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CDM delivery/work truck from 1931. Photo from the New Orleans Public Library.

Carnival Time at the turn of the 19th century. A parade is coming up Royal Street and turning lakebound on Canal Street. This was a common route for parades at the time. (Parades no longer go through the Quarter because the crowds are too large and pose a fire hazard to the old buildings.)

Electrifying Canal Street has brought a few changes to downtown. The wires all over make for busy photographs, to be sure. The higher poles are carrying power to the buildings, and the lower wires are for the streetcars.

The monument to Henry Clay, which occupied the entire Canal Street neutral ground between St. Charles Ave. and Royal Street has been cut back dramatically. The massive round base of the monument was an obstruction to streetcars. The old mule-drawn cars could easily maneuver around the statue, but the electric streetcars need to follow their wires, so the monument had to be altered. Even with the cutback of the base, the statue was still a problem for streetcars, because they barely had room to pass. In 1901, the city decided to remove the statue from Canal Street and relocate Mr. Clay to Lafayette Park, where he remains today.

There are a number of stories that circulate about why the Riverfront line's streetcars were painted red rather than the more-traditional green of the Perley A. Thomas streetcars. The Riverfront Line's development began in the mid-1980s, and it opened to the public on August 14, 1988. An ad-hoc organization called "Bring Our Streetcars Home" raised funds to re-acquire three Perley Thomas cars that left the city in 1964 for use on the new line. Additionally, RTA acquired three Melbourne W2 streetcars, so Riverfront could offer handicap accessibility.

Since the green color of the 900-series Perley Thomas streetcars on St. Charles Avenue was so well-known, RTA decided to paint the streetcars for Riverfront something different. One story goes that Carrollton Station Manager Elmer Von Dullen wanted to paint them blue, a tribute to the old Napoleon Ave. line, which was called the "Royal Blue Line." Some say that then-Mayor Sidney Barthelemy favored the red, and since he was mayor, he got his way. Whichever is true, the decision to go with red was made.

To justify the red color from a historic perspective, RTA always says that the old French Market line of the New Orleans City Railway Company was painted in red and yellow. This postcard from 1897 appears to bear this out, if the colors are accurate. Postcard manufacturers of this period would hand-tint black and white photos and them mass-print the colored photo.

The postcard depicts three green, single-truck, Ford, Bacon & Davis streetcars on the riverbound center track of Canal Street, the lead car having just crossed St. Charles Ave./Royal St. (The photographer is standing on Canal, in between St. Charles and Camp.) To the right are two red and gold streetcars of the New Orleans City Railway Company, on the outside lakebound track.

The gold dome in the background is the "old" Maison Blanche building, which was torn down in 1898 to make way for the "new" MB building, which is now the Ritz-Carlton hotel. There is a sign on the right-hand side that says "Maryland Club" that we can't place just yet.

Over time, I've acquired a number of JPG files that are scans of old postcards. Some of them are from eBay auctions, others from various locations. Most of them are of too low a resolution for us to use as the week's "feature photo," but it seems such a shame not to share them. To that end, we're starting today with sharing these files, starting with a postcard of Canal Street from 1897.

With Skoda Electric proposing to help the city's transit system and economy if RTA will consider using trolley buses, let's go back to the beginning of electric bus operations in New Orleans. One of the first "trackless trolleys" to run in New Orleans passes Mater Delorosa church on S. Carrollton Avenue in December of 1929. The line was the "Southport Shuttle," which ran from Oak Street, then turned onto S. Carrollton Avenue. Electric bus service was expanded in the 1940s, as New Orleans Public Service, Incorporated (NOPSI) phased out streetcar lines. The electric buses were a bit of a compromise, using the trolley wires from the streetcars, but with brand-new buses instead of the older streetcars.

The original electric buses were housed at Carrollton Station. When the bus system expanded, they were also stationed at Arabella Station on Magazine Street (this station is now the site of Uptown's Whole Foods Grocery store).

George mentioning that PCCs have never run in New Orleans reminds I've been meaning to post this diagram here for ages. This is from a 1960s dog-and-pony show presented by NOPSI to city government, trying to convince the powers-that-be of the time that discontinuing streetcar operations in New Orleans was the best route for the city. It was organized in a spiral-bound booklet as a page of text, then a photo or diagram, then another page of text, etc. I suspect that, had this been presented today rather than in 1960, it would have been a PowerPoint presentation.

In the presentation, this diagram followed some text which talked about how, by 1960, PCCs were aging and would not be a good replacement for the Perley Thomas cars. NOPSI also argued that, since most PCCs are single-ended, they'd have to make the following track modifications to accomodate single-sided cars.

Here's the diagram:

Now cropped by section. Top left, an indound-to-outbound turnaround from Canal onto Crozat, returning via Iberville and Treme.

Wye switch on N. Roman St.:

Another wye on David St., one block off Carrollton:

Cemeteries Terminal:

PCCs would turn right onto City Park Avenue outbound, right on Bienville St., right again onto N. Anthony, then left to merge back to the inbound track on Canal. The cars would have to go all the way to Bienville because Iberville does not go through to City Park Ave. Odd Fellows Rest and St. Patrick #2 cemeteries front City Park Ave.

Hoping to duplicate the success of the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad Company (NO&C), the New Orleans City Railroad Company (NOCRR) purchased Square 365 for the purpose of constructing a transportation facility. Square 365 is bounded by N. Dupre, Iberville, N. White, and Canal. With a construction budget of $5,142, the company constructed a two-building car barn on the square in 1861. The original Canal Street line opened on June 1, 1861, running from the barn to the river. Since the line proved to be popular, service was soon extended lakebound past the barn to the cemeteries. The cars used at this time were “bobtail” cars from the John C. Stephenson Car Company of New York. The cars were mule-powered.

In 1876, the city gave NOCRR permission to operate a steam-powered street railway line from Canal and Carondelet Streets downtown to Lake Pontchartrain. This became the West End line, and the steam motive equipment for the line was stored and serviced at Canal Station until the line was electrified in 1898.

Canal Station in 1990, showing the post-1964 modifications to the Canal Street side.

With the discontinuance of the Canal streetcar line in 1964, NOPSI converted Canal Station to an all-bus facility. The company turned over the transit system to the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) in 1983. RTA demolished Canal Station in 1992, to make way for the A. Philip Randolph SIS facility. In 2003, a streetcar barn returned to Canal Street, in the back section of the Randolph facility.
Canal Station was extended back to Bienville Street in 1883, with the acquisition of Square 366. The station’s tracks were extended across Iberville Street and a new barn was constructed for the steam equipment.

The barn housing the steam equipment, as well as the blacksmith and saddlery shops were destroyed in a fire on January 20, 1887. Losses were put at approximately $100,000, but service on the Canal line was not interrupted. The facility was re-built, with the original 1861 buildings being incorporated into two larger buildings.

Canal Station was electrified in the spring of 1894, and the Canal line began operating Brill semi-convertible electric cars in August of 1894. The station was turned over to New Orleans Public Service, Incorporated (NOPSI), in 1924, as part of the overall consolidation of the city’s transit system.

Canal Station was the scene of numerous protests during the transit strike of 1929, with the station and its streetcars receiving minor damage from strikers. Even though NOPSI expanded the use of diesel-powered buses in the 1930s, Canal Station remained exclusively a streetcar facility. In 1940, NOPSI acquired the two adjoining lakebound squares and expanded Canal Station, adding facilities for buses. Building Number 2 was converted to a bus garage, and the expansion area became unsheltered bus storage.

Named after E. J. Morris, who was Master Mechanic of the shops at Canal Station, these cars were built by the New Orleans Railways Company in 1902 and 1903. The design of the Morris cars was based on the Barney & Smith cars in use by the New Orleans City R.R. on the West End line. (The NOCRR merged into the NO Rys. Co. in 1902.)

The Morris cars were 52 feet long and just over 8 feet wide. They seated 64 riders. Originally they were built with open platforms on either end. They were numbered 046 to 057, following in sequence behind the original “Palace” cars.

This photo of car 055 shows it running on the Canal Belt line. The open platform indicates that the photo was shot before the Morris Cars were re-fitted with closed platforms in 1904. The Morris Cars were renumbered 513 to 524 in 1917. Cars 519-524 had their motors removed in 1918 and pulled by powered cars as trailers on the Canal-Cemeteries line. The motorized cars were removed from service and scrapped from 1921-24, with 518 being kept on until 1931. The trailers were scrapped from 1930-32.

Specifications:

* Builder: New Orleans Railways Company
* Date: 1902-03
* Trucks: Taylor Hi Speed “A”
* Wheels: 33”
* Motors: four GE 800 (25hp)
* Length: 52’ 0”
* Width: 8’ 5”
* Body Length: 40’ 8”
* Number of seats: 64
* Type of seats: cross
* Cost per car: $5,440.87

The very first streetcars to operate on the Canal Line were built by the John Stephenson Car Company of New York. The cars were designed for one-man operation. The rounded front end was for the driver; passengers boarded from the rear on a set of “bobtail” steps.

We don’t have any builders’ specifications on these cars, but they appear to be similar in length to a 7-window, single-truck electric car. That puts their length at approximately 28’. They most likely seated 26-28 passengers.

The Stephenson cars were usually horse-powered, but mules were the primary power for the cars in New Orleans. Mules are tougher workers in New Orleans’ summer heat and humidity.

The Stephenson cars operated by the New Orleans City RR Company on the Canal Line were painted red and white, while the Orleans RR Company cars (like the one in the above photo) were painted green for the Bayou St. John Line and Red for the French Market Line.

Snow on Canal Street, 1963

It only seems fitting that we should have white stuff on the ground this winter. The last time the Canal Line operated in wintertime was in the winter of 1963-64, and that was a white one as well. Even when it snows in New Orleans, it never amounts to much, but the little bit that falls usually spells trouble for anyone trying to drive in the city.

Tuesday, December 31, 1963, was a nasty, gloomy day that was capped off with freezing rain and snow. The Streets department of city government doesn’t have the infrastructure set up to deal with ice and snow on the roads. There’s no point to it, considering it usually only happens once every ten or so years. So, when the white stuff comes down, things get complicated.

This photo was shot at the corner of Camp and Canal Streets. Four snow-dusted Perley Thomas streetcars are heading riverbound, waiting for their turn to loop around Liberty Place and head back to the Cemeteries. Two streetcars are on the outbound track on the other side of Magazine Street. A trolley bus on the Magazine Line is turning onto Canal from Camp for its one block appearance on Canal before turning back up Magazine Street and the outbound run. Just to the right of the trolley bus is the snow-covered sign of Waterburys Drugstore. The location is now part of the Sheraton Canal Street Hotel. The flower boxes that were constructed where the two outside streetcar tracks during the 1957-58 renovation of Canal Street are visible in the neutral ground. The Custom House looms in the background as it does in many photos of Canal Street.

The traffic heading towards the river is stacking up because the city closed the bridge that afternoon. That meant anyone trying to get to the West Bank had to take the ferry. It was a rough evening for commuters, but any inconvenience was balanced out by waking up to real snow and winter fun on New Year’s Day the next morning!