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  • Trolley car and Interurban barns, shops, stations

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This forum is for discussion of "Fallen Flag" roads not otherwise provided with a specific forum. Fallen Flags are roads that no longer operate, went bankrupt, or were acquired or merged out of existence.

Moderator: Nicolai3985

 #887546  by CarterB
 
Would like to compile a list of still existing trolley and interurban structures, including but not limited to: car barns, shops, stations, amusement parks. Photos appreciated as well. I'll start off with the PSCT "Big Tree" car barn at Hancox and Washington Ave., in Belleville, NJ, still in use as a bus maintenance facility.
Last edited by CarterB on Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #887548  by 3rdrail
 
Nationwide ? That's a pretty tall order. There's a bunch of them in the Boston area.
 #887579  by 3rdrail
 
Here's a few just off the top of my head around my area:

School St. Jamaica Plain, now a high school, was a West End Street Railway Co Horse Car Barn.

The Arborway, Jamaica Plain

Roslindale Square sub-station.

Egleston Square sub-station.

Charles River Loop, West Roxbury

Seaver St. Loop, Roxbury

Dudley Station, Roxbury

Bartlett St. Yard (below old Guild St. El Shops), Roxbury

Roslindale Square Sub-Station:
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 #887631  by mtuandrew
 
A few from around the Twin Cities area:

Twin Cities Rapid Transit:
East Side Station, Minneapolis (Superior Plating)
North Side Station, Minneapolis (vacant)
South St. Paul Yard (building and grounds used by a trucking firm)
Midway Station, St. Paul (redeveloped as an office building)
3rd Ave. N carbarn, office building and powerhouse, Minneapolis (offices and shops)
St. Paul City Ry. office building, St. Paul (offices)
TCRT Powerplant (now owned by the University of Minnesota as their Southeast Steam Plant)

In addition, Metro Transit still uses the Nicollet Station site as a main bus garage, and the Snelling Shops site is used for storage. There are several substations in existence still too, as well as many segments of abandoned roadbed, TCRT, MSR and SPCR manhole covers and lightpoles, bridges built over TCRT lines, and even eyebolts on buildings which once served as attachment points for overhead wire.


Other lines:
-Minnesota, Anoka and Cuyuna Range Railroad: a short stretch of track adjacent to BNSF's Northtown Yard (now owned by BNSF) serving two City of Minneapolis water treatment plants, and nearby abandoned but visibe roadbed
-St. Paul Southern Electric Railway: small amounts of abandoned roadbed
-Twin City and Twin Ports Electric Railway (never completed): long stretches of graded roadbed, some used for roads and others overgrown
 #890391  by Aa3rt
 
Carter B-This is quite an undertaking! Here are a few I'm aware of from the area where I grew up:

Chautauqua Traction (Chautauqua County, NY):

Station at Ashville, NY still stands, was used as a hobby shop in the last 20 years. (Scroll down to photos)

http://wnyrails.org/cities/ashville.htm

Here's a more recent photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blazer8696/3601627167/

Entrance building to Chautauqua Institution also served as a trolley station on this line:

http://ny.existingstations.com/archive/68.jpg

Actually, there are a number of existing stations for both the JW&NW and Chautauqua Traction that I'd forgotten about. (I haven't lived in the area in over 30 years but still go back yearly to visit my father.) From Charles Woolover's "Existing stations website, here's a listing for both interurban and steam road stations in Chautauqua County:

http://ny.existingstations.com/counties/Chautauqua.html

Jamestown, Westfield and Northwestern (Chautauqua County, NY):

Station in Jamestown still stands, now used as a business.

http://ny.existingstations.com/archive/852.jpg

Midway Park, Maple Springs, NY is one of the few remaining "trolley parks" in the US, originally built by the JW&NW. More on Midway Park: http://www.nysparks.com/parks/167/details.aspx

Warren (PA) & Jamestown (NY) Railway (Warren County, PA, Chautauqua County, NY):

Power house/shop building (Brick structure) still stands along Pennsylvania Route 6 in Stoneham, PA used as a business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_and ... et_Railway

Trolley parks: We had a long running discussion on trolley parks in the forum a couple of years ago (That I believe you participated in.) including a list of those that still remain in business.

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 100&t=6884
 #891007  by Leo Sullivan
 
As Paul noted, this thread could justify a forum by itself.
To add some around Boston,
The Mt. Auburn Carhouse in Cambridge is now a supermarket.
The Washington St. (Newton) Carhouse of the Middlesex and Boston is also a supermarket
The Naumkeag St. Ry. barn on Webster St. Salem survives.
Hancock St. C.H. in Quincy is a T garage.
Bridgewater C.H. of the Bay State is in existence
Newburyport C.H. of the Northeastern is a business.
Old Saybrook C.H. of the Shore Line is a business.
Springfield has the carhouse at Main & Carew which is now the headquarters of Peter Pan Bus.
The carhouse in the north end of Woonsocket is a business.
The NB&O complex in Wareham is condos.
Both big carhouses in New Bedford still exist.
There are several carhouses in Providence,
On the Berkshire, at least East St. Pittsfield, Housatonic C.H. and North Bennington.
Merrimac C.H. MNE now Town Garage.
All PLI buildings at Gray, Maine
carhouses at Haverhill & Lowell
Concord Electric C.H. in NH
Sharon MA was a lumber yard now, something else
Blue Hill Sta. of the Blue Hill now at Canton Jct.
Taunton C.H
Both Carhouses around Newport RI
Seaside C,H, nr. Narr. Pier
River St. Sanford Maine
I'm told, Lisbon St. in Lewiston but haven't seen it.
And so, on and on and, thats just what I've checked this year or two and
can remember without checking.
Plenty of people will know more.and that's just 80 miles from Boston.
LS
 #893176  by Leo Sullivan
 
Thought of a couple more.
Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford Connecticut, an excellent building, little changed.
The Worcester Consolidated Carhouse on Grove St. in Worcester, so modern it looks like it
was always a bus garage.
The Bay State Carhouse and Power Station in Essex MA
 #901905  by E-44
 
The PSCT car barn at 385 Smith Street in Perth Amboy, NJ has long been occupied by Royal Dinette. Google Maps' street view of the front of the building shows the shape of one of the car door arches bricked over.

A Lehigh Valley spur (ROW and oddly-shaped triangular buildings designed to fit between the LV ROW and PSCT tracks are still evident) runs right past there. Interesting area.
 #909578  by 3rdrail
 
Here's the refurbished BERy Egleston Square Sub Station, now a cable TV station:
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 #909624  by 3rdrail
 
Thanks Carter. I was in this one with my son last week and it's interior has been re-done, naturally, but they retained the old ceiling hoists showing it's pedigree, which were used to bring in giant transformers and the like through the large oval window in the front. It was a funny experience. My son (twire) and myself were headed to Chinatown for dinner, and as we were heading up Washington St., I was pointing out the relics from the past. We had just left the old WEStRyCo horse car barn on School St., now a high school, and expected to find the sub-station a dark, dismal, abandoned place, as it had been for many years. Imagine our surprise when we saw it brighly lit up with it's stonework glistening after a power wash ! It was like living an episode of time reversal in a Twilight Zone episode !

Southwesterly almost three miles away, here's the Rozzie Square (Roslindale Square) version of the same thing. Larger than Egleston Sq's.,this one picked up where the Egleston Square Sub Station left off at Forest Hills. This one put out 600vdc to all the lines south of Forest Hills to the Boston/Dedham line. There is continued speculation regarding what is to be done at this one. It is still unused and abandoned waiting for the right owner. The State is being very particular (rightly so) as to what use it will have and previously withdrew an offer. Personally, I would like to see it as a multi-commercial area with a few small stores- CVS, specialty stores, etc. and a few small cozy restaurants, with a section reserved for the display of memorabilia of it's historic past and Boston street railway history in general. (What I'd really like to see is trackless trolleys or even trolleys come back to Rozzie, with the Sub-Station returned to it's former duty, but have to admit that the liklihood of either returning is pretty slim indeed. Maybe a rapid transit extension of the Orange Line ?)
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