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briansilvermustang posted:

 

Nice!  There were a lot of interurbans used for freight, I'd love to see Lionel issue one with the milk car mechanism.  

The Laurel Line in Scranton/Wilkes-barre also used several freight motors.  One of these days I will get around to putting a modified #60 trolley body on a #520 box cab frame.  

Bobby Ogage posted:

Springfield Vermont Car

An interesting note about this paint scheme:  You'd find schemes like this all over the country.  As I understand it,  this was at the behest of the banks;  if one property went bankrupt,  they could sell the cars to another property without needing to repaint...   

rex desilets posted:

The car is, I think, heading into the 69th St terminal. On the street to the left used to be Todd's Hobby Shop, wherein I spent numerous hours when in High School.

I bought my second trolley (a Bowser Brill) at Todd's in the 1970s...   

Mitch 

Well, went for my interview with Herzog Transit Services today, the firm for maintaining and operating the streetcar line in Oklahoma City.  I believe it went well, will know more in the next week.   Looking forward to the running being in operation first of next year.  They will not be as extensive as the interurbans that ran until the 1940's, but plan to expand at later date, depending upon the efficiency of first phase.  Cars are built by the Brookline Equipment Corp. in Pennsylvania.  There will be some areas of running off overhead cantenary power,  the remainder of routes to run with onboard lithium batteries.  There are to be an initial seven cars running, each with a 100 persons capacity.

  I suppose I may be looking for some O gauge Herzog hopper cars.  I have seen them, somewhere, and perhaps on lines in real time while working around the four directions of our great country.  Getting closer to beginning my new adventure... as an engineer/operator of rail running, passenger carrying, loving every minute mode of transportation.  Will be posting pics of the streetcars soon.....

Jesse     TCA  12-68275

Last edited by texastrain

DSC04951Car body by Island Modelworks;           details and trucks by Q car company                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             usr_m_pit_conv_3811_charleroiinterurban_1940s_01_billvig3080 amelia

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  • DSC04951: Body by Island Modelworks, detail and trucks by Q Car
  • usr_m_pit_conv_3811_charleroiinterurban_1940s_01_billvig: St Louis Car Company lightweight interurban
  • 3080 amelia: Amelia Earhart promoting Pittsburgh Railways interurban
Last edited by C.M McMahon

That is an early picture of the Units in the orange, black, and silver paint scheme designed by Alan Atkins.   The skirts around the trucks have not been cut back yet. But it is intersesting to see how dark the roof looks.  They were painted with aluminum paint and usually looked good except for a little graphite stain in the center that came off the trolley wire. 

Bobby Ogage posted:

Watch this film of New York City in 1911. It has trolley cars closeup.

https://www.chonday.com/30266/ newyosolfi6/

This film is priceless!  The RMS Titanic sank within a year of this film being made and fits in perfectly with the book From Time To Time by Jack Finney (however, you might want to read his Time and Again first).  Most all the men in this film were wearing suits and "boater" style straw hats.  I feel that the straw hats signified summertime.  Also note that all the women wore hats and long sleeves.  Getting a suntan wasn't fashionable back then.  The triangular "Flat Iron" building (2:53) was only 9 years old when this film was made.  Interesting to watch how everyone managed to wend their way thru traffic with trolleys, horse drawn wagons, motor cars and pedestrians.    Thanks so much for posting. 

Last edited by Allegheny48

Bobby Ogage,

What a great way to start the morning!  That film is amazing.  The trolleys were nice to watch but I was struck by how many more horse-drawn vehicles there were in 1911 in the streets of NY.  Even in the shots taken from rooftops (towards the end), you can hear the echo and comp-clomp of horses' hooves.

The closeups of steamships and tugs (another mechanical love of mine) were great, too.

Thanks for posting.

Tomlinson Run Railroad 

Bobby Ogage posted:

Watch this film of New York City in 1911. It has trolley cars closeup.

https://www.chonday.com/30266/ newyosolfi6/

Excellent dubbing and speed correction job! 

FYI:  If you watch an old silent film,  and it seems to be running fast,  that's 'cos it's running fast!    Silent films were shot at 18 frames per second,  while sound films were shot at 24 frames per second.   So,  if you put a silent film on a sound projector without a speed control,  you'll get sped up film... 

Mitch 

jim pastorius posted:

Downtown Pittsburgh-not Wilkinsburg. The big, dark building in the left rear is the old market House, I believe. Now a park. 

Thanks, Jim.  I wondered what the rest of the lettering said.

I got the Wilkinsburg from the original page and may have misread the intent.  I don't recognize this part of town but, if I recall, the web page said something about the building on the right being cleaned of city grime.

Great detail, trolleys, cars, and especially that truck in the lower left.  That would look great on my carpet layout :-).

TRRR

An update for the trolley diner people. The diner that was at Station square in Pittsburgh and moved next to a theater in Irwin, Pa. has been undergoing renovations. Evidently it was in worse shape than they thought but is being restored. It will used as part of the theater concession stand and a wet bar. No grill, no food. They hope to have it open by the end of the year.

TomlinsonRunRR posted:
jim pastorius posted:

Downtown Pittsburgh-not Wilkinsburg. The big, dark building in the left rear is the old market House, I believe. Now a park. 

Thanks, Jim.  I wondered what the rest of the lettering said.

I got the Wilkinsburg from the original page and may have misread the intent.  I don't recognize this part of town but, if I recall, the web page said something about the building on the right being cleaned of city grime.

Great detail, trolleys, cars, and especially that truck in the lower left.  That would look great on my carpet layout :-).

TRRR

Jim's 

TomlinsonRunRR posted:

1950 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Wood Street and Penn Avenue (Wilkinsburg):

(No clompling horses here.)

Tomlinson Run Rairoad

That’s a great vintage scene and Jim is correct as that location is definitely in downtown Pittsburgh, not Wilkinsburg.   And that market building he pointed out in the rear is the old Diamond Market. 

However, the street names are not correct because Wood Street and Penn Avenue do not intersect.  Wood Street starts at Liberty Avenue and goes southwest to Ft. Pitt Boulevard.  Penn Avenue runs parallel to Liberty Avenue on the other side of where Wood begins at Liberty and coincidently runs all the way to Wilkinsburg. 

As you can see in the photo the Diamond market building actually straddled Diamond Street.  So this old Pittsburgher believes that photo shows the somewhat complicated intersection of Diamond Street, Ferry Street (off to the right) and Liberty Avenue (running diagonally near the bottom of the photo).  Inbound streetcars on routes 64, 66, 67, 68 and 69 followed Forbes Street from Oakland to Diamond Street, came down Diamond Street running through or under the market building, turned left on Ferry Street and then left again on 4th Avenue to start their outbound runs.  That first streetcar is turning left onto what I believe is Ferry Street which helps to support my theory on this location.

Can any of you other old Pittsburghers either confirm or correct my theory?

As Jim said the Diamond Market Building was demolished and today there is indeed a park, called Market Square, in that area.  What used to be Diamond Street is now Forbes Avenue and I’m not sure what happened to Ferry Street!

Bill

 

Last edited by WftTrains

OK, this is puzzling:  The photo says Hist. Society of Western PA, but it is actually at the Carnegie Museum of Art.  Who knows what prior web search turned up my previously reported bogus information. (Sorry.)

The photo is called "1951 Diamond Market Street Cars and Wabash Terminal".  Here's the info and the photographer:

https://historicpittsburgh.org...ect/pitt%3A1998.52.1

This web site has several other photos of the Diamond Market, and who knows, possibly more trolley photos.  

Tomlinson Run Railroad

UPDATE:  I've been browsing that web site and found the same photo also named "Liberty Avenue and Ferry Street".  There are a couple of photos of Market Park, some of trolleys, and some showing street construction with the trolley tracks visibly embedded.  It's worth browsing and there's a search field.

Last edited by TomlinsonRunRR
jim pastorius posted:

An update for the trolley diner people. The diner that was at Station square in Pittsburgh and moved next to a theater in Irwin, Pa. has been undergoing renovations. Evidently it was in worse shape than they thought but is being restored. It will used as part of the theater concession stand and a wet bar. No grill, no food. They hope to have it open by the end of the year.

Would that be the Lamp Theatre at 222 Main Street in Irwin? 

TomlinsonRunRR posted:

OK, this is puzzling:  The photo says Hist. Society of Western PA, but it is actually at the Carnegie Museum of Art.  Who knows what prior web search turned up my previously reported bogus information. (Sorry.)

The photo is called "1951 Diamond Market Street Cars and Wabash Terminal".  Here's the info and the photographer:

https://historicpittsburgh.org...ect/pitt%3A1998.52.1

This web site has several other photos of the Diamond Market, and who knows, possibly more trolley photos.  

Tomlinson Run Railroad

UPDATE:  I've been browsing that web site and found the same photo also named "Liberty Avenue and Ferry Street".  There are a couple of photos of Market Park, some of trolleys, and some showing street construction with the trolley tracks visibly embedded.  It's worth browsing and there's a search field.

TRR:

Yes, that site's a great resource.  As the name implies they cover a wide range of topics related to the history of the Pittsburgh area.  It is quite large and well-respected as I’ve seen many people on other on-line forums referencing photos from it.  I have looked at many photos on that Historic Pittsburgh site before and they have lots of trolley photos for sure!  I think what they do is provide a one-stop on-line source to the public for photos “owned” by themselves and other institutions such as this photo which is from the collection at the Carnegie Art Museum in Oakland.  And the University of Pittsburgh apparently provides the host hardware and software to the site. 

Anyway, your latest research confirms my theory that it is the Diamond Street & Ferry Street intersection.  One of my earliest memories of going to downtown Pittsburgh (on the streetcar, of course) was going to the Ferry Electric Service store to get my Lionel trains fixed.  They were a Lionel Service Station located on 4th Avenue very near its intersection with Ferry Street.

Thanks for the update,

Bill

Recently, Bobby Ogage treated us to a B&W 1911 film of NYC with some great trolley and street scenes.  Today is a holiday for many of us and this is a "random" trolley thread, so for fun here is a short 1952 Disney cartoon that also features some trolley scenes. You can compare east coast and west coast street traffic :-):

Susie the Little Blue Coup

My plan was to model a 1:43 "Susie" coup for my layout out of clay today.  I am working on a humorous "self-driving/automomous car" story in my RR town, and this character will fit right in.  However, it's 9:27 AM and the relative humidity inside is already 77, so we'll see how motivated I am. 

Meanwhile, enjoy these screen caps of some great looking animated trolleys.  In case you don't bother to watch the video, it has a happy ending:

Tomlinson Run Railroad

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