Trolley Thursday 10/27/20 - Notable Streetcars and Rapid Transit of Boston

 While Boston has had a fantastic and varied streetcar history, possessing both the oldest subway in America and some of the longest-running revenue streetcar lines in the world, one of the biggest oversights we've had this month is discussing just how varied and unique some of Boston's streetcars actually are. We already touched on the differences between heavy- and light-rail systems, so now that we've established where these cars have run (and still do), we can dig deep and see what sets Boston's streetcar fleet apart from the rest of America. Climb aboard and indulge in your inner nerd as we excitedly discuss the different types of streetcars to grace the Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (better known, of course, as the MBTA). 

   

Early Boston Streetcars

An example of a West Side Electric Railway car in 1897, this one being
a St. Louis electrically-converted 20-foot horse car.
(State Transportation Library of Massachusetts)

Some of the first electric streetcars in Boston were converted horsecars from the many railroads acquired by the West Side Electric Railway (WESR), which predated the BERy. When the railway company began investing in new streetcars, these new St. Louis and Wason company products were known as "boxes" and came in either 20- or 25-foot lengths. Some were built as parlor cars, complete with fancy window shades and elaborate scroll work, to attract higher-paying fares, but most were "little different from the horsecars they replaced," including only having hand brakes instead of air brakes.

The cover of the Seashore Electric Railway's 1952 "Special Report", with a
WSER Parlor Car No. 925 on the cover.
(Seashore Trolley Museum)

The first "26ft 6 in" car, o. 475 with the "Boston Box" cab,
replacing plenty of 25-foot cars that were lost in carhouse fires.
(Seashore Trolley Museum)

One interesting experiment to a 20-foot "box" was the addition of a "West End Portable Vestibule", essentially a small shack to shield the motorman and controls from the elements and already tested on other systems like the Chicago Elevated. The unions, however, hated this new box as they worried any collision would trap the motorman and subject him to broken glass. While St. Louis provided more enclosed cars later on, there was still the issue of visibility and blocking the passenger entrances during rush hours. The creation of the "Boston box", an extended section that encased the motorman with glass on each side and clearing the loading platform, definitely mitigated these issues as they were implemented on the first air-braked "26ft 6 in" cars in 1903.

The Standard Types

"Type 2" No. 5060 in preservation at the Seashore
Trolley Museum, dressed in WSER green.
(Boston Streetcars)

By 1906, streetcars had only gotten a little longer with the advent of the "Type 1, 2, and 3" cars outshopped by Brill (1 and 2) and St. Louis Car Company (3) between 1905 and 1907. These were some of the first fully-weather-proofed cars to emerge on Boston's streets and the first to have pneumatic doors rather than hand-operated. Immediately, they began displacing other older horsecars around the city, and their increased capacity brought on by their 46-foot length was a god-send to rush-hour crews. These cars also featured the "Boston Box" cab design and were among the first to be constructed as "prepayment" cars, giving the rider an option to pay before seating instead of paying an exit fare. All three were pretty much identical, and yet they still weren't enough for the growing city as all lacked any kind of multiple-unit working. 

A "Type 4" and "Type Eight" trailer putters along the Neponset River
on the Mattapan-Ashmont line on an unknown snowy day.
(Boston Streetcars)

"Type 8" center entrance cars wait at Braves Field
for the game to end. Note the reversed trolley pole 
direction on the "motor" car. No doubt, it was tricky
to put these cars on a pole as both face inward.
(Joe Testagrose)

This was later mitigated in 1911, when the Laconia and Brill companies outshopped the "Type 4" cars to replace their antiquated kin. The Type 4s were delivered with new multiple-unit workings, enabling them to double their capacity as they roamed around South and East Boston and wherever they could fit on the rails. These cars were among the first steel trolley cars to run in Boston, and were later joined in 1915 by the "Type 8" center-entrance cars and trailers. The trailers ran exclusively with the Type 4s, which came in handy when World War II brought hoards of people riding the streetcars, to the point that many Type 8s were dragged off storage or scrap lines and refurbished. The last standard car the BERy bought were the "Type 5 lightweights" in 1924, and they stood as the second-longest car to run on the BERy after the Type 4s until the advent of the PCCs. Like the Type 4s and 8s, they served dutifully in World War II, and many ran until the end of BERy service in 1959.

A Type 8 scoots along in Waterton Square, again showing the odd pole operation practices.
(Bill Volkmer)

MBTA No. 5164 takes a place of pride at Mattpan
Yard, with a row of PCCs waiting to its left, 1987.
(Dick Leonhardt)

After the 1930s, many retired Type 1s, 2s, and 3s were converted to service cars such as sand cars, line cars, and snowplows to further prolong their service lives. One such car, Type 3 turned snowplow No. 5164, was eventually retired as a snowplow on the Mattapan-Ashmont Line in 2006, after just about 99 years of service on Boston's tracks. It is one of six preserved Type 3s (all snowplow conversions) at the Seashore Trolley Museum, along with four Type 5s, and two Type 2s. 

A Room With a Kitchen

Let's rewind for a bit, now. While Boston was investing heavily in new streetcars, there was still the issue of the 1,197 20-foot and 25-foot cars that BERy still owned by 1910. Despite the displacement by the standard types, the older cars were still valuable and BERy tried their best to find ways to keep them in service. Air brake conversions seemed possible, but the tight Brill undercarriages left little room to add the air pumps, tanks, and linkages necessary to replace the hand brakes. It wasn't until John Lindall, superintendent of the BERy shops, patented a new hinge and chassis design in 1910 that the BERy now had an excuse to do away with all of their old 20-foot cars, and they did it in the most insane way possible.

The blueprints and crush diagram of the BERy Articulated Streetcar, showing how it can do the work of two cars in one.
(Public Domain)

The "Snake Car" demonstrates what made it a viable
design for Boston's zig-zag streets, with a tight turning
radius.
(Public Domain)

Boston lays claim to many street railway firsts, but one definite surprise is laying claim to the "first articulated light rail vehicle in the world." From 1910 to 1912, almost all 20-foot boxes went into the BERy shops for heavy reworking. Each had one end deck removed and were coupled to a new "bridge" vestibule that hung over the rails and held the two cars together. Inside this vestibule was the conductor's compartment, with a Johnson farebox behind the center entrance doors. What was once a 20 foot car was now 62 feet long, yet its articulation helped it negotiate 35-foot radius curves with a 2-foot swing. However, despite their immense length, their axle loading still remained the same and made them viable to operate all over the system.

A 62-foot snake car passes a row of cars down
Charles Street, dwarfing the phaetons and limousines.
(HistoryMonkey)

Compared to the standard types, this new car (dubbed the "Snake Cars" or "Two Rooms and a Kitchen") looked like a mad experiment, and they worked just as well too. With the center section not supported underneath, the cars often derailed on the tight Harvard Square-Dudley Street line they served, and rerailing them was a similar pain. No other information of their working life exists to my knowledge, but it's clear they didn't last into WWI service. Despite this, the cars may have been just too ahead of their time, as articulated electric trains would not come about until the 1930s with the Oakland Key System's famous "Bridge Units" in California. Nevertheless, these flexible cars (whether people know it or not) have definitely influenced some of the more flexible light rail vehicles (LRVs) we see today. 

Modern Development in Light Rail

Boston Elevated Railway No. 3001, fresh from St. Louis' shops, showing off
its sleek and modern lines. Perfect for the auld city of Boston!
(Digital Commonwealth)

Two of the ex-Dallas PCCs chill with their poles up
at Mattapan Yard. Boston never used them as double-ended
cars, but still enjoyed the exits/entrances at both ends.
(Ed Graziano)

Prior World War II, the BERy decided to invest in more modern PCCs to displace their hodgepodge fleet of standard types, which started arriving in May 1937 from St. Louis Car Company. This new one, named "Queen Mary" and numbered 3001, was the first and only pre-1940s PCC to run in Boston. She was later joined by 20 other cars in 1941 from Pullman, and unlike the Queen Mary, these featured "left-sided" doors to accommodate stations that could load/unload from both sides. Over the next few war years, and even after, Boston was home to over 300 PCCs, including 24 "all electric" cars and 25 ex-Dallas Railway & Terminal Company (DRT) double-ended PCCs that were dubbed "Texas Rangers". The "all-electrics" featured interesting clerestory roofs that housed air conditioning and heater equipment, as well as sporting electrically-actuated brakes instead of air. Some with the standee windows introduced after WWII became known as "picture window" cars, and there was significant overlap with the nicknames. As the street railway shrank, many of these cars ended their days working on the Mattapan-Ashmont line or being converted into line and service cars.

1946-built Pullman "Picture Window" "All Electric" PCCs rumble and grind their way
along the Green Line's "E" Branch in 1962. Two years later, the BERy orange and cream gave
way to the familiar white and green livery.
(Trevon Haywood)

Death makes for strange bedfellows as a PCC and
a Boeing-Vertol LRV await their fate at Watertown
Yard, late 1980s to early 1990s.
(Peter B. Kingman)

By 1976, most of the Green Line PCCs that weren't already shipped to the Mattapan-Ashmont Line or retired for scrap were replaced by the new Boeing-Vertol "US Standard Light Rail Vehicle". 144 of these square units were ordered, but 31 were cancelled after many of the MBTA's fleet derailed frequently. Ten years later, the MBTA worked with the Kinki-Sharyo Company to create a new LRV more bespoke to the city of Boston. As such, these new "Type 7s" took many design cues from the venerable PCCs, including the sloping front, split front windshield canted into the interior, and the enormous destination signs. 100 new "Type 7" cars entered service in 1986, with a further 20 being built in 1997. These cars later worked together with the Ansaldo-Breda Type 8s from 1998, as the new Breda cars were wheel-chair compatible.

Ansaldo-Breda "Type 8" 3875 slips into the Cleveland Circle Yard at Beacon St
and Chestnut Hill, past Green Line work car 4366 (rebuilt from a PCC) in January 2020.
(Atticus van Astikatus)

Rapid Transit, Slow Looks

Factory-fresh Orange Line cars in 1981.
(Boston to a T)

Finally, the heavy-rail rapid transit sector had its own share of venerable and interesting designs. The Canadian company Hawker Siddeley supplied both the Orange Line rapid transit and the Blue Line with new cars in the late 1970s that looked a little... or a lot hexagonal. This unique design allowed both lines to utilize wider trains while keeping within the station platform loading gauges. Both of these replaced Pullman steel designs better found on the New York Subway and Elevated system, and the Orange Line "Number 12" cars are still popular for transit fans as the small motorman's compartment allows a front-end window for riders to look out of. 

An ex-Blue Line Hawker Siddeley set poses with a preserved Boeing-Vertol LRV
at the Seashore Trolley Museum on June 4, 2011.
(Chris Henchey)

The ancient 1969 Pullman cars of the MBTA's Red Line,
as plain as the winter nights are long.
(Oren's Transit Page)

The Red Line, on the other hand, has some of the oldest stock still in use on the MBTA system, outside of the Mattapan-Ashmont High Speed Line. In 1969, Pullman-Standard outshopped some of its last railroad cars from its Worcester, MA, location in the form of the "Number 1" rapid transit car, with 76 cars total being delivered between 1969 and 1970. Today, 68 still remain in service alongside newer cars supplied from Canadian companies UTDC and Bombardier, with no significant changes to their design apart from regular maintenance. 

The MBTA's historic cars of the 1970s to the 1990s will eventually give way to 
a new generation of light rail and rapid transit cars developed by the CRRC Corporation.
Personally, I'm not a fan.
(WCVB-TV)

   

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included the roster list curated by the Canadian Public Transit Discussion Board, a 1958 Seashore Electric Railway Special Report that can be found as a PDF here, a 1912 edition of the Electric Street Railway Journal, and the smart guys over at BostonStreetcars.com. Special thanks to the Seashore Trolley Museum of Kennebunkport, ME, for all the information found here today and for preserving some of these wonderful cars. On Thursday, we finish off the month by looking at the history, and odd routing, of the MBTA's most famous song. For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!