Trolley Thursday 7/8/21 - A Brief History of the Bay Area Rapid Transit, Part 1

When the name, "Bay Area Rapid Transit", or its acronym, "BART", is mentioned to the average layperson, they immediately conjure up images of an outdated, incompatible and filthy system that anti-transit lobbyists love to use as a punchline or a warning. However, the BART is more than merely a punching bag, as it was originally one of the most forward-thinking and ambitious plans for a new American rapid transit system in the wake of National City Lines doing away with the Bay Area's streetcars as well as the best solution to the long-suffering problem of getting across the San Francisco Bay. On today's Trolley Thursday, consider this humble and passionate defense of this maligned and mischaracterized mass transit system as we look at the factors, figures, and fuck-ups foibles that make up today's Bay Area Rapid Transit.

Trolley Thursday 5/27/21 - The Sacramento Northern Railway

In the process of reading this blog closely, you may remember from Tuesday that the San Francisco Transbay Terminal opened with three tenants in 1939: the Key System, the Interurban Electric Railway (IER), and the Sacramento Northern (SN). This third tenant ran only one train into San Francisco, but don’t let that fool you. At 183 miles, the SN was the largest interurban system in northern California, sprawling from Oakland to Sacramento and farther north into the Central Valley. Like many interurbans, of course, the SN was doomed to end rather quickly but, during its lifetime, the company proved itself a paragon of interurban freight under its parent company, Western Pacific (WP), enough to entrench itself in historical legend. On today's Trolley Thursday, let's take a trip along the Sacramento Northern as we look back on its history and what it left behind.

Trolley Tuesday 5/25/21 - The San Francisco Transbay Terminal

Hello, dear readers and passengers! If you are reading this post, chances are I'm suffering the side-effects of my second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. As always, I want to tell you all to please remain healthy and safe as the country returns to normal, and be smart with your health.

Now with that out of the way... San Francisco's Salesforce Transit Center is a rather polarizing building in the city's history. Despite being designed as an ultramodern multi-modal hub for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Muni's bus system, and the northern terminal of the eventual California High Speed Rail (CAHSR), the building has had a shaky construction and opening as it spent most of its first year in operation closed due to structural concerns. While many new transit advocates both support the Salesforce Transit Center, or denigrate its organic architecture, almost all old San Franciscan souls lament the loss of what was there before, the original San Francisco Transbay Terminal. Despite being one of the most modern buildings in the city when it opened in 1939, the loss of its three major commuter rail tenants rendered the building redundant in only 20 years and limping into the 21st Century. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's look at the history of a building way ahead of its time, but quickly left behind once the trolleys stopped running.

Trolley Tuesday 5/18/21 - The Northwestern Pacific Railway

Today, the Northwestern Pacific Railway (NWP) that runs between Sonoma and Marin County is but a shadow of its former glory, originally encompassing almost 300 miles from San Francisco Bay's North Shore and up the Northern California Coast to Eureka and other connecting points north and east. While it is now characterized as a sleepy little ex-Southern Pacific (SP) subsidiary, the railway was once home to one of the most forward-thinking and futuristic electric railway systems ever conceived in America. Featuring unheard-of qualities like third-rail operations and alternating current signal systems, the NWP was a victim of redundancy and soon faded from history to the tune of snorting steam locomotives and growling diesels. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's take a ride on the Redwood Empire Route as we uncover what happened to NWP's interurban lines.

Trolley Tuesday 5/4/21 - The Southern Pacific's East Bay Electric Lines

Once again, welcome to another new month of Trolleyposts by your conductor and your motorman! This month, we're still in the Bay Area but we're now crossing the Bay Bridge to get to the East Bay cities of Oakland, Alameda, and Berkeley. Long before this massive bridge was here, the East Bay was full of streetcar lines that were, eventually, replaced by the now-familiar Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and the Bay Bridge. On today's Trolley Tuesday, we start our journey off in Oakland as we look at the Southern Pacific Railroad's other interurban holding, the Oakland, Alameda & Berkeley Lines. Of course, in hindsight, we now know this as the East Bay Electrics (EBE) and who knows? We might even see some familiar faces along the way!

Trolley Thursday 2/18/21 - The Pacific Electric (And East Bay Electric And Northwestern Pacific) Blimps

I've written about many anachronistic streetcars all over this blog in the past, that is streetcars that were in service for at least 40-50 years. We've had 1910s steel interurbans working well into the 80s on the South Shore, PCC cars working into the 80s in Cleveland, and even ex-San Diego PCC cars enjoying retirement in El Paso, Texas. Even on the Pacific Electric (PE), anachronistic streetcars working well-past their service life wasn't the exception, but the rule, with many receiving upgrades to keep them in service or downgraded to secondary services, as we covered in the wood and steel interurban car episodes. Today's rolling anachronism was born at the same time as the Twelves, but were much bigger, grander, and long-lived than even the people who saved them expected to be. With some of the oldest members now pushing 108 years old, let's return now to the thrilling days of yester-year as we take a flight aboard the big, the bad, and the beautiful Blimps on today's Trolley Thursday!

Trolley Thursday 2/11/21 - Pacific Electric's City and Center-Entrance Cars

The Pacific Electric Railway (or PE) did not develop the famous 600-750 Class "Hollywood Cars" overnight. In fact, it's something we'll be covering in greater detail next Tuesday. Prior to their most-famous streetcar type, PE (and by extension, their parent company Southern Pacific) spent years before 1923 trying to find the perfect standard "city" or "suburban" car to complement their successful standard range of wood and steel interurban cars. Outside of the Hollywoods, PE had four other classes of city cars that helped keep Angelinos moving around Los Angeles, Glendale, and Pasadena, and it's definitely worth talking about them on today's Trolley Tuesday, all about the search for the perfect city car!