Trolley Thursday 2/10/22 - The Panama Tramways

If one talks about the country of Panama (and its identically named City of Panama), most conversations stop at the giant canal built through gunboat diplomacy by 1914. However, the history of Panama does go on beyond the giant Canal, as the city had famously been sacked by privateer Henry Morgan in 1671 and reestablished a distance away by 1673. With the new Panama eventually came a new streetcar system that, like the Canal as its contemporary, continued to be a hotbed of constant reorganization, interruption, and commercial importance to the slender isthmus. On today's Trolley Thursday, we look at how electric streetcars built up Panama and what came after, if anything came after.

Trolley Thursday 2/3/22 - Sociedad Cooperativa de Transportes Urbanos y Sub-Urbanos de Veracruz

As the first port of call for explorers, pirates, and immigrants alike, Veracruz has been held in high regard as a part of Mexican history. For railway enthusiasts, it was the eastern end of what became Mexico's first steam railway to Mexico City, some 273 miles away and for many immigrants, an entire world. For traction enthusiasts, it was site of only the second horsecar railway in the entire country, and one with a very descriptive but unwieldy name. Despite this, and being in the shadow of the Mexico City Streetcar system in both size and reach, the Sociedad Cooperativa de Transportes Urbanos y Sub-Urbanos de Veracruz (SCTV) remained a stalwart part of the city for nearly eighty years, and a welcome haven for sold-off, secondhand streetcars. On today's (belated) Trolley Thursday, we're at the True Crossroads as we look back on the streetcars of this Heroic City.

Trolley Thursday 1/27/22 - The Interurban Cars of the Pacific Great Eastern

Welcome to the last (belated) trolleypost of January! We hope you have enjoyed the country of Canada, as we venture south to Mexico and Central America next month. 

As for today's topic, it's one that's rather out there, even for the scope of this blog. In all the coverage we've had over the past three years, the stories of the interurbans we tell all seem to end the same: company goes belly-up due to nobody caring about its existence anymore, so the cars get sold to scrap merchants or donated to museums, or (more rarely) sold onto other uses. For many American interurban cars, their ultimate fates involved another life in the Great White North, and it is for that purpose why today's Trolley Thursday will look at the second-hand interurban cars of the Pacific Great Eastern.

Trolley Thursday 1/20/22 - The Edmonton Radial Railway (and the ERRS)

Outside of the cities of Toronto and Montreal in Ontario and Quebec, respectively, the next biggest city as one moves west cross Canada is Edmonton. Lying just southeast of Alberta's central point, Edmonton is the province's capital and home to the famous West Edmonton Mall and Fort Edmonton Park. Edmonton is also a major stop on the famous VIA Rail "Canadian" all-streamliner passenger service. However, unlike that rolling anachronism of 1950s Budd cars, their current light rail system is but a shadow of its former glory. On today's Trolley Thursday, we look back on the original Edmonton Radial Railway and the historical society that takes its name today.

Trolley Thursday 1/13/22 - The Toronto Railways (Part 1)

What more can be said about the city of Toronto? It's the capital of Ontario, it's Canada's most populous city, and it's the one place everyone thinks of when they imagine the big cities of the Great White North. But among the canyons and crags of Toronto's skyscrapers lie another large and iconic transit system: the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). This modern municipal railway may seem so old and permanent like its contemporaries such as the San Francisco Municipal Railway and the Chicago Transit Authority, but not so. Out of the ashes of several different private street railways, the TTC rose like a phoenix to become the iconic home of Peter Witts, PCCs, and CLRVs we know today, and on today's (belated) Trolley Thursday, we see how the TTC first got formed in the Queen City where "diversity is strength".

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 Thursday 11/30/21 - The Denver Tramway... Revisited

On today's Trolley Tuesday rewrite, we're returning to the Mile-High City as we look at the history of America's last independent streetcar system: the Denver Tramway. Originally written in two parts, I'm choosing to rewrite this one as I feel like most of my earlier two-parts can now be concisely bunched into one whole post with much better information within. But Denver's history is just more than privatized transit, as its history goes back to the late 1860s and is full of agitation, monopoly, and big unique streetcars. So saddle up and get Rocky Mountain High, as we turn our eyes to the complete history of the Denver Tramway!

Trolley Tuesday 11/25/21 - Seattle Municipal Electric Railway... Revisited

Welcome, dear riders to our Twice-Weekly Trolley History Thanksgiving Special! The special thing about it is it is not a special at all, rather just the next planned episode in our series of November (creeping into December) rewrites! As we're technically still in the Pacific Northwest, we turn our attention from the stumpy, coffee-addicted hipsterdom of Portland, Oregon, to look at another stumpy, coffee-addicted hipsterdom in the form of Seattle, Washington! Following in the footsteps of San Francisco's transit revolution, Seattle's 231 miles of electric street railways over 26 lines made up one of the largest municipal transit systems in the wake of the original "Muni". However, unlike San Francisco, Seattle had a hard time making theirs work, and what was once a promising future of complete public control and service became a black hole that could only end in bus operation. On today's Trolley Thursday, let's revisit the Seattle Municipal Street Railway and see what made the Emerald City shine!

Trolley Thursday 11/18/21 - The Puget Sound Electric Railway... Revisited

Well, we've been away for quite a while. I had unexpectedly become busy and my editor was on vacation, so we were not able to bring you this latest rewrite until now. That being said...

Today's trolleypost rewrite deals with the Puget Sound Electric Railway, the first series of posts I had using an actual book (that being Warren G. Wing's "To Tacoma by Trolley", a present from one of my friends). While those three posts are still pretty thorough, I found them artificially bloated and awkwardly paced because I tried to fit every fact I could into them from just a glancing read. Today, however, things will be different as we smell the fresh... whatever kind of air that is in Tacoma and we return to the Pacific Northwest as we look at Washington's finest interurban, the Puget Sound Electric Railway!

Trolley Tuesday 11/3/21 - The Oregon Electric Railway... Revisited

Welcome to another round of Trolleyposting in November! Having changed so much since we've first started this blog, I thought it would be a good idea to go back and redo some of the episodes I found quite lacking, either through wholesale absence of information or an early writing style trying to escape from the trappings of Twitter character limits. For our first foray, we return to the state that started off this blog, Oregon, to give you an expanded history on the very first episode, the Oregon Electric Railway, and its long-forgotten interurbans (and its famous rivalry with the SP Red Electrics)!

Trolley Thursday 10/21/21 - Milwaukee's NMRA Speedrail Wreck

In the context of railroad history, no company is more synonymous with the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, than the famous Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, otherwise known as "the Milwaukee Road". Unfortunately for you, foolish reader, today is not a day to talk about the famous Route of the Hiawatha, as Beer City is home to more than just a famous streamliner. For the purposes of this blog, we'll be discussing the city's lesser-known system of local interurban and streetcar lines operated by the Milwaukee Rapid Transit & Speedrail Lines (also known as "Speedrail" going forward) and how one man's dreams were destroyed on a weekend meant to boost this fading, failing interurban. On today's Trolley Thursday, we look back on the tragic NMRA Speedrail Labor Day Wreck of 1950 and why it's important to remember today.

Trolley Thursday 10/14/21 - Pittsburgh's Mount Washington Tunnel Disaster

Despite the 1910s being the "Golden Age" of street railway development and operation, where it seemed everyone and their mother had a streetcar line, it was still a very hazard-fraught period as the companies were still learning how to make their streetcars safer through trial and deadly error. After all, it was just last week where we learned that New York City's worst subway disaster basically gave us the "deadman" pedal as we know it as late as 1918. Unfortunately, that kind of technology could have also saved another runaway streetcar that went down in local infamy as one of the worst streetcar crashes in the Alleghenies. On today's Trolley Thursday, we peer into the annals of the Pittsburgh Railways as we look back on the 1917 Mount Washington Transit Tunnel Terror.

Trolley Thursday 10/7/21 - Boston's Summer Street Bridge Disaster

Welcome, foolish mortals, to another October trolleypost! This month, we're doing famous streetcar disasters from all over the United States and our first port of call is, appropriately, a port city. Along Boston's famous Charles River (where you'll find me along with lovers, muggers and thieves) are (currently) nine bridges that guide cars, rapid transit, and commuter trains over the waters to safety on the other side. One of these is the Summer Street bridge, a drawbridge on the southeastern side of Boston's South Station, which once carried the Boston Elevated Railway (or BERy) along with normal automobile traffic. So, what happens when a streetcar tries to cross this bridge when it's all drawn up? You get one soaked trolley, forty-six deaths, and the deadliest accident in Boston before the Cocoanut Grove fire of 1946. Put on your scuba gear and sound the alarm, it's time for Trolley Thursday.

Trolley Thursday 9/30/21 - The Cars of the LA Metro

Welcome, dear riders, to the last Trolley Thursday of September! Sixty-or-so years ago, the Pacific Electric Railway's massive interurban and streetcar fleet dropped from tens of hundreds of varied models all the way to just... one. Today's LA Metro is clearly the opposite of that. Despite having numerous light-rail models and one subway model over their thirty-year existence, Metro's close work with manufacturers in Japan, Germany, and Italy ensures that their light rail fleet is interchangeable and workable through their long lifespans. On today's Trolley Thursday, let's open up the Division Carhouses on all six lines as we look at what makes Los Angeles' LRVs so unique!

Trolley Thursday 9/23/21 - The (Very Dense) History of the LA Metro

Over one-hundred years ago, the city of Los Angeles boasted the finest interurban transit system in the world, spanning three counties with over one thousand miles of track. The Pacific Electric Railway (PE) hauled everything from daily commuters and freight to special horse-racing and Catalina ferry trains and became inexorably linked to Los Angeles' identity as it recovered from World War II. And then... it was gone.

Today, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit District (better known as the LAMTA) seeks to reinvigorate what we lost in the wake of the PE and the Los Angeles Railway (LARy) being shut down in favor of increased bus use and car-centric road design. Despite having only a tenth of PE's tracks, LA's light rail and subways continue to look ever forward to that final frontier of efficient rapid transit, and it's why we are highlighting its history on today's Trolley Thursday!

Trolley Thursday 9/9/21 - Angel's Flight

Deep in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, among all of the modern skyscrapers and historic Beaux-Arts buildings, lies a rather unsuspecting and quite strange railway. It's the shortest public railway in Los Angeles, at just 298 feet in length, and has since been superseded by a concrete stairwell that travels right beside it up the side of Bunker Hill. And yet, it remains one of the city's most popular and well-traveled tourist attractions (if you count being "well-traveled" as "moving about 300 feet south of its original site". Yes, on today's (delayed) Trolley Thursday, we drop all pretenses and take a magnifying glass to Los Angeles' longest running "rapid" transit railway, Angel's Flight! Grab your La-La Land DVD and join us as we ascend through this unique funicular's histo-oh, we're already at the top.

Trolley Thursday 8/26/21 - The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System

After long delays and your patient understanding, we are now at the end of our San Diegan streetcar story! Before Los Angeles re-embraced its light rail, and so did the rest of the country, America's Finest City led the rallying cry for better light rail in defiance of filthy motor buses and car culture that choked city streets and the citizens that rolled upon them. However, unlike many of these stories, San Diego was not doing this to spark a revolution; rather they did it to fix a problem that had plagued them for 31 years after the last PCC pulled its pole off the wire and went into storage. Today, the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) stands as a testament to what modern light rail can do to reinvigorate a city, and it is appropriate that a story started by John D. Spreckels deserves to have a sweet ending.

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 Thursday 7/29/21 - Central California Traction, Stockton Electric, and the Red River Logging Company

Welcome, everyone to the last Trolley Thursday (on a Friday, again?) of July, 2021! Over the last few posts, we've been looking at the culmination of electric railways in California's Bay Area and a brief overview of the Central Valley's notable streetcar lines. Today, however, we're going to be a little bit busy. The companies we're going to talk about today are all interconnected and equally short-lived, with the last being the only surviving "traction" railway still operating in California. Of course, the word "traction" there can mean both electric traction and diesel traction. So, sit back with us today as we look at the Stockton Electric, the Red River Logging Company, and the Central California Traction Railways, a Sacramento Delta triple treat!

Trolley Thursday 7/22/21 - The Visalia Electric Railroad

The Central Valley is often not known for being the most interesting place to be in California. If you ever find yourself driving through, you probably are on the fastest way to the Bay Area or the State Capitol, or you're heading east into the Sierra Nevada Mountains to enjoy the beautiful national parks. However, if you ever find yourself going through Tulare County either towards Fresno, Bakersfield, or Sequoia National Forest, pause first in the town of Visalia and look around you. Before the roar of the Tulare Thunderbowl and before Highway 99 was even thought of, there was once a small electric railway that held much promise for its parent company, Southern Pacific (SP), but various factors led to its early demise and its continued existence as a name on a General Electric 44 Tonner diesel locomotive. On today's Trolley Thursday (still on Friday?), let's peel back the citrus skin of the Visalia Electric Railway and savor the juices of its short-lived history.