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Bobby Ogage posted:

International Railway Company Trolley #23 at Buffalo, New York on February 22, 1948

International Railway Company Trolley #23 at Buffalo, New York on February 22, 1948

I think Buffalo was the first city to use the Near-Side car design.  

Philadelphia was the biggest user, with 1,500 of them running by 1915: 

In later years, most of the Nearsides were converted to center exit: 

In addition to Buffalo and Philadelphia, Nearsides ran in Chicago and Atlantic City.

Mitch 

 

briansilvermustang posted:

                                       Mitch, where ARE you...

Odd trolley poles on that critter! 

Bobby Ogage posted:

M. Mitchel,

Please explain what a "nearside" trolley car is.

Sure!  Take a trolley like this:

Cars like this would board from the rear platform.  So, the procedure at an intersection would be for the car to cross, then stop with the rear platform at the corner (the 'far side' across the street).   

The Nearside car, on the other hand, is designed to load from the front:  

So, it would stop before the intersection and not block it while loading. 

Before the Nearsides were converted to center exit cars, entry and exit were done via the front doors, which made things a tad awkward...

Mitch

jim pastorius posted:

I see a "Flying Fraction" PCC car crossing the Smithfield st. bridge in Pgh. Rode that a few times !!

Hi Jim:

I believe that route 77/54 Northside-Carrick via Bloomfield was the original “Flying Fraction” made famous by KDKA radio personality Rege Cordic back in the 1950’s.  See the attached pdf file.  That route didn’t cross the Smithfield Street Bridge as it crossed the Mon on the 22nd Street Bridge on its way from Carrick to Oakland and then also crossed the Allegheny on the 16th Street Bridge on its way from Oakland to the North Side.  As a kid living in Carrick I rode that route many times to baseball games at Forbes Field and to go to the Carnegie Museum or other attractions in Oakland.  This route was discontinued in 1965. 

However, Bobby’s photo you are referring to above is a car on route 42/38 Mt. Lebanon/Beechview.  This route was a much “newer” route created by combining parts of the former 42 Dormont and 38 Mt. Lebanon routes.  This was one of the last surviving PAT streetcar routes and likely the only one that remained which had a fractional route number so I can see why it may have been considered a later version “Flying Fraction”.

Bill

Member, Pennsylvania Trolley Museum

 

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