Edward Branley's blog

That's a screenshot from my Nook Tablet. New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line is now available for Nook and Kindle!

x-posted to YatCuisine and CanalStreetCar (dot com)

Two coffee signs visible on Canal Street, New Orleans, circa 1910. In the foreground, "Sun Coffee Shop," and one for "Luzianne Coffee" in the background. The coffee shop storefront became a "Royal Castle" location in the 1950s-60s, eventually closing in the early 1970s. Luzianne is one of the brands sold by Wm. B. Reily Coffee, along with French Market Coffee. The Luzianne brand was created/established in 1902, so that sign was likely a sizeable investment for Reily.

Happy Thursday!

...via my friend J. D., this 1862 map is all kinds of awesome:

Go look and find things that will make you think and say, "hmmmm..."

New Orleans Railway and Light #605, on the West End Belt Line, October 8, 1921. This is the first in a series of about ten photos of 605 heading down (riverbound) on Esplanade Avenue. The notations indicate that the photos are from Charles Franck Studios. Franck was the photographer on retainer for a number of law firms in downtown New Orleans. The notes on the photographs indicate that this run was made so the photographer could shoot the streetcar as it passed trees along the line as it approached St. Claude Avenue.

The streetcar is not one of the classic Perley A. Thomas cars that have come be associated with New Orleans. It's a "Palace" Car, built in St. Louis by the American Car Company, in 1915. NORyLt, then NOPSI, used the "Palace" cars on Canal/West End belts and the Napoleon line. They were phased out in favor of the Perley A. Thomas cars (which arrived in New Orleans in 1923-24) in the late 1920s/early 1930s.

At this time, the Canal and West End (as well as the Tulane and St. Charles lines) ran in "belt" operation. Rather than run point-to-point, one line would circle around in one direction and the other line would run opposite. On Canal/West End, the Canal line ran inbound on Canal, turning on N. Rampart Street, then outbound on Esplanade, turning onto City Park Avenue to return to Canal Street.

Monthly Neighborhood Meeting
Monday, September 10th
Meet & Greet 6:00pm-6:30pm
Agenda begins at 6:30pm
Warren Easton High School
3019 Canal St.

From my Twitter friend Jennifer Belisle, a shot of Armored Fighting Vehicles crossing the Mississippi River over the Huey P. Long Bridge in Jefferson, LA. Here's to hoping this equipment is coming home from deployment rather than going out.

I'm not current on specific AFV models, but these look like variants of the M2 Bradley AFV. Somebody please correct/update me on this if I'm wrong.

The motive power pulling these AFVs are BNSF engines. They're heading eastbound on the NOPBRR track.

I'm teaching this week in Zwolle, Netherlands. Zwolle is about 125km east of Schipohl Airport (AMS). I flew from London Gatwick Airport on a 55-minute hop to AMS, then caught the train from there to Zwolle.

The train station under AMS is quite busy, with trains running in both directions - east to Amsterdam Centraal, and West to Rotterdam.

Dutch Intercity trains are good. They run pretty much on time, and the track is well-kept, so the ride is usually OK. I had two options, one was to catch an Intercity to Amersfoort and change there to a train going further east to Zwolle, or wait a full hour and catch the train going past Zwolle. I opted for the latter, so I could just get on one train and nap.

The trip to Zwolle from Schipohl is approximately 1.5 hours, with a few stops. I kicked back in the "Stille" (quiet) section of the first class car. My hotel was just down the street from Zwolle Station (top).

Happy #TravelTuesday, or #TransitTuesday (on G+)! I was in Windsor and London last week, with a couple of days to myself, so I got some sightseeing in. I stayed at a hotel in Earl's Court, which is on the District and Picadilly tube lines. The District line, being one of the older in the London Underground system, is actually above ground in many sections even close to central London. By Westminster, however, it's fully a subway.

The Westminster station puts you out right across the street from the Abbey, Big Ben, and Parliament. Horse Guards is just a walk down the street, and Trafalgar Square not much past that.

xposted to CanalStreetCar (dot com) and YatTravel.

The Loyola spur of the Canal Street Line is plodding forward:

Looking up Loyola Avenue, from Tulane to Poydras. You can see the street has been ripped up. and the work crews are making progress laying down the new roadbed and tracks. Then the street will be put back together. Notice the water puddling up in the foreground. This is one of the regular headaches of road work in New Orleans.

The roadbed for the modern streetcar lines is much more complex than what you see on the neutral ground on St. Charles. That's just your basic rails held together with wooden ties. On Canal Street, and now on Loyola, the ground is tottally dug up and re-constructed to make a long-lasting railbed.

The Holiday Inn on Poydras, featuring "The Clarinet" on the side, is one of the businesses directly affected by the construction on Loyola. Unlike the Carrollton spur, which significantly hurt business on N. Carrollton, from Canal to City Park Avenue, for over a year, there aren't as many retail businesses on Loyola. In fact, there are plans to develop more retail outlets after the streetcar line is complete.

(x-posted to YatTravel)

The Louisville and Nashville Terminal, located at Canal and the River, New Orleans, ca. 1910. The L&N was the first line to operate the "Crescent," which ran from New York to New Orleans, via Washington, DC, and Atlanta.

This lovely station was demolished in the 1950s, when all passenger train traffic was merged from the then-five terminals in the city to the Union Passenger Terminal on Loyola Avenue.

The L&N Terminal is now the site of an Entergy electrical substation and the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas.