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Bobby Ogage posted:

Trolley cars in Vermont.RRStationStateSt-1923Notice the black bands on the trees. Is that sticky stuff to prevent Gypsy Moth caterpillars from decimating the leaves?

The Burlington RR station postcard is amazing.  Thanks!

Re: the black bands, the height looks about right for gypsy moths.  Wikipedia says they were introduced in Massachusetts in 1868 and spread throughout the Northeast.  Ontario also had them. So, it very well could be.  Those look like hardwood trees, too.

Tomlinson Run Railroad

This post card of Cooper Square in New York City fascinates me. Cooper Square is at the junction of 3rd & 4th Avenues and E6th Street. It is the home of Cooper Union, one of the finest colleges in the USA.

The post card depicts Cooper Union (building with the flag), the 3rd Avenue El and trolley cars on 4th Avenue in 1917. On November 14, 1832 the world’s first streetcar line ran on the Bowery and 4th Avenue, between Prince and 14th Street. Street cars of the Third Avenue Railway ran underneath the El.

Notice the cobble stone roadways. Those stones lead to the installation of iron street car rails in the streets for a smoother ride than the carriages of the day could provide. Horse drawn street cars evolved to electric street cars, and the buried third rail between the tracks supplied safe hi-voltage electricity to run the street cars.

The post card is hand colored, and the color of the street cars may not be authentic.

 

Cooper-Sq-1917

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Great photos of Manhattan street railways, The historical perspective is most interesting as well. I might add that befor electric propulsion, Manhattan cars used a cable system. The cables were located in an underground conduit between the rails with the cabl grips on the cars extending through the opening in the conduit. . When electrification came of age, it was the choice to use the coduit for the trolley wire so to speak and equipping cars with electrical equipment and insulated contact shoes for power pickup. The system was preferred since it eliminated the need for street poles to support trolley wire used elsewhere. It thus became the standard approach in Manhattan. There was little of the conduit design in the outer boroughs , consisting only that which was associated with Manhattan car lines entering Brooklyn ie Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge lines. Some Tars crs were equipped with these contact shoes as well as overhead poles . These cars were  on routes that crossed from Manhattan into the Bronx I believe. 

David Johnston posted:
Bobby Ogage posted:

More trolley & interurban cars in California.Thunder Bay kb

I do not recognize any of these as California cars. Maybe somewhere else?

Given the business sign on one of the photos for what looks like McCartney's English china, my guess was Canada.  Wikipedia confirms that Port Arthur and Fort William are in Ontario.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_William,_Ontario

That explains the "baseball this afternoon" sign, too :-).

Go Blue Jays!

Tomlinson Run Railroad

Last edited by TomlinsonRunRR
TomlinsonRunRR posted:

And the double truck P.A.Y.E cars (whatever that stands for) may have been manufactured by the Cincinnati Car Company.  I found a web hit for that type of car being delivered to Georgia in 1922.  Can anyone else elaborate further?

Tomlinson Run Railroad

Pay As You Enter, meaning a one trolley man car where there was no conductor to collect the fare, only the trolley driver who you would have to pay as you boarded.  

Reduced labor cost, but also could a trolley’s progress along its route.

As an aside,  P.A.Y.E. is now commonly used to mean Pay As You Earn, a type of student loan.

Alan

Alan B posted:
TomlinsonRunRR posted:

And the double truck P.A.Y.E cars (whatever that stands for) may have been manufactured by the Cincinnati Car Company.  I found a web hit for that type of car being delivered to Georgia in 1922.  Can anyone else elaborate further?

Tomlinson Run Railroad

Pay As You Enter, meaning a one trolley man car where there was no conductor to collect the fare, only the trolley driver who you would have to pay as you boarded.  

Reduced labor cost, but also could a trolley’s progress along its route.

As an aside,  P.A.Y.E. is now commonly used to mean Pay As You Earn, a type of student loan.

Alan

Ah, thank-you for the explanation(s) of P.A.Y.E, Alan.  Given that meaning, scratch my musing about the Cincinnati Car Company.  I wouldn't imagine they had a monopoly on the manufacture of that type of car.

Thanks for the info.

TRRR 

TomlinsonRunRR posted:
Bobby Ogage posted:

Trolley cars in Vermont.RRStationStateSt-1923Notice the black bands on the trees. Is that sticky stuff to prevent Gypsy Moth caterpillars from decimating the leaves?

The Burlington RR station postcard is amazing.  Thanks!

Re: the black bands, the height looks about right for gypsy moths.  Wikipedia says they were introduced in Massachusetts in 1868 and spread throughout the Northeast.  Ontario also had them. So, it very well could be.  Those look like hardwood trees, too.

Tomlinson Run Railroad

I agree.  The black bands were meant to fight Gypsy moth infestation.  We had them here about forty years ago.  They're gone, but now we have Stink Bugs, Lantern Flies and who knows what else may be coming down the pike ?

Bobby Ogage posted:

More trolley cars in Pennsylvania

FirstElectricTrolleyCarGirard_Callowhill_6_smHarrisburg, paKlapperthalMtNeversink-1913land_j

Second photo seems to be PTC ( Philadelphia Transportation Company ) shop.

Last photo looks like, is Penn's landing along the Delaware River.  I think Buckingham Trolley Association operated there for a short time.  

Where were the other two photos taken ?

Hi Bobby

 The Brooklyn City railroad was the original horsecar line which began operations in 1854. There were several other companies that came to be within the next decade. There were Horse car lines , a couple of cable car routes and finally electrification about 1895. 

The BRT or Brooklyn Rapid Transit Corporation was formed around the turn of the century to consolidate transit in Brooklyn and Queens and Nassau under one corporate entity. There were but a few that did not become part of BRT  most notable of which was the Manhattan Bridge  3 cent line running between Flatbush and Fulton st to Manhattan and canal street via the Manhattan Bridge. 

The BRT had over its history a number of Labor Union diputes and strikes. During the 1919 strike, the well known Malbone street accident occurred which forced the company in receivership.

In 1923, the company was reorganized into the BMT or Brooklyn  Manhattan Transit . It took over all of the BRT subway and elevated rail lines as well as the BRT trolley and bus lines that existed at the time . The Brooklyn and Queens Transit was organized as a separate company in 1929 and the BMT placed the operation of the Brooklyn and Queens Transit streetcar and bus routes at that time under B&QT Operation. 

In June 1940, New York city organized the Board of Transport which acquired the assets and operations of the IRT and the BMT including the B&QT A process of unification began at that time. The City replaced the Board of Transport with the Transit Authority in 1953 and the first true unified line took place 1n 1954 with the BMT Culver line in Brooklyn on McDonald avenue, being re routed into the IND;s 6th avenue line at Church ave. All but three trolley lines in Brooklyn were gone by then , these last three closing by October 1956.

So to answer your question , All of the companies you noted were part of one company and the same company that oprated the streetcar lines in Brooklyn. From the Horse car of the Brooklyn City Railroad to the PCC car shown in the Transit Authority colors represents a span of 100 years of Streetcar lines in Brooklyn. A great post Bobby. 

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