Trolley Tuesday 8/10/21 - The Cars of the San Diego Electric Railway

On Thursday, we covered the general history of the San Diego Electric Railway (SDERy), a sprawling 100-or-so mile electric railway system that helped grow America's Finest City into the international port it is today. On this Trolley Tuesday, we'll be opening up the Adams Avenue Carbarn and looking at the many varied streetcars the SDERy rostered. From the usual smatterings of horsecars and cable cars, to home-grown designs and pioneering streetcars, we have it all! So sit back, ride and relax, and enjoy today's post!

Trolley Thursday 8/5/21 - The San Diego Electric Railway

Welcome to another month of streetcar history and stories on Twice-Weekly Trolley History! For this month, we'll be focusing on the ongoing story of San Diego's streetcars, starting with the original San Diego Electric Railway, or SDERy. San Diego has always been thought of as one of America's "World Class cities", as it was usually the first city encountered by northbound ships coming out the west side of the Panama Canal, and by the early 20th century it had already established itself as a major hub of ferry traffic, fish, lumber, and shipbuilding, to say nothing of its economic promise or its beach tourism traffic fueled by hoteliers and land development. In order for San Diego to become a "City in Motion", though, it needed the momentum of streetcars to make it America's Finest City. On today's Trolley Thursday, let's look back on the history of this legendary system and how it's set up America's current light rail craze.

Trolley Tuesday 6/16/20 - The New El Paso Streetcar

Heritage streetcar service is nothing new today, as almost every city has some way of celebrating its transit heritage. Some, like the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority, maintain a fleet of heritage cars to run on lines that have been in service since the 19th century, while others prefer creating new streetcar lines and loops that function more as moving museums on brand new alignments like the San Francisco MUNI. Indeed, to appeal to both tourists and nostalgia-bait-takers alike, you have to have a heritage streetcar. Today, we look at one of the more recent systems to pop up in the 21st century, the long awaited return of the El Paso Not-Quite-International-Anymore Streetcar!

Trolley Thursday 6/4/20 - El Paso International Streetcar

Today's Trolley Thursday continues a theme began on Tuesday when we started our journey deep into the heart of the Lone Star State, or at least its borders. Laredo's small-town system, while being the first electric streetcar west of the Mississippi River, was not the only international streetcar. Just 600 miles to the Northwest, the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez also contained its own Tex-Mex streetcar. The story of the El Paso International Streetcar, later the El Paso City Lines, is one that's both tragic and hopeful; a streetcar line driven to destruction by National City Lines was able to defy expectations and return to run in the modern day. This, and more, after the break. (A fancy new break!)