Charlotte Streetcar

Where are the poles???? 

here is a shot of the Charlotte Trolley when it was operating on the LYNX line on weekends. Not sure if this is the restored original or one of the repros.

IIRC it is a restored car. Living in Charlotte at the time it seems it was found being used as a storage shed chicken coop. I have riden it before LYNX system was started. It ran along South Blvd for a few years.

You can be quite sure that Charlotte is not the only city when the governing bodies known how to squander taxpayer and even private source money.

Truth is, it's awfully hard to find a well-managed city in the U.S. these days.

Don't need poles and overhead wires with third rail power!  

Wikipedia seems to suggest the "heritage" trolleys are still kept around for special occasions, and that the initial segment was shut down owing to construction to convert the line to light rail:

"In addition to the modern light rail vehicles, two vintage trolleys operate along the route between the 7th Street and East/West stations as the Charlotte Trolley. Since it operated along the same tracks, trolley service was temporarily halted on February 5, 2006, when construction began on the Lynx system. ^[57] Scheduled to reopen in late 2006, in November 2006 CATS determined it would be unfeasible to have trolley service while the corridor still under construction. ^[58] Thus trolley service resumed on April 20, 2008, and the heritage streetcars operate on weekends only in tandem with the modern light rail vehicles. ^[59]"

(links edited to correct URLs)

---PCJ

Poles are in the box Art waiting on you to come and wire the pantograph.

Rail Ride  No trolleys running in Charlotte these days on any occassion. There are funds available for use with a line to operate at Elizabeth Ave over to the Presbyterian Hospital. Not sure when that will happen. Trolley is not necessarily popular with the local folks it seems

Very nice

Dewey

When I worked at the Shell Oil Norco Refinery

The bus that stopped at my apartment door. ended at the St Charles street car barn. I could take that bus and transer to the trolley for a trip down to Bourbon street and not worry about a designated driver

The Charlotte trolley seems to be suspended and inactive although they just acquired two streetcar bodies for rehab. It must be pretty dead as I called twice to help in restoration and never got a return call..even sent an email that got no response. The Charlotte Trolley is about the only historical piece of fabric left ( if you can call it that) left in downtown Charlotte. Everything was pretty much bulldozed.

Had an interurban as well..the P&N..

They had at one time a real beauty of a SR train station..now that have a concrete box in a virtual no man's land.

P&N station is also long gone. Just like the dearth of hobby shops you have to go outside of Charlotte to get the flavor of "Lost" North Carolina...in relation to Charlotte itself. 

The Charlotte trolley seems to be suspended and inactive although they just acquired two streetcar bodies for rehab. It must be pretty dead as I called twice to help in restoration and never got a return call..even sent an email that got no response. The Charlotte Trolley is about the only historical piece of fabric left ( if you can call it that) left in downtown Charlotte. Everything was pretty much bulldozed.

Don't feel like Lindberg....
I tried many times to volunteer with the trolley back in the day. On TV they begged for help....but when offered...they never would respond.

And yes...all city governments can be wasteful....but as a 25 year veteran of Charlotte I can attest they are head and shoulders above all others!! 

Dewey,

Your correct on the ending of service. As a matter service ended on March 14,1938

I also have one of Walts wonderful Trolley. I got one for myself and one for my Dad.

Also the P&N which was own by Duke Power had a Freight Depot on Mint St with a short stretch of street trackage to the depot.

The only last standing station from the P&N day is the depot at Thrift/Paw creek (aka Tank Town) As for the Charlotte Southern Railway Station the state is in the process of buying the land to buy the new Gateway Center Station at the same site where the 1st Southern Railway Station stood. I'm looking to buy the O scale model of the Charlotte Southern Railway Station from Whistle Stop Model/ Model Building Services as a birthday present to myself.

Late last year I stumbled across what seemed like an interesting find and bought the McGraw Hill Electric Railway Directory - 1924 at a used book store here.   

It catalogs every electric RR and trolley system in the nation that year: even tiny towns had them. 

The book lists Charlotte NC, even in 1924, as having two: an electric RR with 206 miles total track connecting it with Greenvilee, Gastonia, Mt. Holly, etc., and serving some trolley functions inside the city with "motor pasenger coaches" all running at 1,500 volts , and a public service trolley company with 27 miles of trolley lines locally and four trolleys, one of them a large "60 passenger" model, running at 600 volts.  Both were 4' 8.5" gauge.

I find it fascinating that this was 88 years ago and that no sign of so many of these systems - once in just about every big and small town, exists today.

Greensboro's Streetcars ran North-South on Main street[Elm] and East-West along Summit and across the City from the 5-plant Textille Plant/Mill Villages complex on the northeast side of town along Spring Garden St. past the University, across and over to the the railyard and roundhouse shops at Pomona to reach another Cotton Mill and the Terra Cotta Pipe Kilns, Foundry.etc.

Initially, the Cars were owned and operated by Southern Power Company[later Duke Power] who in 1911 built its second Carolinas coal-fired power plant on the Atlantic & Yadkin Ry Furnace Branch in north Greensboro.

"Buck" Duke, who was SRR Sean's employer several generations removed, was consultant/designer of the huge White Oak Mill Power Plant in 1900 and a stockholder in the the Textile Company.

What is interesting about the P&N also reflects the position of power and influence the Southern RR had back in the day, as they fought and successfully prevented the South and North Carolina divisions of the P&N ever being connected as proposed. The inference I guess is that the line would have been a viable competitor.

The Gastonia section has been revived for freight service with some heady talk of this section being part of Charlotte light rail system, which I doubt I will see in this lifetime.

Long ago and far away..,

The Charlotte to Gastonia light rail plan is still in the works. Currently the plan calls to have the Blue line to run from downtown north to the UNCC area.

Part of the trackage will run in the middle of US49/N.Tryon street. The line is scheduled to be completed by 2018 with work to begin in 2020 on the light rail light to Gastonia to be completed by EST 2025. Also the new Charlotte Gateway Amtrak, Greyhound Station is planned to be completed by 2016-2018 timeframe which will coincide with the completion of the NCDOT Locomotive maintance facility in Charlotte.

The site has already been brought by the state and planning is under way to create a quite zone at the Summit St crossing do to the nearby neighborhood.

The Piedmont and Northern Railway was owned by DUKE POWER and was refered to the G'D' Trolley Line by Southern Management. The Southern was able to prevent the I.C.C approval for the P&N to complete it's line from Greenville,S.C. to Gastonia,N.C. which some section of the right of way would run next to the Southern Mainline. The P&N was also looking to build a line from Charlotte,N.C. to Winston-Salem,N.C. turnning the railroad into a major bridge carrier in the south.

Back in the late 1970s there was a P&N interurban car on display in Greenwood SC.  The freight only P&N line from Greenwood SC to Anderson SC was stilll intact including the all brick passenger stations and operated by the SCL.  Running parallel and in full sight was the SRR line from Greenwood to Anderson SC.  A couple of times as I was driving to Anderson (I lived there) I saw both SRR and SCL trains running side by side apparently racing....quite a sight!  Later on half of each line was abandoned and the remaining sections connected.  The P&N lines in Anderson were torn up too.  Such was progress.   Odd-d

Here is a shot of a pair of Birneys on South Tryon street taken in 1928 which is in W R Middleton's book "The Time of the Trolley". A lot different than today's Charlotte. The cars appear to be lettered for the "Southern Public Utilities Company". I guess that was Duke Power company. Many of these trolley companies were designed and built by Stone and Webster Corporation of Boston Massachussets.

If anyone is interested Herron Video Rail has a video call Singing Wire Trolley's of the South. With film footage of P&N boxcabs and Interurbands in operation.

also other city are listed with film I believe in B/W and Color.

Sean,

Interesting info. I rode the Light rail the week it opened. I thought it was great but extremely limited in area covered. I know the old Northfork Southern line that runs parallel  to Albemarle road was to be converted to light rail with a goal date of 2010 back in the day....missed it and seems like they may have given up on that route. There was to be a station at what is now the Wilgrove airport near my house....always hoped I could ride the light rail to work!!