Best Guess (Intelligent)
The Monterrey and Pacific Grove Street Railway. The still active army post, The Presidio of Monterrey. The street, Cannery Row. The author, John Steinbeck.
Well Done! (except Monterey only gets one ârâ!). A shoestring operation its entire life, the M&PG still had some clever folks who managed to stretch horsecar bodies, convert open cars, regauge odd trucks and reuse other systemsâ discards (M&PG cars 1 and 2 came from the Northern Electric, later Sacramento Northern) to keep operating, if barely, into the 1920s. The Fremont street hill up to the Presidio must have been a lot of fun to descend on hand brakes.
I blame spell checker for the misspelling of Monterey. You identified the city too well. From them I was looking at Union Traction. Then looked again and found the right line. There is a book on the line.
The IGN
Now for another narrow and short question[:D]
Name this railway
To paraphrase the plaque on this railway
âBuilt in 1901 by a friend of President Abraham Lincoln, this narrow gauge is said to be the worldâs shortest incorporated railway. The counterbalanced cars, controlled by cables, travel a 33 percent grade for 315 feet. It is estimated that this railway has carried more passengers per mile than any other railway in the world, over a hundred million in its first fifty years. This incline railway is a public utility operating under a franchise granted by the city which it operates in.â (Edited to delete or obscure location and name)
This railway has operated on two different sites, using the same cars and station elements. The original location operated from 1901 until it was closed in 1969, when its site was cleared for redevelopment.
After being stored for 27 years, the funicular was rebuilt and reopened on February 24, 1996, half a block south of the original site. Currently it is closed after an accident raised a number of safety issues
It should be an easy question.
The IGN
Angelâs Flight in L. A.
You got it. Your question.
The IGN
Weâll try one more west coast one. This cityâs last cable car line at one time shared one rail with interurbans for about a block, but lasted longer than the interurbans.
Seattle, where the interurban to Tacoma quit in 1929, to Everett in 1937 (or '39?), but cable cars ran to 1940 Electric streetcars quit in 1941.
You got it! San Franciscoâs Market St. Railway had shared cable/streetcar track with three running rails on both Sacramento and California Streets, but no interurbans ran there.
Most are aware of the three lightweight articulated experimental trains, the Pullman alulminum âGreen Hornet,â the Budd âLittle Zephyr,â and the St. Louis âBluebird,â that were built for the the BMT 1934-1937, the latter sharing much mechanical and electric equipment with standard PCC streetcars. The original Bluebird was duplicated by five production units with the additional 95 cancelled when the City took over the BMT in June 1940. The production units were reglarly used on the 14th Street - Canarsie line until late 1954, when they went to scrap along with the first of the 98 Brooklyn PCC cars that were scrapped. The experimentals were used msotly on the Franklin Avenue shuttle, the Zephyr being a regular during WWII. LaGuardia decided the Green Hornet was more valuable as aluminum for the war effort, and was scrapped around 1942, the others lasting through the war.
The experimentals and the production Bluebirds were all designed to be light enough for any of the BMT elevated lines, as well as for use in subway service. The elevated lines at the time of the experimentals included the Fifth Avenue elevated and both its Bay Ridge branch and the connection to the Culver Line used jointly with subway service, the Myrtle Avenue line, wih the portion north of Broadway also used by subway service, the Lexington Avenue and Fulton Street elevateds. But the experimentals could only be used on one of these elevated lines and not on the others. Which one could be use them, and did (especially the Green Hornet for a while) and why?
Youâre a lot deeper into BMT lines thatn my knowledge goes, but Iâll hazard a âwhyâ. Did the two âunusableâ lines have stations on curves? Curved stations built with gate cars in mind would leave a large gap between the platform edge and the doors on cars where the doors were not at the ends.
Chicago had a problem with the 5000 and 6000 series cars on the surface section of the Lake Street line where the fishbelly sides wouldnât clear the station houses on the middle platforms.
You are close. The issue did not involve curves, and if Unificaiton had not happened, and use of the elevated lines continued beyond being just a wartime measure for those that did continue, undoubtadly some minor changes would have solved the problem.
Think C-types, and you will have the answer.
The issue is tangetal to our dicsussion earlier concerning route numbers used b the BMT.
From what I can gather, the C-types had lower roofs enabling them to get to the Coney Island shops. They were also wider than the standard BRT cars, due to the rebuilding of the Fulton Street line to take IRT (?) size cars, and had outside sliding doors like Boston Elevatedâs 0500, 0700 and 01000 series.
Your answer included the clue, but IRT-width cars are the same as floor-width CTA cars and both Brooklyn and Manhattan-Bronx elevated cars. The BMT and IND steel subway cars are standard railroad passenger width. Another hint, the original Brooklyln Bridge cable railroad, opened with the bridge before unification and electrifrication of Brooklynâs elevated lines, including the extensions on steam railroads to Coney Island, was built with its two terminal stations to accomodate the 10-foot wide standard for railroad cars, and the open-platform gate cable cars were 10 feet wide.
But all the Brooklyn elevated lines, with two exceoptions, but including routes whose outer protions eventually had subway services, ran over the Brooklyn Bridge. The two exceptions were the Broadway-Brooklyn elevated routes to Jamaica and Canarsie, which ran to the Broadway Ferry, then later over the Williamsburg Bridge (and were equjipped with steel subway cars when the D-types came in the 1920âs, replacing steel standard cars on the Brighton Local and Sea Beach Express lines, long before the experimentals, and were thus considered subway lines).
Or with the question mark after IRT, did you really mean BMT?
Iâm not all that conversant with the differences. I wasnât sure if the wider cars were IRT or IND, so I think I meant IND.
OK: Wide cars, standard RR width, 10 ft.: BMT Steel and aluminum equipment, C-types, all IND cars, all current Division B (former IND and BMT and extensions), original Brooklyn Bridge cablecars.
Narrow, similar to CTA: All IRT equipment and current A Division, BMT gate cars, BMT Q (Flushing and Astoria from Queensboro Plaza on track shared with IRT) and predicessor companies excepting Brooklyn Bridge cablecars.
The No. 7 line msy be considered A division as far as car assignment and width, but since abandonment of the 2nd Avenue Elevated Qeensboro Bridge line in 1942, its only track connection is with the B Division at Qeensboro Plaza.
The Qs had their roofs lowered, not the Cs. The Cs had been transferred from Fulton to the Culver Shuttle when the IND A started running to Lefferts, eliminating the last of the Fulton Elevated. They were scrapped when the IND D train started running to Coney Island. The Fulton Elevated was built with wide clearances because it was originally built with the idea of through service over the Brooklyln Bridge, and thus subway platform clearances were possible.
The Qs had their roofs lowered when transferred from the Third Avenue Elevated Bronx, replaced by subway cars, to the Myrtle Avenue Elevated, replacing the last of the gate cars. The high-roof connection to Coney Island Shops via the Manhattan Bridge had been cut as part of the Chrystie Street connection project. I presume the gate cars were scrapped at Fresh Pond Yard and not at Coney Island. The Qs had been transferred from Queens to Third Avenue, then still running in Manahttan, in 1949, when Flushing became all-IRTâ and Astoria all BMT with platform clearances widened.
rc, next question please.
Staying with tractionâŚ
For a special service, this company had a combine set up as a control trailer that could not be trainlined with its own equipment. When the car wore out, its replacement in the special service it was equipped for was also used in regular service, and was very popular with commuters. The replacement car could be trainlined with its ownerâs equipment.
Name the railroad and the service.
Pacific Electric, the parlor car used by its President in his daily commute, replaced by another that regular commters also could use. Los Angeles - ?
Too far west. The car Iâm referring to would be the equivalent of a PE car that could only train with LARy equipment if both were the same gauge.