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 Tuesday 10/12/21 - New York City's BRT Malbone Street Wreck

When it comes to any disaster, it is almost always caused by a small mistake way before it even happens instead of a singular freak event that affects an entire industry. Planes, ships, and even trains are not immune from what can crassly be called a "cock-up cascade", and history is sadly littered with the remnants of these events. Hidden among these infamous incidents is what is considered to be the deadliest train crash on the New York City subway system, as well as one of the deadliest train crashes in America. What started as an attempt to circumvent striking workers led to an error of mismanagement, inexperience, and ultimately an unnecessary loss of human life. The Brooklyn Rapid Transit's Malbone Street Wreck is certainly an evening to remember, and one we're looking back at on today's Trolley Tuesday.

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 Tuesday 10/5/21 - National City Lines (and the Great American Streetcar Scandal)

BOO!

Welcome back to a spooky month of October trolleyposts, dear riders! As befitting the scariest month of all (and considering I am a cowardly jackass when it comes to jumpscares), we will be looking at some famous streetcar and rapid transit disasters all through this month! Today's disaster is the most infamous for traction enthusiasts and public transit advocates, as without them, we would still have our famous street railways operating today and without the need to rebuild them from the ground up. Taking advantage of the nation's need for automobiles during and after World War II, the infamous National City Lines (NCL) stands as the biggest rapid transit disaster we have yet to recover from. And you'll find out about it, and more, on today's Trolley Tuesday.

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 Tuesday 9/28/21 - The Lines of the LA Metro

There are some who say that less is more, but not so in rapid transit circles. After all, to move the almost 4 million people who call Los Angeles home, one would need a more substantial mass-transit railway than the six lines we have today. And yet, in the same vein as their predecessors in the Pacific Electric (PE) and Los Angeles Railways (LARy), the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (or LACMTA, just the "Metro" for short) continues to provide the best possible service in a county both supportive, disappointed, and downright hostile to its light rail and subway systems. On today's Trolley Tuesday, we take a brief look at each line and what makes it special after discussing their origins last week, so please grab your TAP card, mind the doors, and enjoy a ride on the Metro!

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 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 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 Tuesday 9/7/21 - Trolley Parks

Everybody likes a good amusement park, which is basically the coldest take ever uttered on this blog, but often the journey to an amusement park is the hell before the heaven. Gridlock traffic on the freeway, gridlock getting into the parking structures, having to pay $25 just to park, it all feels so stressful without factoring in a day's itinerary! What if there was a way to get to an amusement park without having to worry about getting there? Well, before the dominance of the automobile, streetcar and interurban companies had that business easily handled. On today's Trolley Tuesday, we'll look at one of the lesser-known yet very-much-fun aspects of electric railroading: the passenger-pleasing and profit-generating Trolley Park!