Trolley Tuesday 1/11/22 - The London & Port Stanley Railway

As much as I would love to, dear reader, tell you about the mostly-unknown-yet-fascinating history of London's tram network, that will actually have to wait for another few months (plus comedian Jay Foreman already covered it in a more succinct and funny way than I ever could). Instead, the "London" we're looking at today is much smaller as it is London, Ontario, a city of about 300,000 people on the shores of Lake Erie. Its closest port town, Port Stanley, was once connected to London by way of a 25-mile electric interurban railroad that was near and dear to many local Ontarians. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's brush back the sands of time and narrow our scope as we look at a much smaller electric railway in-between the likes of Montreal and Toronto, but no less important: the London & Port Stanley Railway!

Trolley Thursday 1/6/22 - Montreal Street Railway

Bienvenue, mes amies, dans un autre "Trolley Thursday" post! As one of Quebec's largest and most-populous cities, Montreal holds a special place in the realm of French Canada as the home of the most successful ice hockey team in the NHL, the "Canadiens", and that wonderful savoury delicacy, poutine. Prior to 1959, however, Montreal also laid claim to having one of the largest, most iconic and sophisticated transit networks in the Dominion, with well over 500 kilometers of track at its peak and boasting such cars as the famous Peter Witt and PCC cars in its roster. On today's Trolley Thursday, climb aboard this Golden Chariot and tip your hat to old Notre-Dame du Montreal, as we try to avoid being caught speaking English aboard the Montreal Street Railway! 

Trolley Tuesday 1/4/22 - The Halifax Street Railway

Oh crumbs, is it January already? I was much rather enjoying my hibernation... Ah well, if my editor is poking me with a stick, I must meet his demands...

Welcome to another month, another year, and another country on Twice Weekly Trolley History, as we break free of the Land of Freedom to look at streetcars from around the world! Our first country this year is... Canada, which we will be looking at from East to West, starting with our sunny little trailer park island of Nova Scotia. Despite Halifax and the Maritimes' reputation of a proud, sea-faring region, they also possessed a seven-decade spanning street railway that helped build the city up and get Haligonians on the move. The history of the Halifax Street Railway is primed with plenty of explosions, company intrigue, and enough silly stories to sustain you for, oh, let's say twenty paragraphs. So pop open that ninth can of ravioli, imbibe in The Liquor, and rev up your Birneys as we take a look back at the history of the Halifax Street Railway! 

Trolley Tuesday 12/7/21 - The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light... Revisited

After much delay, welcome to our final November rewrite! This one's a bit special because it's actually a rewrite of our second-ever "guest piece" by our friend, photographer, railfan, and Milwaukee native Jonathan Lee. As a love-letter to Milwaukee and its interurbans, it was a fantastic piece; but for a reader, it was a bit too lengthy! That's why we're condensing and refining the best parts of his report, in fairness to the work he did for us and the quality you, the riders, expect from Twice-Weekly Trolley History! While Milwaukee is famous in heavy-rail circles as forming part of the legendary Milwaukee Road, its streetcars and interurbans are equally as legendary, skirting the fine line between innovation and insolvency. On today's Trolley Tuesday, we raise our beer mugs high as we look at what's made Milwaukee famous to traction fans!

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 11/9/2021 - The Southern Pacific's Red Electric Lines ...Revisited

Welcome to another rewrite of an old Trolley Tuesday classic, this time one that never actually made it from Twitter to Blogger! Despite having a wealth of interurban traction holdings in Marin County, San Francisco's East Bay, and down in Los Angeles, the Southern Pacific Railway's Oregonian odysseys were more short-lived, being used as a weapon in a mighty railroad war instead of the usual reason of boosting real estate values. Nevertheless, from 1914 to 1929, the mighty "Red Electrics" ruled the Willamette River's west banks as the Evergreen State's state of the art, largest, and fastest interurban line. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's look back on what made the Red Electrics so memorable.

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)!