The Golden Age of the Streetcar

[BlueTrain]

As I've often mentioned, I grew up in a small town of not much more than about 8,000. Today it only has about 6,500. Yet when the town had only around 2,000 or fewer residents, a streetcar line was established. Another one was established in the next closest town, which had about 6,000 or 8,000 residents at the time. Both were apparently started by power companies. I guess that shouldn't be all that surprising, since the streetcars were electric. Most references to them, by the way, called them trolleys.

There were changes in ownership along the way and I think the two trolley car companies merged in the late 1920s, the larger power company (Appalachian Power, still in existence) having purchased the power plant of the smaller one. At some point it became an independent company and was called the "Tri-City Traction Company." But the cars were marked "Princeton Bluefield Interurban." It's a little surprising they used the term interurban but that's exactly what it was.

According to what I've read, they began using busses in town around 1939 but the line between the two towns continued until after war, the last trolley car trip being in 1947. So I never saw one in operation. Not there, anyway, but I did in Germany and in Washington, D.C.

The things that were so interesting to me, aside from the fact that it was where I grew up, was how they were established at a time when the population was relatively small--and it isn't so great now. They actually began running before 1910 when few people would have had a car. The total track mileage was probably less than 20 miles, accounting for the fact that the interurban part of the line ran alongside the "old road." The old road is still there and the roadbed of the trolley is still evident in many places.

The two towns both had railroad stations as did just about every wide spot in the road a hundred years ago. But they were served by different rail lines. They finally merged sometime in the 1960s. So basically the trolleys ran from one train station in one town, circling the courthouse and then going on to the train station in the next town. I think it may have gone on to the next town, too, to that train station, too, or otherwise it would not have been called "Tri-City."

I was also surprised to learn that tiny town and city (and country) trolley lines were in operation all over the place during that period. There were even comic strips devoted to trolley cars. So the golden age of the trolley car lasted about 40 or 50 years.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Our local trolley system ran from 1892 to 1931, offering interurban service along the midcoast area. The Depression had as much to do with its closing as did the rise of the automobile, but during the 1910s it was a bustling, valuable system. It was said you could take a trolley all the way from Camden to Boston, connecting with different lines along the route, with just a pocketful of transfers.

Since the trolley line shut down, we've never again had a public transportation system here.

Surface streetcars still exist in the Northeast -- Boston still has them on the MBTA Red and Green lines, and the Red Line cars are still old rattlers from the 1940s. But the real heyday of the Northeastern trolley era ended when the Brooklyn trolley system was abolished in the 1950s -- the last Brooklyn car ran on Halloween night, 1956. But just twenty years earlier, you could go just about anywhere in the borough on the trolley for just a nickel, probably the most extensive and heavily-used streetcar system in the United States.

Robert Moses didn't like streetcars, because he believed they interfered with auto traffic, and he wanted his dear friends at GM to be happy. So that was that.

 

[BlueTrain]

I figured as much. After people had cars, the street cars would have just been in the way. In some places, however, both then and now, the simply replaced the rail system with electric busses that presumably used the same overhead wires. Some railroad systems used electricity, too, but I still find it a little surprising that it was the power companies that established the systems. I imagine that electricity was seen as the power of the future, which was it largely became. I even recall a very modern house being built in my hometown, probably in the late 1950s, that was heavily advertised locally as an all-electric home. That's really not so unusual these days.

Although I found a surprising amount of information about trolley systems on-line, there's still a lot that I don't know about the particular system I was describing. For instance, I don't know where the car barn was, either there or the other town in West Virginia where I lived that also had a streetcar system. Chances are, they're not there now.

When the streetcars were still running in town, the streets (that they ran on) were paved with brick. One of my uncles told me that they tore up the bricks and a local entrepreneur used them to build houses and he claimed they were no good for that because they were slick. Even now, a few patches of street here and there still have the brick paving. I imagine driving on a street with tracks could have been a little difficult, too.

Photos of the oldest cars they used, probably from before it became an interurban line, show half-open cars that were quite small, very similar to the cable cars in San Francisco. I had forgotten that I've actually ridden the streetcars in San Francisco but I forget a lot of things.

Were elevated trains considered street cars?

 

[GHT]

In the UK we have a slightly different definition of the vehicle that you describe. That which you call a Trolley we call a Tram or Tramcar. In Britspeak a Trolley is a bus that's powered by overhead electric cables that the bus connects to by way of a pair of long stick like objects known as Booms.
BlueTrain's observation of small populations still enjoying a public transportation system rings true here too. The Tram's demise came about because it was said that the rails were causing cycle accidents. To add weight to that argument Trams were blamed for slowing down traffic. My speculative guess is that a Trolley bus is far more manoeuvrable and far less expensive, so the Tram had to go.

Following the end of rationing in Europe after WW2, fossil fuels became so much cheaper and with improvements to the diesel engine, the internal combustion engine won the day and now Trolley buses are no more. Those of us of a certain age will remember the conductor, who has now also been consigned to history. The conductor was a wonderful, helpful sort of person, who not only collected the fares but helped the elderly, helped new mothers, had a wit and a joke about all things. Nowadays you just pay the driver, if you have a bus service at all.

If anyone's interested google Blackpool Trams or Hong Kong Trams and you will see those wonderful vehicles from yesteryear, part bus/part train, still clanking along. But the best post script that the UK has is that the tram has made a come back. In Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Croydon (south London) and elsewhere. These trams are modern clean and fast and although the electricity they run on can come from burning fossil fuel, technology to improve harvesting wind, wave and tide keeps improving.

 

[BlueTrain]

I didn't mean to imply that small populations enjoy public transportation now at all. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Small towns and villages in this country often have no public transportation available at all, not that it matters so much, since cars are so widely owned. It has been a long time since it was any different. But everything changes.

For one thing, the small towns and villages in some places have gotten even smaller for a host of reasons. Ultimately people move to where the jobs are, leaving behind retired people, the few that still have jobs and those who don't have a bus ticket out of town, assuming there is a bus. But not so long ago (okay, maybe 70 years ago), even the little places might have a train station.

I'm not sure if the trains came first or if the little towns and villages came first. Typically, they came at the same time because of some new local industry that caused a boom period, with the population growth that comes with it. Railroads were built before good public roads in most places, although the railroads never went everywhere. Along the coast, particularly the East Coast, there were also coastal steamers that offered passenger service. Some even had dance bands.

A few municipalities kept the streetcars running and some are attempting to reintroduce them, usually over considerable objections. Washington, D.C. keeps experimenting with them but the cars themselves are from the Czech Republic. I guess no one builds them in this country now.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Elevated lines were considered "surface lines," but since they didn't need to share the roads with motor vehicles or pedestrians, they used subway-type trains rather than trolley cars. You got faster where you were going on an El than by streetcar, and there were more express routes on an El system than locals.

Els had their own problems. They were rickety, required a lot of maintenance, and were widely considered to be both an eyesore and a hazard to street traffic. New York mounted a concerted effort to get rid of its El system starting in the thirties, in favor of expansion of the subway. I have a copy of a special broadcast done by WOR of the "Last Ride On The Sixth Avenue El" in December 1938, and nobody interviewed seems to be particularly broken up about it. The announcer was supposed to get on the train and actually broadcast as the last ride was happening, but it speeds right past him without stopping, leaving him standing there on the platform like a chump.

 

[Fading Fast]

In NYC, in the outer boroughs, many - what are effectively - Els still exist today. They start as underground subways in Manhattan and then go above ground in the boroughs. Anyone who has ever taken a subway from midtown to Yankee stadium has experienced this.

Els have their reasons for existing, but as Lizzie notes, they are not pleasant to the surrounding area. While wonderfully mood creating in film noir, in real life, they darken neighborhoods and create a cave-like feel (and tend to attract crime and other socially not-favorable activities).

Also, when the trains go by on elevated tracks, they are deafening and rattle everything - your back molars included. If you've ever heard a train on flat earth go by, multiply that by some meaningful number to begin to understand the jarring and disruption an El causes when blasting through.

I've also been in cities with trolleys / trams / streetcars and, IMHO, they are all a joy. There's a comfort I get to the on-a-track feel, planing and consistency. They seem to have a personality that they project onto the city. That somewhat intangible quality improves a city's look, feel and character in a way that no bus line ever has (and, certainly, no El ever has).

I saw this when Jersey City put in a light rail - you could feel the improved atmosphere and character. In business, we reference things like "good will" to describe intangibles in a company or brand that are valuable even if hard to quantify or, at times, fully describe. Trams, trollies, street cars, IMHO, offer communities a civic version of "good will."

 

[BlueTrain]

The place we stayed in London when we were there was near the subway (the "underground") station South Kensington. Apparently the tube went directly under the building where we stayed because you could feel it (but not hear it at least) periodically. But it was very nice to ride, once we got the hang of it. But I would have been lost on the Paris subway without someone to help me around. We also took the train into Paris, too, which was a good way to travel. There sure are a lot of foreigners in France, by the way.

Frankly, it's difficult to see how light rail adds much to the ambiance of a city, although it helps in getting around. There is still a parking problem, though, only in a different place. The only subway system we ever use here is the Washington, D.C. Metro system and it has its problems. And also, you sometimes see the back side of the city, in a manner of speaking but that can be true of train travel. Perhaps that problem would be alleviated by sitting on the other side of the train. We've also taken the Auto Train to Florida, which was a pretty nice way to travel. I don't understand why the northern end of the line isn't in New Jersey instead of Northern Virginia since half the travelers seem to be from New York. But undoubtedly there is a good reason.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Before and during the era, streetcar technology was anything but static. As early as 1915, concerns about labor and other costs shaped the development of the cars.

First major development was the Birney Safety Car: designed for one man operation on secondary routes, they ran on one truck (less maintenance costs, ability to take tighter curves) and were popular on large and small systems.

In the 20's the manager of the Cleveland system, Peter Witt, wanted a collection system that would allow rapid loading for tighter schedules: his solution was to allow boarding through the front door so that fare payment could take place either during the ride or upon exit to the conductor. Technically, Peter Witt cars were not a car type but a collection system. And the style was embraced by several manufacturers for systems both in North America and even in Europe (Milan, for example.).

In 1929, representatives of numerous streetcar operating companies decided to share their needs for a modern streetcar: thus was born the President's Conference Committee (PCC) car. About 5,000 total were eventually built by various manufacturers (including Pullman, St. Louis Car Company, Canadian car and Foundry) both before and after the Second World War. These cars ran all across North America, and some are still going strong: San Francisco has a heritage fleet in the paint schemes of several cities, and as Lizzie mentioned, Boston utilizes them (still I believe) on the high speed Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line portion of the Red Line. Below is one of Chicago's pre-war models: purchased by Chicago Surface Lines and here repainted in Chicago Transit Authority (firmed in 1947) scheme. Interestingly, the PCC cars influenced the rapid transit cars of both New York (the BMT's Blue Birds) and Chicago (CRT's articulated cars). When Chicago ended streetcar service in 1958, trucks, motors, control equipment, seats, windows and other components from the PCC cars were utilized by St. Louis Car Company in 6000 series rapid transit cars.

 

[ChiTownScion]

The capitalization, development, and financing of electric interurban railways in the US during the first two decades of the 20th Century - particularly in the Midwest- is a topic for a doctoral dissertation, really. A lot of speculation and chicanery went on: many systems existed only on paper, some never got their overhead wire strung and provided service with a gas electric car or two, and many had a fleet of less than five cars, or lasted less than ten years. In Pennsylvania, the major steam railroads convinced the legislature to not allow construction of interurban and streetcar lines of standard gauge (4' 8 1/2" between the rails) lest interline carload freight service cut into the monopoly of the steam lines.


Most interurbans were side of the road, minimally ballasted affairs: the Toonerville Trolley comic strip wasn't that far off, as far as their construction standards. Other, however, were built to steam road standards: heavy ballast, solid bridges, etc., and were capable of high speed freight and passenger service from the onset. The Aurora, Elgin and Chicago Railroad (about 1902) was one of these. By the time of World War I, most of the fly- by - night operations were kaput: a few lasted until the Depression, and fewer still through the war.

 

[drcube01]

Memphis still has a street car line downtown (strike that -- Apparently it was reinstated in the 90s, and there was an accident in 2014, and they're planning to put them back into service this year). St. Louis tore all theirs out in the 60s, but just reinstalled a new line which will open to the public this summer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MATA_Trolley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_Trolley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcars_in_St._Louis

Also, when the trains go by on elevated tracks, they are deafening and rattle everything - your back molars included. If you've ever heard a train on flat earth go by, multiply that by some meaningful number to begin to understand the jarring and disruption an El causes when blasting through.

As demonstrated to great effect in the 1980 documentary "The Blues Brothers".

 

[vitanola]

Before and during the era, streetcar technology was anything but static. As early as 1915, concerns about labor and other costs shaped the development of the cars.

First major development was the Birney Safety Car: designed for one man operation on secondary routes, they ran on one truck (less maintenance costs, ability to take tighter curves) and were popular on large and small systems.
View attachment 73200



In the 20's the manager of the Cleveland system, Peter Witt, wanted a collection system that would allow rapid loading for tighter schedules: his solution was to allow boarding through the front door so that fare payment could take place either during the ride or upon exit to the conductor. Technically, Peter Witt cars were not a car type but a collection system. And the style was embraced by several manufacturers for systems both in North America and even in Europe (Milan, for example.).
View attachment 73201

In 1929, representatives of numerous streetcar operating companies decided to share their needs for a modern streetcar: thus was born the President's Conference Committee (PCC) car. About 5,000 total were eventually built by various manufacturers (including Pullman, St. Louis Car Company, Canadian car and Foundry) both before and after the Second World War. These cars ran all across North America, and some are still going strong: San Francisco has a heritage fleet in the paint schemes of several cities, and as Lizzie mentioned, Boston utilizes them (still I believe) on the high speed Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line portion of the Red Line. Below is one of Chicago's pre-war models: purchased by Chicago Surface Lines and here repainted in Chicago Transit Authority (firmed in 1947) scheme. Interestingly, the PCC cars influenced the rapid transit cars of both New York (the BMT's Blue Birds) and Chicago (CRT's articulated cars). When Chicago ended streetcar service in 1958, trucks, motors, control equipment, seats, windows and other components from the PCC cars were utilized by St. Louis Car Company in 6000 series rapid transit cars.

View attachment 73209

Small quibble. Peter Witt patented the "Witt" car in 1914, and there were forty Kuhlman "Peter Witt" cars in operation on the Woodland and West Side Street Railway in time for the 1915 Christmas season. They were, as you noted, a great success. Some are still in revenue service to this day.

 

[vitanola]

The capitalization, development, and financing of electric interurban railways in the US during the first two decades of the 20th Century - particularly in the Midwest- is a topic for a doctoral dissertation, really. A lot of speculation and chicanery went on: many systems existed only on paper, some never got their overhead wire strung and provided service with a gas electric car or two, and many had a fleet of less than five cars, or lasted less than ten years. In Pennsylvania, the major steam railroads convinced the legislature to not allow construction of interurban and streetcar lines of standard gauge (4' 8 1/2" between the rails) lest interline carload freight service cut into the monopoly of the steam lines.


Most interurbans were side of the road, minimally ballasted affairs: the Toonerville Trolley comic strip wasn't that far off, as far as their construction standards. Other, however, were built to steam road standards: heavy ballast, solid bridges, etc., and were capable of high speed freight and passenger service from the onset. The Aurora, Elgin and Chicago Railroad (about 1902) was one of these. By the time of World War I, most of the fly- by - night operations were kaput: a few lasted until the Depression, and fewer still through the war.

A late friend of mine owned a couple of steel St Louis Car Company interurban cars (ex Auroura, Elgin & Chicago) of 1904 vintage which were designed to run at speeds approaching ninety miles an hour on good track. Their Westinghouse power plants were quite capable of propelling them at those speeds, should conditions allow.

 

[Stearmen]

Our trolley system was started in 1887, horse drawn of course, but by 1890 all were electric. In 1902 the three competing systems merged and had a brief golden age, peaking in 1911. After that, it never made a profit! In 1916 they had 56 motor cars, not bad for a population of 35,000. On April 30, 1932 the last tram ran, a group of male Colorado Collage students hijacked it, putting of the conductor and one female passenger, who they profusely apologized to! They then took it to the collage, then tried to manhandle it in order to block the sight of a future building that would permanently cut the rail line in two. The police arrived before they could finish their dastardly deed, the police were no match on foot for the athletes, no one was caught or charged with the heinous crime! We have a trolley museum, with cars from around the country, they have been trying to reintroduce the line for years, but each time it is shot down. Incidentally, the tracks ran right down my street, that's why a large truck can do a u-turn with ease!

 

[GHT]

Our trolley system was started in 1887, horse drawn of course,

Now that has prompted a memory. One of Britain's small off shore Islands, name of The Isle of Man, still has horse drawn trams. Any of you motor cycle fans may have heard of the TT Races. They are held on The Isle of Man.

 

[BlueTrain]

Is that a Manx horse?

I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned surplus trolley cars being converted to diners yet. Perhaps few diners were in fact converted trolley cars and for that matter, the classic diner rarely looked like a streetcar.

I also wonder how much influence transportation systems, insofar as they were systems, influenced urban development and planning. It's obvious how cars, once they became common, influenced the development of suburbs and I wonder if streetcar lines had the same effect. I'm tempted to say that they didn't because they were relatively late in being introduced. The urbs were already there. Likewise, the so-called bedroom communities may have been a creation of railroad lines, or at least the concept of a bedroom community. I think much growth around large cities may still be in the form of a bedroom community, however you might define it, but with cars being the main transportation factor. There are commuter trains where I live (Northern Virginia) but road construction is still booming and much of that is toll roads. I don't know if there is a strict definition of a bedroom community but I'm using it to mean a place where people live but most commute to work elsewhere.

 

[GHT]

Is that a Manx horse?
I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned surplus trolley cars being converted to diners yet.

What a great idea, especially if you lived in the UK in the 1940's. Your house gets bombed out, your local bus has it's roof blown off. Take the bus, put a thatch on it to replace the roof and you have a replacement home. Perhaps not bomb proof but much harder to hit.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the main impact trolley systems had on urban planning was the focus on getting rid of them. The systems that arose in the late 19th Century were integrated into a pre-existing infrastructure as best they could be, and by the second third of the 20th Century that infrastructure itself was going thru considerable upheaval, both due to new development in the 1920s and the improvement of existing roads and the construction of new ones to accomodate cars. Certainly the example of Robert Moses illustrates the dominant urban-planning view of public transport -- street rail systems were an impediment to the vision, not something to be preserved, and these views were further promoted and encouraged by those who had something to gain financially by abolishing the trolleys.

It's interesting to look at the "Futurama" exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair, a projection of the "America of 1960," based on the ideas of futurist Norman Bel Geddes strained heavily thru the filter of General Motors. This exhibit envisioned a national highway network -- which eventually came to pass as the Interstate Highway System -- and cities dominated by auto traffic, and no ground-level railways of any kind. The streets in the Bel Geddes/GM vision belonged exclusively to cars, with the roads to be rerouted and laid out in such a way that traffic jams couldn't exist. This was the sort of vision that motivated planners like Moses, who often suckled at the GM teat -- as witness his acceptance of a $25,000 cash bribe, er, contest award from the automaker in 1953 -- and who never missed a chance to promote the GM agenda.

 

[GHT]

You have a perception like no other Lizzie. How many, I wonder, have wriggled uncomfortably as you have shone the light of that perceptive stare of your's, into their shadowy shenanigans?
In the UK's Peak District is Crich Tramway Village. The link is the page of photos of the trams and delightful memorabilia. Look out for the Dr Who box.

 

[BlueTrain]

Generally speaking, urban and suburban planning--all planning, I guess--revolves around the automobile. Typically, there are still traffic jams all over the place every day, just the same. But to hear some explain it, the problem is that we, the people, never build all the roads that the planners want built. There are many reasons, not the least of which is that road building is expensive, not to mention the required maintenance. Another significant reason is that while people might want roads built, there are always plenty of people who just don't want the roads built where they are planned. They do cut cities in half sometimes. That's the old not in my backyard syndrome. The same is true for newly designed light rail systems. Around here, they have continually widened existing roads, sometimes adding toll lanes. I guess one could say that as far as progress goes, the future is still years away. But the past is never past.