Trolley Thursday 12-31-20 - Happy New Year

From the Motorman

Idiot at the controls.

If you might have noticed, there's no trolley post today. I didn't even plan for one on this, one of the most special days of the year, because I wanted to reserve today to talk to you: our readers (or passengers, take your pick). Since I started doing these trolley posts on Twitter back in 2019, I've received a reliable readership who've been eagerly reading all the stuff I have to say, to the point where I had to move to an all-new site to bring you even more information.

I'll admit, starting out on this site was rocky. Despite what you might think, it took whole months to find the right style, length, and substance of all the topics I wanted to talk about. Often, it would come very awkward or jarring, and I'd worry that I'd alienate a lot of people due to the inconsistent style. However, come October with Boston month, I found the right paragraph length, language, and style that suits everything going forward. 

It is also a fun thing to collaborate with other people and even whole museum organizations on some of the topics I've covered. If not for Josh Bernhard, Jonathan Lee, Atticus van Astikatus, the Interurban Railway Museum of Plano, TX, the Seashore Trolley Museum of Kennebunkport, ME, the New York Transit Museum of New York, NY, and others, I'd probably do a bad job representing cities outside where I actually live, Los Angeles. Being able to represent cities near-accurately and celebrate their street railways fills me with a lot of joy, and in turn I hope to share those with you.

I'll also give special thanks to my conductor, Nakkune, for not only putting up with being my proofreader and editor all of this year, but also suggesting I move my stuff over to Blogger in the first place. With this new site, we've been able to reach hundreds, maybe thousands, of people all over the world to join in our mass transit celebration, with our highest episode being the Illinois Traction for some odd reason. 

I hope to continue this energy and commitment to both entertainment and education into 2021, and I can only do it with all of you reading and sharing our little column. Who knows? Maybe we might even make a difference in saving some rare streetcar for preservation, or restoring one to operation. For now, have a safe and wonderful New Year and see you next Tuesday.

From the Conductor

The sane one with the emergency valve.

Hey, Nakkune here, your conductor and editor of this blog. As we bring a close to the Year That Shall Not Be Named, I wanted to thank you all for reading our blog. I hope you join us again next Tuesday as we continue to explore trolley systems both big and small in the new year. We’ve got plenty of exciting systems in store, so stay tuned!

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Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. On Next Year's Tuesday, we finally take a look at one of the most famous electric railways in the world: The Pacific Electric Railway of Los Angeles, California. 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!