Subway, Elevated, Trolley & Traction Lines photos

[J. S. Bach]

Car 804, Catonsville, Maryland, c. 1918:

Note the gentle curve "under" 804 in the first photo and the short straight section under the PCC in the second. That was a result of Frederick Ave. being widened sometime after WW2 and the tracks moved to the center of the new road. They stayed in service until 03NOV63; the r-o-w is now a hiking trail.

[healey36]

Been through there a million times, Dave, and never noticed they made a trail out of it. When I was a kid we used to stand a block or so east of here every 4th of July for the parade...good times!

From Google, October 2017:



Catonsville and Arbutus...the ancestral stomping grounds...

Healey

[Wolf]

Drove by there many a time and wondered what it looked like with rail.
Now I know.

That grey building has been a candy store in recent years...
unfortunately not of the railroad kind (darned!).

[healey36]

Back to New York...3rd Avenue elevated line at Westchester Avenue, the WRR line connection:



LOC, by Jack Boucher (for HAER NY.3-Bronx.13--11), 1974.

Forty-four years ago...wow...

Healey

[robert.]

Looks like they had snow a few days before that photo.

[Tom Dempsey]

Or pigeons the size of pterodactyls.

[healey36]

Third Avenue "El" video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85SoH6cjiOc

A bit of history.

Healey

[Jim K]

Third Avenue "El" video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85SoH6cjiOc

A bit of history.

Healey

Healey,

That was a nice old movie. I imagine the folks from NYC must really get a hoot out of the old buildings featured.
I have a question that I get asked and can not answer. Maybe there really isn't one but here it is:
What is the difference between a trolley and a streetcar?? I don't know. I searched at Google and Wikipedia
and can't find anything official.

Thanks again for the vid.

Jim K

[J. S. Bach]

...snip... Maybe there really isn't one but here it is:
What is the difference between a trolley and a streetcar?? I don't know. I searched at Google and Wikipedia
and can't find anything official. Jim K

Nothing really. My grandmother always called them "electric cars".

[Jim K]

...snip... Maybe there really isn't one but here it is:
What is the difference between a trolley and a streetcar?? I don't know. I searched at Google and Wikipedia
and can't find anything official. Jim K

Nothing really. My grandmother always called them "electric cars".

Dave,

Thanks. That is what I have always thought too. So not having an answer is an answer.

Jim K

[healey36]

Hmmm...that's a good question Jim.

Google says:

trol·ley
ˈträlē/Submit
noun
1.
short for trolley car or trolley bus.
2.
a wheel attached to a pole, used for collecting current from an overhead electric wire to drive a streetcar or trolley bus.

street·car
ˈstrētˌkär/Submit
nounNORTH AMERICAN
another term for trolley car.

Google, being the repository of definitive answers for all things, I was near certain it would tell me that trolley is another name for Tramp's drink-cart...

Healey

[Joseph Frank1]

Hello Healey

A streetcar could be a rail passenger car that runs on conduit power (underground pickup) like Third Avenue Railway System did in Manhattan because overhead wire for through-route trolley lines was banned in Manhattan NYC. Also in downtown Washington DC the streetcars ran on conduit underground power for the same reasons. There was a pair of channels in the center of both running rails that formed a slot for a "plow" board connected to the power truck to slide thru, and contact both the - and + rails in the conduit tunnel. CABLE CARS were also called streetcars --- cable cars being the predecessor of the conduit electric systems --- cable mechanism replaced by the underground slot "power and return" rails.

Thus a trolley car would be a streetcar that runs off overhead wire --- or trolley pole and pole-wheel (or shoe as wheels were sometimes replaced by) running on an overhead power wire --- as opposed to a "streetcar" which did not. However, uninformed or unsophisticated citizens generally called both vehicle types either streetcar or trolley car as common nature.

Similarly, Trackless trolleys are also called Trolley buses or sometimes plainly " the bus" or "the trackless" --- but rarely if ever called a streetcar or trolley as such.

By the way, the 3rd Ave EL (well, its rolling stock as well as other IRT , BMT and IND stock) still runs at my house -- see videos below;

https://youtu.be/t9HLG8a4F4Q (NOTE) A STILL PHOTO of an MUDC car is seen - Video scenes actually begins at counter mark 0:32 )

https://youtu.be/8Vat9puBuso

https://youtu.be/1hr_5_ni3v4

https://youtu.be/llkmNtZ2LnM

https://youtu.be/6JNbRRj4-j0

https://youtu.be/BJKH3niTIDs

To see more of the entire layout & rolling stock, link below:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/44268069@N00/albums

regards - Joe F

[E7]

Google, being the repository of definitive answers for all things, I was near certain it would tell me that trolley is another name for Tramp's drink-cart... Healey

Healey,

I am guessing if you looked in a British reference you would find that description. Guessing Sarge might verify that.

Rich

[E7]

A streetcar could be a rail passenger car that runs on conduit power (underground pickup) like Third Avenue Railway System did in Manhattan because overhead wire for through-route trolley lines was banned in Manhattan NYC. Also in downtown Washington DC the streetcars ran on conduit underground power for the same reasons. There was a pair of channels in the center of both running rails that formed a slot for a "plow" board connected to the power truck to slide thru, and contact both the - and + rails in the conduit tunnel. CABLE CARS were also called streetcars --- cable cars being the predecessor of the conduit electric systems --- cable mechanism replaced by the underground slot "power and return" rails.

Thus a trolley car would be a streetcar that runs off overhead wire --- or trolley pole and pole-wheel (or shoe as wheels were sometimes replaced by) running on an overhead power wire --- as opposed to a "streetcar" which did not. However, uninformed or unsophisticated citizens generally called both vehicle types either streetcar or trolley car as common nature.

Joe F

Great stuff Joe!

A tip o' the hat!
Rich

[healey36]

Bloody marvelous stuff, Joe...I never tire of seeing the layout. That last bit is about as good as gets for me:

https://youtu.be/BJKH3niTIDs

How'd you manage the convertible dogging the trolley?

Healey