St. Charles Streetcar

This says it all about New Orleans, I think: on the left, drinking, eating, and jazz; on the right, a religious shrine, and by implication, history, art, and culture.  Something for everyone! 

But since we're all railfans, let's take a few rides on the historic St. Charles line, still entirely served by Perley-Thomas cars built in 1924.  We stayed in a hotel on St. Charles near Canal, and all night long, if I was awake, I could hear traction motors winding up on the street outside our window.  Almost like Paradise.

The downtown end of the line operates in the street, with dense traffic.  We twice got stuck behind vehicles (a truck and a taxi) illegally blocking the line.  Watching the motorman deal with the stresses of this operation was a never-ending entertainment.

West of Lee Circle, however, the line is in a parkway.  But local people use it for jogging, hiking, bicycling, and walking their dogs all the time.  So there's a clearly beaten path right down the middle of both tracks all the way.  And the motormen are constantly clanging the gong to try to persuade them to scram.

Here's the motorman's position.  On one of our trips, the motorman had decided to get a sandwich at a Subway across the street, so he just left the car and walked away, leaving the reverse key in the controller.  So we wait.  I pointed out to my wife that there was nothing (except the other passengers) to keep me from running the car back into the city.

I also noticed that many of the motormen don't seem to care whether wheels are spinning or not, they just notch up to full parallel.  At one point, we seemed to be spinning our wheels for about two blocks.

 Cars are usually full.  Service runs round the clock, and during the day is very frequent.   You never have to wait very long.

Let's pay a visit to the historic Carrollton Shops.   Last time I was here, the foreman graciously allowed me in to take pictures of the single-trucker and other older cars, but this time no one ever appeared.  So I stayed outside and took pictures in through the open doors.

 

 This pile of traction motors caught my eye.

Here's the 972!









 

 Notice that the special work is designed so the cars roll through on their flanges.  It makes for a nice smooth ride. 

And at Lee Circle, the hub of the line, Gen. Robert E. Lee on his lofty pedestal looks down as we prepare to board for a ride back to Canal St.

Next time we'll look at the other lines, and some miscellaneous rail-oriented places in central New Orleans.