400-series Riverfront streetcar number 461, heading down St. Charles Avenue from Carrollton Station.  461 has just passed Perley A. Thomas 900-series car 934, rolling outbound to the S. Claiborne Terminal.

One of the improvements made to New Orleans' street rail system in 1997 was to join the Riverfront and St. Charles lines together.  Prior to 1997, the Riverfront line was single-track, standard railroad gauge.  The five cars working the Riverfront line were parked by the Convention Center when not in service.  The 1997 work expanded the line to two tracks, and the tracks were laid in the wider streetcar gauge.  Track was run on Canal Street, from Riverfront to just past Carondelet Street, and crossovers were installed to join the lines. 

Because the St. Charles line is protected by its designation on the National Register of Historic Places, the new 400- and 2000-series streetcars can use the tracks to get back and forth to their home base at Carrollton Station, but only the 900-series can be used for "revenue runs" on St. Charles.  That means 461 can't pick up paying customers until he reaches Canal Street.

Many thanks to Geo (@blackngeauxld) for the shot.  Check out his photostream and work, he's a great photographer!  We're hoping to use more @blackngeauxld photos here on CanalStreetCar (dot com) in the future.

If you're a photographer who has streetcar photos you'd like to share, please contact me at edward at CanalStreetCar dot com and we'll get them on the site.

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