Trolley Thursday 4/21/22 - Why There Hasn't Been a Trolley Post in a While

I'm usually not one to be so open about my private life on my blog, especially this one which is a testament to my own enthusiasm and passion for streetcars, but I feel I owe my loyal readers and riders an explanation of why there hasn't been any new blogposts or content lately.

Trolley Tuesday 3/22/22 - The Grimsby & Immingham Electric Railway

Interurbans are, as proven time and again on this blog, a very Ameri-centric concept. Even the word itself, "interurban" brings up more images of American railroads like the North Shore, Pacific Electric, and Key System than anything worldwide. And yet, the concept of an electric railway with full separation from a road and private right-of-ways caught on around the world anyway. In Canada, they called these kinds of roads, "radial railways" as they "radiated out into the suburbs of Toronto". At the same time as these radial railways, Canada's commonwealth owner England had their own little interurban line that was as fast and as sophisticated as their American counterparts but not called an "interurban" at all. On today's (late) Trolley Tuesday, we're Humberside as we look at the Grimsby & Immingham Electric Railway, Britain's only interurban!

Trolley Tuesday 3/10/2022 - The Southern Railway's "Brighton Belle"

Over the last three years or so of this blog, we've never avoided mentioning the Pullman Company's effect on electric traction. After all, their proximity to some of the largest transit networks in the United States led a lot of companies to depend on them for top-quality suburban and interurban cars. However, while Pullman's own streetcars were legendary in their own right, we've never touched upon the more well-known side of George Pullman's grand sleeping car empire, that being their luxury train services. Well, fret no more dear riders, as despite a relative lack of Pullman luxury electric trains in the United States, it seems the idea took off across the pond in Britain. On today's Trolley Thursday, we're looking at how the Pullman Company flourished in England and its role in making one of the most famous electric luxury passenger trains... in the world.

Trolley Tuesday 3/8/22 - The Volk's Electric Railway (and Brighton & Rottingdean Seaside Railway)

Welcome, dear riders, to another month of Trolley Posts guaranteed to entertain and inform! This month, we're covering British (and Irish) electric railways big and small, starting with what might be the smallest and oldest operating electric railway in the United Kingdom! Traveling along the crashing southeastern shore of Brighton Beach, Magnus Volk's Electric Railway might seem quite insignificant compared to the giants of interurban transit we've covered on this blog before. While whole railways may have built town centers or establish important freight corridors, Volk's Electric Railway remains just a mere tourist attraction. It is, after all, the oldest operating electric railway in the world (even predating Frank J. Sprague's patented traction motors!). On today's Trolley Tuesday, we hope you do like to be beside the sea-side as we ride along the Volk's Electric Railway!

Trolley Tuesday 2/15/21 - Empresa Ferro Carril Curitybano

When it comes to choosing what cities to cover on any given Trolley Tuesday or Thursday post, often I like to pay tribute to my friends by focusing on the city that they live in, more than ones that are more well known, larger, or more famous. As I have a longtime friend in Brazil, I thought I could pay tribute to them by focusing on their home city of Curitiba, the eighth-largest city in the country and the capital of the state of Paranà. Long known as a haven of European immigration and cattle breeding, the "City of Eternal Fog" has also featured a once-great streetcar system that cultivated both European and American influences, which today's (late) Trolley Tuesday will focus on.

Trolley Thursday 2/10/22 - The Panama Tramways

If one talks about the country of Panama (and its identically named City of Panama), most conversations stop at the giant canal built through gunboat diplomacy by 1914. However, the history of Panama does go on beyond the giant Canal, as the city had famously been sacked by privateer Henry Morgan in 1671 and reestablished a distance away by 1673. With the new Panama eventually came a new streetcar system that, like the Canal as its contemporary, continued to be a hotbed of constant reorganization, interruption, and commercial importance to the slender isthmus. On today's Trolley Thursday, we look at how electric streetcars built up Panama and what came after, if anything came after.

Trolley Tuesday 2/8/22 - Las Sistemas de Tren Eléctrico Urbano de Guadalajara

Offsetting the large urban metropolis that is Mexico City in the East lies the city of Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco on Mexico's western side. Today, it is the third largest metropolitan area in Mexico, and second in urban density to Mexico City, with varied commercial businesses ranging from technology to finance. Back in the days of horsecars, however, the city was just finding its feet; it was both a constantly-changing site of revolution and agricultural and textile enterprises, setting the stage for a modern transit system by the late 1800s. Where is this streetcar system today, and why is there a trolleybus going into a highway underpass? All of this and more in today's Trolley Tuesday report, all about the Guadalajaran streetcar system.

Trolley Thursday 2/3/22 - Sociedad Cooperativa de Transportes Urbanos y Sub-Urbanos de Veracruz

As the first port of call for explorers, pirates, and immigrants alike, Veracruz has been held in high regard as a part of Mexican history. For railway enthusiasts, it was the eastern end of what became Mexico's first steam railway to Mexico City, some 273 miles away and for many immigrants, an entire world. For traction enthusiasts, it was site of only the second horsecar railway in the entire country, and one with a very descriptive but unwieldy name. Despite this, and being in the shadow of the Mexico City Streetcar system in both size and reach, the Sociedad Cooperativa de Transportes Urbanos y Sub-Urbanos de Veracruz (SCTV) remained a stalwart part of the city for nearly eighty years, and a welcome haven for sold-off, secondhand streetcars. On today's (belated) Trolley Thursday, we're at the True Crossroads as we look back on the streetcars of this Heroic City.

Trolley Tuesday 2/1/22 - The Streetcars of Mexico City

Bienvenidos, amigos, to another month of streetcar history from us at Twice-Weekly Trolley History! As previously announced, this month will be covering streetcar history all over Central and South America, with some rather interesting familiar faces along the way. First on our "South of the Border" tour is Mexico City, the national seat of government and one of the oldest cities in Mexico, all built on what was once Lake Texcoco and the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlàn. As well as being one of the country's largest cities, Mexico City was also once home to one of the largest and most storied streetcar networks in the country. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's look back on the oft-forgotten but never-gone history of the Servicio de Transportes Eléctricos and its predecessors!

Trolley Thursday 1/27/22 - The Interurban Cars of the Pacific Great Eastern

Welcome to the last (belated) trolleypost of January! We hope you have enjoyed the country of Canada, as we venture south to Mexico and Central America next month. 

As for today's topic, it's one that's rather out there, even for the scope of this blog. In all the coverage we've had over the past three years, the stories of the interurbans we tell all seem to end the same: company goes belly-up due to nobody caring about its existence anymore, so the cars get sold to scrap merchants or donated to museums, or (more rarely) sold onto other uses. For many American interurban cars, their ultimate fates involved another life in the Great White North, and it is for that purpose why today's Trolley Thursday will look at the second-hand interurban cars of the Pacific Great Eastern.