Rwys 402 in Snow near Dallastown PA

Eureka Municipal Rwy Line Car at Barn in 1939

P&N 5004

WB&A Freight Motors at the Washington Terminal

On the Savannah & Statesboro Rwy

Corry and Columbus 4 wheel car on the Brokenstraw Creek Bridge

Milwaukee, 1951. J.M. Canfield photo, James H. Yanke collection.  

I would like to know what is happening in this photo of trolley cars on Staten Island, NY. What colors were these car? There are few photos of Staten Island trolley cars posted on the internet. It would be nice to know more about Staten Island's trolley system.

mwb posted:

WB&A Freight Motors at the Washington Terminal

I used to jog along the right of way of the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis when I lived in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

International Rwys Snowplow

#MWB. I want One!! 

"International Rwys Snowplow"

thanks for sharing... salute

My ride on the Yakima Valley. Don

One more inside the barn. Don

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