Random Photos of Trolley Cars

Some great old photographs.  I've always enjoyed viewing pictures like these since they often show downtown life as it once was before the malls and Internet changed things forever.  Trolley pictures taken in cities such as Cleveland, etc. often show the old movie theatre marquees most of which have disappeared from our streetscapes.  Thanks for posting. 

Since I am an old codger I remember downtown Pittsburgh like that. Hustle, bustle, traffic, people carrying packages squeezing in crowded street cars. The  cars starting and stopping jostling everyone then  booking along an open track with the car rocking and rolling. Especially after work it would rock you to sleep. At one time Pgh. had 4 or 5 dept. stores and many restaurants geared for workers and shoppers. Miss that.

jim pastorius posted:

Since I am an old codger I remember downtown Pittsburgh like that. Hustle, bustle, traffic, people carrying packages squeezing in crowded street cars. The  cars starting and stopping jostling everyone then  booking along an open track with the car rocking and rolling. Especially after work it would rock you to sleep. At one time Pgh. had 4 or 5 dept. stores and many restaurants geared for workers and shoppers. Miss that.

Philly used to be like that...

Mitch 

Trolley cars that once roamed Long Island, New York.New York & Long Island Traction Company

Huntington Railroad CarNew York & Long Island Traction Car @ Mineola          New York & North Shore Traction Car in Port WashingtonNY&Queens Car @164th St & Union Tpk 1937

New York & Queens Car Stuck In SnowHuntington Railroad Car On Rt 110 @ Long Island Rail Road OverpassSteinway Car Likely On Northern Blvd

Battery Car For Suffolk Traction That Ran In Patchogue

Wonderful pictures!  Thanks for posting.  I lived on Long Island (both Nassau & Suffolk counties) from 1964 to 2015.   Seeing areas of Long Island as they once were prior to all the building was nice.   Ron Ziel's Steel Rails To The Sunrise is also a good source of old Long Island images. 

What do you call that style of roof like on MWB's photo of the  Sunbury & Northumberland car?

Bruce Clouette posted:

What do you call that style of roof like on MWB's photo of the  Sunbury & Northumberland car?

Bombay roof.  I suspect it was called that because it has a sort of South Asian look to it... 

https://books.google.com/books...ombay+roof+streetcar

Mitch 

A picture showing an Erie & Conneaut Transit Co. trolley heading eastbound off the old high level bridge in Conneaut, OH.  This car would have gone east toward Girard, PA ending its trip in Erie, PA.  An approx. date for the picture is 1905.   This high level bridge was replaced in 1922 by a concrete viaduct erected just south of this location. 

Trolley cars in Minnesota.

Inter-campus line car arriving at the St. Paul University of Minnesota campus, c. 1945

Opening Grand Avenue Line, St. Paul, Feb. 22, 1890

St. Paul to Stillwater Car 1917

Western Avenue, St. Paul, 1941

Twin City Rapid Transit Company

like trolley cars ?  then check out this cool trolley layout... https://youtu.be/mGpQ1PJnYig

Trolley cars in Iowa.

jim pastorius posted:

Since I am an old codger I remember downtown Pittsburgh like that. Hustle, bustle, traffic, people carrying packages squeezing in crowded street cars. The  cars starting and stopping jostling everyone then  booking along an open track with the car rocking and rolling. Especially after work it would rock you to sleep. At one time Pgh. had 4 or 5 dept. stores and many restaurants geared for workers and shoppers. Miss that.

Jim: 

Is that how you remember downtown Pittsburgh was like?

Note the early PCC, the Iron City Beer Sign and the Kaufmann's Department Store clock (the famous meeting place)!

And what could be more Pittsburgh-esque than this shot of a McKeesport-bound PCC streetcar passing under a Union Railroad Slag Dump Train? 

Thanks to Jim Holland for the photos.

Bill (another old codger)

Oh yes !! On a rainy day you could literally walk across town ducking from one building to the next. In the late 60s even I was selling industrial chemicals calling on the corporate purchasing depts in downtown. I spent one day a week there, could have spent 2-3 days. Nothing now. I have a video-off the internet  which shows downtown San Francisco in 1906 two days before the big quake !  Wagons, autos , street cars and people in the street looking like ants.  Unbelievable and it would all change within days.

If you look closely The name Frank & Seder is visible on the building to the left, across Smithfield Street from Kaufmann’s. Frank & Seder was one of Pittsburgh’s department stores back then. 

CG&W Trolley coming into the Square in Greencastle, Pa

AmFlyer posted:

If you look closely The name Frank & Seder is visible on the building to the left, across Smithfield Street from Kaufmann’s. Frank & Seder was one of Pittsburgh’s department stores back then. 

Tom:

Good catch!  When I used to go downtown shopping with Mom (we rode the #53 Carrick streetcar) she would have to drag me into Frank & Seder's because I wanted to go to Kaufmann's instead because Frank & Seder's didn't sell trains (or any toys, IIRC) while Kaufmann's did sell trains and toys.

Bill

Actually for a while they sold Gilbert trains and toys. My dad bought one of my 1956 Christmas gifts there, a Gilbert HO train set. 

When Frank & Seder went out of business floors 4 through 7 were rented by an engineering firm that I joined on graduation from college. The building was known then as 441 Smithfield street. 

Sorry for the deviation from trolley’s, but I did ride the street car to work from the Castle Shannon municipal building stop. 

More trolley cars in Connecticut.

Connecticut # 1800 at Farmington Avenue & Broad Street, Hartford, March 16, 1935

WftTrains posted:

jim pastorius posted:

Since I am an old codger I remember downtown Pittsburgh like that. Hustle, bustle, traffic, people carrying packages squeezing in crowded street cars. The  cars starting and stopping jostling everyone then  booking along an open track with the car rocking and rolling. Especially after work it would rock you to sleep. At one time Pgh. had 4 or 5 dept. stores and many restaurants geared for workers and shoppers. Miss that.

Jim: 

Is that how you remember downtown Pittsburgh was like?

Note the early PCC, the Iron City Beer Sign and the Kaufmann's Department Store clock (the famous meeting place)!

And what could be more Pittsburgh-esque than this shot of a McKeesport-bound PCC streetcar passing under a Union Railroad Slag Dump Train? 

Thanks to Jim Holland for the photos.

Bill (another old codger)

Second image not found, but by the description I'd guess it was taken near Buttermilk Hollow Rd .

Trolley at Shady Grove, PA in 1914

A Brooklyn Birney that I am working on.....Q Car truck and parts, Corgi body.

Trolleys in Indiana.

CG&W Trolley at Pen-Mar, PA

Two bits sez that last pic was touched up for a newspaper.  And poorly, at that. 

Mitch 

Trolleys in Tennessee.

Trolleys in Washington and Reading, Pa. It's hard to find pictures of trolley cars in Washington State, so I combined them.

Washington

Reading, PaReading, Pa

Reading, Pa

Reading, Pa

Reading, Pa

Bobby Ogage posted:

More trolley cars in Connecticut.

The destination signs on the cars in these two pictures list towns in Massachusetts, not Connecticut.

MELGAR

Pretty cool photos, though, and not too far from Connecticut.  I like the running board on the work unit - made over from an open car? BTW, the Grafton and Upton (top photo) is still in business as a freight-only short line; electrification ended in the 1920s.

Hey Bobby  OGage, I'm enjoying your posts...but your latest (Wyoming, Washington and Reading) is wrong.  The first photo, labeled "Wyoming PCC", is from El Paso, showing #1516 parked at the Cotton St. Barn of El Paso Electric.  These cars, originally from San Diego, spent most of their life in El Paso, working the International Line between El Paso and Juarez, Chih.  They ran there until about 1974.  After a long period of storage, they are presently in Pennsylvania, being rebuilt to run again in El Paso.  

Please keep posting, Bobby.  It's great to see what once was.

                                                                                                                                                   Regards,

                                                                                                                                                             Logan

                                                  Pennsylvania Trolley Museum

Bobby Ogage posted:

Trolleys in Wyoming, Washington and reading, Pa. It's hard to find pictures of trolley cars in Wyoming and Washington State, so I combined them Reading, Pa.Wyoming PCCWashingtonReading, PaReading, Pa

Reading, Pa

Reading, Pa

Reading, Pa

Ha! I thought you were listing three PA locations and was expecting pictures from the PTM (Washington, PA) and the ECTM (Wyoming Valley)  

Bobby Ogage posted:

Trolleys in Wyoming, Washington and reading, Pa. It's hard to find pictures of trolley cars in Wyoming and Washington State, so I combined them Reading,

Bobby, some misinformation there.  Your fourth photo is of Scranton Transit electromobile #505, currently under restoration at www.ectma.org  Your seventh photo is of a former Reading Transit & Light #511, I believe an Osgood Bradley built car, but the photo was taken in Skippack, Pa.  Car #511 has been at one of two locations in Skippack, both restaurants, since the 1980s.  

Please correct your post.

Montclaire posted:

Bobby Ogage posted:

Trolleys in Wyoming, Washington and reading, Pa. It's hard to find pictures of trolley cars in Wyoming and Washington State, so I combined them Reading,

Bobby, some misinformation there.  Your fourth photo is of Scranton Transit electromobile #505, currently under restoration at www.ectma.org  Your seventh photo is of a former Reading Transit & Light #511, I believe an Osgood Bradley built car, but the photo was taken in Skippack, Pa.  Car #511 has been at one of two locations in Skippack, both restaurants, since the 1980s.  

Please correct your post.

Plus the PCCs are in El Paso, Texas.   

Mitch 

You guys are sharp. Both of you passed the test. I knew these cars were wrongly categorized after I posted them, but not before. Good catches guys! I updated my original post. The bottom line is that I have not been able to find pictures of any trolley cars that operated in Wyoming.

El Paso, Texas PCC

Scranton Transit Electromobile

Horse Drawn Trolley arriving at the Buena Vista Spring Hotel at Pen-Mar PA

These are trolleys that run / ran in Oregon.

Bobby Ogage posted:

You guys are sharp. Both of you passed the test. I knew these cars were wrongly categorized after I posted them, but not before. Good catches guys! I updated my original post. The bottom line is that I have not been able to find pictures of any trolley cars that operated in Wyoming.

Gotcha covered!

Sheridan Interurban Railway 
#200 in an American Car Co. builders photo 
1911 
Bill Volkmer collection

Sheridan Street Railway 
Sheridan Street Railway streetcar 105 
circa 1915 
Stephen M. Scalzo collection

Courtesy of http://www.newdavesrailpix.com/

Mitch

Greg Nagy posted:

 

Note the early PCC, the Iron City Beer Sign and the Kaufmann's Department Store clock (the famous meeting place)!

And what could be more Pittsburgh-esque than this shot of a McKeesport-bound PCC streetcar passing under a Union Railroad Slag Dump Train? 

 

Thanks to Jim Holland for the photos.

Bill (another old codger)

Second image not found, but by the description I'd guess it was taken near Buttermilk Hollow Rd .

Hi Greg:

Yes, you are correct and I have now inserted the missing photo in my original post above.

Bill

Bobby Ogage posted:

These are trolleys that run / ran in Oregon.

Bobby:

Looks like another PCC car got identified with the wrong state!  The PCC car above is not from Oregon as no city in Oregon ever operated PCC cars.  I believe it is a San Francisco muni car.  Looks like it was ready for the scrap yard or a rebuild when this photo was taken.

Bill 

That picture was taken at a mechanical museum, which includes trolleys, along interstate 5.  I think it is Brooks, Oregon.  About 60 miles south of Portland. It is a San Francisco PCC car.  I cannot read the number, but it looks like a car in the 1016 to 1040 series, the last order of new PCC cars in US.