Skip to main content

TomlinsonRunRR posted:

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

Here ya go!000_1303

Attachments

Images (1)
  • 000_1303
Bobby Ogage posted:

3059ffb3d432f4c3acf8351fe44b9684

Where is this????Arkansas Valley RyBinghamton, NY

Binghamton, New York

The first image was taken in front of the Loews Warfield Theatre, 928 Market Street, San Francisco, CA.  Check out www.cinematreasures.org for more pictures showing the theatre and marquee.  Having opened in 1922 and closed as a theatre in the 1990's it is still a venue for live concerts.

Last edited by Allegheny48

On the San Francisco picture, it is an interesting photo.  Market Street had four tracks on it. The privately owned Market Street Railway ran on the inside tracks and the city owned Municipal Railway ran on the outside tracks. The City bought the Market Street Railway in 1947. The photo is of a Martke Street Railway car running on one of the MSRy routes on the outside track. The inside track is being rebuilt. The two tracks on the other side of the street are not in the photo.  It looks like this photo was taken after the MUNI bought the MSRy. The inside tracks tracks are being rebuilt prior to removing the outside tracks. After the inside tracks were rebuilt all the car lines were moved to the inside tracks. Most of the MSRy lines were converted to buses. The only MUNI lines that remained street car lines were the ones with either tunnels or private right of way. In the end this left only the J, K, L, M, and N lines with rails. This has been reversed today and a number of the street car lines have been put back in. 

Market Street may be one of the busiest transit corridors in the country. Today, on the surface it has two streetcar tracks and four trolley coach pairs of wires.  There is also a streetcar subway and below that is the BART subway. 

BOBBY OGAGE's third photo in his last post shows the intersection of Court (the curved one) and Chenango Streets, I believe.  The ornate cast-iron building on the corner at left was McLean's Department Store for a long time.  The building across Chenango Street was a bank and across Court Street to the right an office building.  The autos parked at the right are in front of the county courthouse (out of frame).

Thanks, Bobby!

The photo of the CSL Brill reminded me of the Marmon-Herrington "trackless" trolleys at the Illinois Railway Museum. Ray Piesciuk took this picture of the two at the IRM, both of which I drove out of the North-Cicero barn in the summers I worked for the CTA to pay for college.

 CTA trackless trolleys

I hated driving these things the first year: the power pedal was so hard to push that my knees hurt; I had to remember where all the power junctions were at night so that I could glide through them rather than knock the poles off under power; replacing poles at night in the rain with drops falling into eyes blinded by the flash of electrical contact and the expectation of a shock down wet ropes; climbing up onto the roof to retrieve ropes cut by vandals; watching out for fallen power lines and blocking traffic to route people and cars around sparking wires. By the second year I loved them. Their torque was so great and smooth I could get the jump on a VW bug at a stoplight without disturbing any passengers--even with a full load of standing customers, and it was easy to keep to schedules because theses trolleys could easily make up time. I still miss them. And I can still remember every power junction and switch on Cicero, Pulaski, North Ave., Grand, Armitage, and Belmont all these years later.

Attachments

Images (1)
  • CTA trackless trolleys
Last edited by TOKELLY

Bluelinec4 treated us, above, to some photos from Weehawken NJ.  The line he shows ran alongside the road down the hill to the West Shre RR (NYC) terminal, which was a very busy place in the 40's when I grew up in that area.  Many steam-powered commuter trains came there daily through a tunnel under 48th & 49th streets in Union City.  After getting off the trains, commuters took the steam powered NYC ferries to 42nd St NYC, where they ran across the street to the trolley lines that ended across the street from the terminal.  Some ferries from that Weehawken terminal also ran to Courtland St in lower NYC.

In the 40's, the trolley line ran west on 48th Street to Bergenline Ave, then south along the one-way street.  Northbound cars used New York Avenue.

In the 30's, a line branched off 48th street and headed north, partly in a closed ROW and partly on Palisade Avenue, then through North Hudson Park.  It crossed the lake in N.H. Park on a viaduct (I have a short movie of this my parents took when filming in the Park), and then ran north along a dedicated ROW.  I beleive it went to Palisades Amusement Park and met with another line from the west.  In the 40s and 50s, all these ROWs were still there.

OKC Streetcar 201806 10-13-2018 Devon Tower backgroundOKC Streetcar 201806 10-13-2018 former Union Station backgroundJesse with OKC Streetcar 10-13-2018 Unlettered Streetcar 201806Just an update on my training in OKC to become a certified engineer to operate the new streetcars on the installed line in Bricktown and Downtown areas of Oklahoma City.  The cars are made by Brookville, located in Brookville, Pa.  The cars themselves, they are 68 ft long and are powered by both, overhead pantograph in two locations by a 780VDC OCS (overhead contact system), and between the OCS sections, they run on ESS of onboard lithium battery packs.  Should not be too difficult, with the interlocks between the pantograph power and lithium batteries, can only be powered by one any given time.  However, the OCS will be used for charging  the battery packs along route.  The cars are articulated in two sections, so they have cab A, mid section C and cab B.  The Brookville Company also restores old streetcars and have done so for SEPTA on some of their PCC cars, and for New Orleans, San Francisco, etc.  The also, for class A railroads, manufacture freight and passenger motive power.  As I say, still in training and hope to be active operating once the streetcars go into revenue service this December.  Getting a bit excited and loving every minute of it!  Google either OKC streetcar or Brookville/Liberty streetcars for more information.  Traction power into the 21st century...…..

Jesse Beatty   TCA   12-68275

 

Attachments

Images (3)
  • OKC Streetcar 201806 10-13-2018 Devon Tower background
  • OKC Streetcar 201806  10-13-2018  former Union Station background
  • Jesse with OKC Streetcar 10-13-2018  Unlettered Streetcar 201806
Last edited by texastrain
Bobby Ogage posted:

I picked-up on this link from Jesse's post. Enjoy!

https://www.brookvillecorp.com...tcar-restoration.asp

What do you think about their claim of restoring "America's First Streetcar?"  Built in 1912?  They are qualifying their statement by saying it's the first car publicly purchased for a major city.  I am assuming they mean the city itself owned the streetcar line?  I have a hard enough time correcting people who think Richmond (1888) came before Scranton (1886).  

Last edited by Montclaire

Add Reply

Post

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×