Operations: December 2005 Archives

Perley A. Thomas streetcar #930 at Canal and Liberty last week, in the first test run of a streetcar since the storm. Decorated for the holiday season, 930 was pulled by a pickup truck from Carrollton Station on the St. Charles tracks to Canal Street. There the streetcar was powered up and initially ran to the three-track terminal at the foot of Canal. Satisfied that the overhead was working properly, RTA allowed the streetcar to continue up Canal Street to Liberty Street, where it switched back to the inbound track.

The testing went so well that RTA approved limited operations of six Perley Thomas streetcars on a hybrid line consisting of the Riverfront trackage and a portion of the Canal line. Regular streetcar service returned to New Orleans this morning (18-December) at 7am, when 930 left the French Market terminal for Canal Street.

The 900s will run on the hybrid line at least through March of 2006 for free.

One of New Orleans' most important icons is back. Things are improving.

To address a couple of comments on today's test:

Question on how 930 got to Canal Street. I didn't see it, but WWL-TV's news report showed 930 being pulled by a white pickup truck onto Canal. I'm assuming that they pulled it all the way from the barn. That means they cleared the neutral ground enough to get down to the CBD. This makes more sense than trucking the streetcar. I remember Elmer saying that it cost $6K to truck 2013 from Carrollton Station to Randolph when they were doing the final check-out of the Canal barn in 2004.

Use of Car 29, the last Ford, Bacon & Davis single-truck streetcar. Car #29 is used as a sand car, maintenance car, and as a rail grinder. Given that Elmer and company spent the better part of last year re-building #29 after it suffered severe damage from an electrical controller fire, my guess is that they didn't want to risk something going wrong today. They have a lot more spare parts for the 900s should there have been a problem getting 930 down there.

Of course, I'd love to see #29 on Canal again. Hopefully soon.

This is my first attempt at video with this little digital camera, so be gentle:

930 heading inbound towards the foot of canal

930 heading outbound from the foot of canal

Continuation of outbound run

RTA brought Perley Thomas streetcar #930 from Carrollton Station to Canal and St. Charles this morning to test the Canal trackage and wiring. I watched as they ran 930 from St. Charles to the foot of Canal, switched to the outbound track, then ran down to the crossover at Liberty. I had to get on with my day from there, but it appears that the test was a success, at least to that point.

930 waiting for the media event to be choreographed:

From the uptown side of the street:

more photos follow...

RTA General Manager William DeVille testified before a House subcommittee for (among other things) Transit on 27-October-2005. His update on RTA's situation is a good one. The full text of his testimony is here.

This section caught my eye:

On a good note, there was little damage to the famous St. Charles Streetcar line other than to the overhead catenary system. Further good news is that FTA had already approved an extensive rehabilitation project for the St. Charles overhead electrical system and a contractor was preparing to get started when the storm hit. We are reevaluating the construction costs of the project and we are pushing to get the program underway as soon as possible while the system is closed. Construction on this project now should be far easier and may cost less than originally planned because there is no active service to work around. However, there is additional work required as the storm did more damage than the original work scope envisioned.

If a contractor was ready to get started on catenary work on St. Charles Avenue anyway, hopefully that will speed up a return of the 900s to the streets.