New Orleans Assorted Streetcar Pictures www.streetcarmike.com Created October 16, 2001 and updated September 7, 2006. ©2001-2006 Michael Strauch. VINTAGE CARS: Picture postcard of American Car. Co. semiconvertible streetcar number 453. Twenty-five cars built in 1906, numbered 300-324 and renumbered 450-474 in 1917, operated on uptown lines such as Coliseum, Louisiana, and Magazine. After class retirement in 1935, NOPSI kept 453 as a motorman training car at Napoleon Yard. As such, it was stationary but had working controllers. About 1965 Public Service restored the car for a possible traveling exhibit to promote New Orleans tourism. When this didn't happen, 453 was donated to the State of Louisiana and placed under cover in the French Market as the "Streetcar Named Desire" (although it never ran there). It was later moved out into the open next to the Old U.S. Mint when the Market was remodeled. I remember seeing the car in this spot in the 1980s both weatherbeaten and with at least one paint job (just colors, no numbers or route sign), but closed off to the public as opposed to being open as in the postcard. RTA hauled it up to Carrollton Station in the early 1990s to await possible restoration. Thanks to Earl Hampton Jr. for the additional information about 453. From an Ebay auction is this scan of a postcard depicting car 913. This picture is a museum shot, because the car has trolley shoes instead of trolley wheels, no advertising cards, is in color, and has "Desire" dialed up on the destination curtain instead of the route curtain at center. Compare with page 63 of the current release of Hennick and Charlton's The Streetcars of New Orleans and a picture of 913 at Orange Empire Railway Museum (link to photo). This car was one of eleven donated in the mid-1960s by NOPSI to museums. Transferred in 2006 to San Francisco for possible use on Muni's F-Market line. One of the two sets of operator controls on car 905 photographed August 4, 1981. Note the Grant Electolock farebox still in use; most buses received the first generation electronic boxes by then. The photo was taken during the occasion of a streetcar charter for my father's Uncle Clarence's 80th birthday We rode from Carrollton Station to Canal Street and back while celebrating a party enroute. That's Uncle C in the second picture. The charter was a complete surprise to him. New picture 09/07/06. TRACKAGE: From 1981-82, here are the dual gauge tracks from South Carrollton Avenue to Jeannette Street. They were probably installed in the October 1-3, 1929 widening of the St. Charles-Tulane Belts from standard to broad gauge. The standard gauge rail was last used for pullouts of the South Claiborne Shuttle streetcar line, discontinued December 31, 1930. These tracks were removed in the 1990s rehabilitation of the St. Charles route. On August 4, 1981 I photographed the ladder tracks on Jeanette Street into Carrollton Station. Note the dual gauge rails, removed in the 1990s rehabilitation of the St. Charles route. Abandoned streetcar tracks on Erato between Magazine and Annunciation carried the Laurel line. Photo taken on Mardi Gras, 1981. FB&D CAR 29, THE RAIL GRINDER: Two Earl Hampton photos of car 29 in the 1970s. FB&D rail grinder number 29 in RTA era is seen on St. Charles at Louisiana circa 1990. This car sees occasional use on the line. Earl Hampton sent me these February 2005 pictures of car 29 on Howard Avenue (left) and on St. Charles at Melpomene (right). The car had burned and was restored by the Carrollton Shops crew. REX STREETCARS: Rex streetcar 3011 is labeled as float 14, Streetcar Named Desire from their 2006 parade. My collection, taken May 2006. www.streetcarmike.com -- Strauchy Goodness in Every Byte!