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G'day Myrtone, I post as MattAustin on Railpage Australia, and I follow this forum. People have spoken of the possibility of reactivating buried tram/streetcar/trolley tracks for modern use, but it's rarely feasible. The main factors which make it unfeasible are; 1) Corrosion of tracks after cessati...

Big fan of TMER&L here. I have a much-thumbed copy of CERA 112, so gimme a couple of days and I'll get some details together for you. Basically, the old private ROW ran west from what is now the Marquette Interchange, running where the East-West Freeway runs today. The work in the 1920s to get t...

Any chance of a pic of the grand union by chance? I looked the area up on Google Streetview but couldn't see anything.

Cheers,
Matt

The cars were ex-Washington DC from memory.

I've gone and Googled it to find that it was known as the "Queen Mary", and was Boston's first PCC and their only St Louis PCC car. I should have remembered this, having 'From Horsecars to Streaminers", a history of St Louis Car Co. So, I was partially there in that I guessed it was t...

Nice pic. Without Googling, I'd have to say that I don't know. Interestingly enough, I do have quite a few Boston Elevated Railway tickets in my ticket/transfer/pass collection. Looking at the car, it's a pre-war PCC and I'm guessing that with 01 as the last two digits, it could be the first or a on...

Ah, good to see. I wonder what the next mystery will be?

Cheers,
Matt

Hmm, interesting. Eugene did have a streetcar system which closed in 1927. The early closure date would seem to rule out Master Units. Here is some good info; http://pedshed.net/?p=61 It could be that the ad for Skyline was elsewhere. Portland, Oregon operated Master Units, although they appeared to...

G;day 3rdrail, I'd agree with the 55 and the first letter looking like an R. I'm looking to see if I can find another image of a P&WC logo to compare. Here is a photo of a Master Unit in post-merger colours; Matt 6873.1254338897.jpg Master Units aren't my strong point so I don't have a list of c...

Hmmm. That car is a Brill Master Unit, and it looks like it was taken some time after the late 30s. I can't make out the lettering on the side. PTC? The number looks to be 55. Time for some detective work. The Philadelphia & West Chester (PWC) operated fifteen Master Units, known as '80 cars'. I...

The second shot is indeed taken at the Indianapolis Traction Terminal, and is of an Indiana Railroad highspeed car. Judging by the automobile, I'd put it as not long before services ceased in 1941.

Cheers,
Matt

The Speedrail accident of 1950 was covered in the Central Electric Railfans Association bulletin on the Milwaukee Electric system, No112. It also gets extensive coverage in Larry Sakar's 1991 book about Speedrail. Both books have photos from the day, including some rather poignant shots taken by Wil...

I don't know anything about Peckam cars, but the following covers some of his truck design work; Edgar Peckham was an American who started design work in 1888, and production in 1890. He introduced 'unit production' where a group of standardised castings and sections were used in different ways to s...