Feature Photo: "Bobtail" Car on the Prytania line

A "bobtail" car from the Johnson Car Works of St. Louis, MO, on the Prytania line. No specific date for this photo, but the bobtails ran uptown for the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad Company in the 1870s through the late 1890s, when the streetcar lines were electrified.

The bobtails were an almost ubiquitous site in New Orleans in the 1880s and 1890s. They were wide, offering passengers a stable ride, and were short enough to be easily turned around on turntables (like the ones used to turn around cable cars in San Francisco). The Prytania line was a short-run, "neighborhood" line designed to connect Faubourg Bouligny and the Garden District to downtown.

This photo was is a bit damaged, so I didn't use it in my article on pre-electric streetcars for GoNOLA.com, but it's still a cool shot.