Subway, Elevated, Trolley & Traction Lines photos

[Joseph Frank1]

Hello Rich (E-7) and Healey !

THANKS both for your nice comments and enjoyment of my work. I actually created this layout for the "public" enjoyment and viewing -- as well as for myself. We took it to many train shows between 1986 and 1991 -- in a 24 foot straight box rental truck - all 2500 lbs of layout (heavy) modules, tools, rolling stock, buses,,trolleys and autos, power packs, module " board legs", ...but due to work and other issues over the past many decades, it has not been feasible to do that. Also we need at least a 4 day shows (setup day and 3 public days) to make the time and work effort worth it. At early Greenberg shows in the Phila. Metro and suburban region, about 200,000 people passed thru the exhibit hall doors and we had crowds of 3 to 4 deep around the huge EL & Trolley layout watching and taking photos and videos.

Now it seems impossible to find anyone locally who is interested ( about 8 "healthy" (heh) people, MEN, under at least 55 ) to help get it moved, set up, run it, repack and take back home from a show. It takes about 4 people to run the layout, and four additional per 1 to be switch thrower-towerman for the EL, 1 for same for the trolley system, 1 for repairs and adjustments, etc., 1 for yardmaster tasks, So now I simply have random open houses and occasional visitors to visit the layout - and very rarely anyone (heh) under 45 years old !!

Here are some recent photos of the layout ! Hope you like them ! Regards ! Joe F

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[healey36]

So now I have random open houses and occasional visitors to visit the layout - and very rarely anyone (heh) under 45 years old !!

I hear you. I have a prewar toy-train layout in the basement. I occasionally have neighbors, nieces, nephews, etc. over...they all say, "Wow, that's neat," but not a one of them has any interest in it as a hobby. We tell ourselves the hobby's not dying, but I fear that's a bit delusional. It may not disappear, but it will certainly be much smaller than it is today.

In the meantime, enjoy the layout...it's a marvel.

Here's a snap of a Witt car I've posted before, similar to those I remember riding with my grandparents in Baltimore:



From Catonsville, it was a straight shot down Frederick Road to Pratt Street and downtown.

Healey

[Joseph Frank1]

Hello Healey

That Baltimore car was the prototype for the Bachmann O Scale and HO Scale Peter Witts scale mode streetcars --- done up in many different roadnames, including most companies that never had or operated that particular Witt-Class body style. I have two in Brooklyn NY Green & silver color -- tho Brooklyn never operated that particular body style Peter Witt

I visited the Baltimore Streetcar Museum many times between 1971 and 1990 -- I am sure you know about that Museum -- but if not -- here are links to its sites for you and any other interested

https://www.baltimorestreetcarmuseum.org/

https://www.facebook.com/BaltimoreStreetcarMuseumInc/

A great Museum with mainly cars from Baltimore and immediate suburban area -- well manicured and a well kept collection. Hidden away in the Jones Falls Valley (or whatever its called, heh)

Regards - Joe F

[healey36]

Been there many times, Joe, although not for at least seven or eight years. They do have a great little collection of stuff. Right down the street is the old Ma & Pa roundhouse which the city now uses to store salt in...ugh!

I've been looking for a photo of the car United Railways used for funerals...I've seen it referred to as 'Delores' I think. When John Mifflin Hood died in 1906 they had a procession of cars out to Druid Hill cemetery where he was buried, and it was this car that they used to haul him out there. Hood had been president of United after leaving the Western Maryland in 1902. I've never seen a funeral car...got any pics in the archives?

https://mta.maryland.gov/transitblog/does-baltimores-historic-car-sorrows-live-today

https://sites.google.com/site/baltimorestreetcarmuseum/home/hist382/hist382blog/0011

Here's a small fuzzy pic purportedly of Delores:



Healey

[healey36]

Sifting through lots of photos...still none of Delores. Here's one out of the Harris & Ewing Studio from 1935, titled simply "streamline streetcar":



A bit of a strange photo. I'm thinking it's DC but the 17th & Pennsylvania would be NW, not SE. Maybe I'm not understanding the route designation.

Healey

[Wolf]

Yes, it is Washington DC, and the destination sign is correct for being "SE" rather
than "NW". The car is one of the ten St. Louis Car Co "Pre-PCC" cars
(Capital Transit also had ten Brill Pre-PCC's) running on the Route 30 line.
The destination roll sign is for the SE terminus aka "Barney Circle" (used on
the bus line terminations). Interestingly enough, the Route 30 not only went
to 17th & Penn SE, but also went through 17th and Penn NW on the way to its
NW terminus in Friendship Heights. All 20 Pre-PCC's were normally assigned
to this route and were based out of the Tenleytown Carbarn.

The Washington street grid is laid out symmetrically with the north-south axis being
North Capitol/South Capitol street and the east-west axis being East Capitol St./Constitution Ave.
with the focal point being the US Capitol Building at the intersection of those four roads...
The numbered streets (north-south) mirror each other from North Capitol/South Capitol, just
as the "alphabetical" streets (east-west)mirror each other about the Constitution Ave/East
Capitol St. axis...You can have street intersections of the same name/number in each of
the 4 quadrants, i.e. 4th and 12th Streets NE, NW, SE and SW.

Sort of like Washington was a preliminary dry run for the street designation scheme for
Salt Lake City?? And those State-Named Avenues (like the Pennsylvania Ave
referenced in the photo) run willy-nilly, helter-skelter on diagonal routes overlaid on the
grid pattern. And I won't even try to explain the Squares and Circles that exist in the
city plan (except to state that they were allegedly places to mount artillery batteries
when the residents became too rowdy... ).

[healey36]

Thanks for that, Wolf. I have to say DC is one of the few towns I consistently get lost in. I think its the preponderance of one-way streets and those damn streets running on a diagonal that throw me every time. I recall being in Reston one night and needing to get to the Capital Center in Landover...I decided it would be quickest to just cut through the city. I was balled up ten streets in...arrived at the Caps game at the start of the third period, lol.

[robert.]

You should try to drive a 12.6 high truck around dc. Or better yet. Turn down the wrong road. Say to your self " Oh F**k you cant have a truck on this road. Ok." there's a parking lot" pull in . Only to have 4 Armed guards say " "Get out of the truck dirt bag" I pulled into the Pentagon lot. With a big white rental truck and they were not happy.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

You should try to drive a 12.6 high truck around dc. Or better yet. Turn down the wrong road. Say to your self " Oh F**k you cant have a truck on this road. Ok." there's a parking lot" pull in . Only to have 4 Armed guards say " "Get out of the truck dirt bag" I pulled into the Pentagon lot. With a big white rental truck and they were not happy.

You have to pretty close to blind to miss all the signs about where you can and cannot go around the Pentagon, and it's kind of hard to miss seeing it as well...huge 5-sided building...........but you must have been really lost in DC since the the Pentagon isn't even in DC,

[robert.]

I was trying to get to a customers house that sits above Arlington cemetery. My gps wanted to run me up through the cemetery. I had to call my customer to come pick me up.At the time he was a high ranking Marine. Yet he had no clue how to tell me to find his place from the pentagon.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I was trying to get to a customers house that sits above Arlington cemetery. My gps wanted to run me up through the cemetery.

Well, Arlington is not in DC either, so if you went into DC you need a better GPS!

I had to call my customer to come pick me up.At the time he was a high ranking Marine. Yet he had no clue how to tell me to find his place from the pentagon.

That's actually not all that surprising; I at one time lived within walking distance of the Pentagon and have been in that area for a long time. The roads are "interesting". DC is just maddening.... I avoid driving there except when truly required. Just getting to the train station is an adventure!

[Tom Dempsey]

Soon after getting assigned to DC, I had to drive late at night from the Bureau of Naval Personnel to the Pentagon to make a delivery, I ended up at the Jefferson Memorial calling for help on a payphone. That was the mid '70's, I imagine it's gotten much worse.

[robert.]

I know i call that whole area DC. Here is a funny DC. subway story. I was working in an antique show there. When it was over for the day. a few of us wanted Chinese food. So we hop into a guys Hummer and head into downtown. At some point we decide it would be better to use the subway. We park his hummer in a construction site and place a few orange cones around it. One of the guys looks at the subway rail line board and says. " I got this it will be about a 20 minute ride. He was right. We switched a train or 2 to get where we wanted to be. Had a great dinner. Got back to the subway and found our way back to his car. No tickets nothing on his windshield. Everything was fine. We pull out of the construction site and turn right. go about 20 feet and see the Chinese restaurant we had dinner in. The guy that pick our route is red/green color blind. He had us ridding all over DC. just to go 20 feet from where we parked.

[bluelinec4]

Queensboro

[bluelinec4]

Queensboro