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 Thursday 12/02/21 - The Watts Local: An Examination of Los Angeles' Racial History, "White Flight", and Watts.

So today's Trolley Thursday post is actually one I'm also submitting to my "Literary Los Angeles" Class (English 2600) as part of my Final Creative Project. As such, I want to make sure the language within is cleaned up, the sources are front and center, and some of the content may not be suitable for all readers. For my topic, I chose to demonstrate my knowledge of Los Angeles history by examining its place in depictions of race relations in LA Literature like Nina Revoyr's 1993 novel, "Southland", as well as how it reflects in "Southern California: An Island on the Land", written by seminal LA area lawyer and author Carey McWilliams in 1946. I also always wanted to examine the sociology of streetcars, and how it played a role in turning the suburbs from white to multi-ethnic or vice-versa. As such, consider this a special presentation of "Twice Weekly Trolley History" and I hope you enjoy as much as my professor.

Trolley Tuesday 9/21/21 - My Birthday!

My birthday in 2019, held at the Formosa Cafe in West Hollywood, CA.
The car is PE 800-class No. 913, now part of the restaurant and restored to her original colors.
(Myself)

Hey riders and readers, just a quick message while we get ready to finish the month of September! Things have been busy lately on my end (school, hobbies, etc), but I want to tell you all that we're gonna finish off the month very strong with a three-parter on the Los Angeles Metro light-rail and rapid-transit systems! In the meantime, happy birthday to me and you all have a great day!

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!

Trolley Thursday 11/24/20 - Pacific Electric Caboose No. 1969

Happy Thanksgiving from Twice-Weekly Trolley History! Despite the fact that we've been taking a month-long break through November, I thought it'd be a good idea to share on this special day a modelling project I felt very thankful for and that it'd be worth sharing with you, our wonderful readers. This is a project that took me most of October and I honestly couldn't have done it without a myriad of people giving me emotional support and practical advice on my very first scratchbuild. I hope you are all having a Happy Thanksgiving and here's to a solid return to our normal trolleyposting in December!

Welcome Aboard!

To all to come to this happy place, welcome.

It's come to my attention that my trolleypostings are getting a bit... big for Twitter. Sure, they've gotten plenty of attention and reblogging and readings and love, but considering I want to be very comprehensive with the history I can uncover and relate, I feel it's time I expanded it even more.

So, I want to announce that Trolley Tuesdays and Thursdays are moving to Blogger, with the intro-posts still remaining on Twitter for you to share! Old episodes from 2019 will also be uploaded here titled "From the Archives" starting in February, and will be handily organized into different tags so you can peruse the archives, but the content will remain the same! As for this month, the shift will be happening next Tuesday so this upcoming episode (Thursday) will be the last on Twitter.

I hope this is a lot easier going forward, and I want to thank you all again for your loyal readership. 

-Your Motorman