










PCC
streetcars were designed in the mid 1930s to defend the use of streetcar (trolley)
transportation against increasing automobile competition. Dr. Thomas Conway designed
the PCC (Electric Railway's President's Conference Committee)
car, and an industry-wide cooperation was established to produce these standardized,
streamlined, smooth, quiet, fast, comfortable and stylish cars. The first car
was tested in Brooklyn, NY, in 1936. Eventually 4,000 PCCs ran in 29 cities in
North America. Dallas
placed an order for 25 double-ended PCCs in 1941, but wartime priorities delayed
their delivery until 1945. The Dallas PCCs were nicknamed "Gliding Beauties."
The transit company had planned to order more, but decided that the future of
electric transit was the electric trolley bus instead. After all streetcar service
ended in 1956, Dallas sold their PCCs to Boston. The "Texas Rangers,"
as they were called there, ran for several decades. Some ex-Dallas PCC still survived
in Boston as a work cars. Others were bought by or donated to trolley museums.
In 1996 MATA
purchased 2 PCCs in almost brand-new condition from the Toronto Transit Commission
they are currently awaiting restoration. For a while, we did operate one
PCC: #143 ("Winnie") an ex-Tandy (Fort Worth) "subway" car
originally from Washington, DC. Although Tandy's rebuilding erased all of the
car's conventional PCC design, it still utilized traditional PCC technology. The
Toronto PCCs are single-ended cars (that is, they can only be driven from one
end) and will not be placed into service until we build a loop at the southern
end of the line. Close
Answer Window |
In
the 1950s streetcars (trolley
cars) were considered "old fashioned."
By 1956 Dallas had outgrown its remaining four streetcar lines and there was a
lot of pressure to abandon them. There were many factors.
Most
of Big D's streetcars were 30 years old or more.
They interfered
with a planned one-way street system downtown.
The merchants
on Jefferson Avenue in Oak Cliff wanted the trolley tracks removed from the center
of the street so they could add more parking spaces.
The
locally owned transit company had been sold to an outside pro-bus firm.
The mayor believed that Dallas could never become a modern city while it was
"tied to an antiquated electric rail transit system."
America's postwar love affair with the automobile had helped to diminish the
popularity of mass transportation. Close
Answer Window |
|   In
1872 (some sources say 1871) the first street railway in Dallas was a mule car
line that ran from the Court House to the Houston and Texas Central Railroad depot.
In 1875, four different mule car lines were in operation. By the summer of 1889,
four steam-powered city lines had been constructed and were successfully carrying
passengers. In 1889 the first electric streetcar line was built, just the first
of many more such lines built in the city by various transit companies. A cable
car line was proposed in 1890, but by 1891 only 3,000 feet of it had been built
and it was never completed. Eventually, the existing mule and steam powered railways
were converted or were abandoned as the electric cars provided faster, more reliable
and pollution-free service. In
1917 all the various companies were consolidated into one: The Dallas Railway
Company. This later became the Dallas Railway and Terminal Company (The company
also owned the Interurban Terminal building.) and finally the Dallas Transit Company. The
Texas Electric Railway interurban also once operated local streetcar service in
the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. In 1925 they sold this line to Dallas Railway.
Close
Answer Window |
Streetcars
(trolley cars) and cable cars both run on tracks in city streets. Although a streetcar
running on electricity gets its power via a trolley pole from the overhead wire,
a cable car is pulled along by a special cable located under the street in a slot
between the rails. This cable runs continuously at 9 miles per hour. The cable
car operator is called a "gripman," because he controls a special "grip,"
that grabs onto the cable to run the car, and lets go of the cable when he wants
to stop the car. Cable cars once operated in many cities around the world, but
were replaced by more efficient, lower cost trolley cars. The only surviving cable
cars are the famous ones of San Francisco that have been running for over 100
years. Close
Answer Window |
An
interurban was an electric rail vehicle, similar in appearance to city trolleys,
that provided transportation between cities and towns. They were large, fast cars
and many could travel at speeds of 60-70 mph. At one time, interurban lines radiated
out from Dallas to Terrell, Fort Worth, Denton, Sherman, Corsicana, and Waco.
Interurbans also carried freight and express and some hauled conventional railroad
freight cars. A few interurbans served meals; one even had sleeping cars. Although
the few surviving interurban lines flourished during World War II, most had fallen
victim to automobile competition and improved highways by 1940. The famed Texas
Electric Railway managed to keep running until December 31, 1948. A
cosmetically restored Texas Electric car is on display in Plano, Texas, at the
Interurban Museum, a short walk from the DART Light Rail downtown Plano station. We
are converting our dining car from an interurban express "motor" (like
a self-propelled boxcar) that ran between Dallas and Fort Worth in the 1930s. Close
Answer Window |
The
first streetcars, pulled by horses or mules appeared in 1828. By 1886, 300 US
cities had horse car lines. These lines pioneered many features used in later
streetcars and trolleys: zoned fares, marked stopping places, straps for standees
to hold on to, and signaling bells for passengers. In 1876 some streetcar lines
were powered by little steam "dummy engines" disguised to keep from
scaring horses. Seeking
a more economical way to power streetcars (Horses ate even when they were not
working.), Andrew F. Hallidie developed cable cars. The system used a continuously
running cable (driven by a central power house) in a trench below the street between
the tracks. A device controlled by the driver gripped the cable to tow the car
along, or released it to stop. Although cable cars were first used in San Francisco,
they ran in 27 other US cities as well. Chicago had the largest cable car network
in North America. Over
the years many ideas -- some ingenious and some downright weird -- were proposed
to power streetcars, but none proved to be practical until electricity was chosen
as the propulsion means. Leo
Daft's approach was to use tiny electric locomotives to pull horse cars. Power
was collected from a low-voltage third rail in city streets. Later he implemented
electrified horse cars that picked up power from two overhead lines on which rode
grooved wheeled trollers which had a bad habit of frequently dropping off the
wires. Daft systems were trouble-ridden and never achieved any satisfactory degree
of reliability. Someone commented that the apparatus looked like trolling for
fish. This description later evolved into the word "trolley." Charles
Van Dopoele devised a trolley pole to collect current from a single overhead wire.
However, he didn't know what a good idea he had and abandoned it for the Daft
method of current collection. Van Dopoele systems were in use in 4 or 5 cites
by 1886. Then
came Frank Sprague who pioneered the practical electric trolley car. The major
breakthrough came when he invented an ingenious design for mounting the electric
motors on the axles of a street car truck. (Previously the electric motor was
often mounted on the front platform of the cars which powered a chain drive mechanism
to the front wheels.) In 1888, Sprague opened his first streetcar system, using
the Van Dopoele method of current collection, in Richmond, Virginia. When the
system finally achieved reliability after some initial difficulties, it became
famous for being the largest trolley system in the world and spawned similar street
railways all across the world. In
1902, Sprague made a tremendous breakthrough when he invented the multiple unit
control whereby a single motorman could control all cars in his train simultaneously.
He fathered practical citywide trolley systems, modern subway and elevated trains,
automatic train safety controls and high speed elevators plus other practical
applications. When he died at age 75 in 1934, he was still busy working on even
more inventions. Close
Answer Window |
Cartoon
by the late Bill McClanahan. | Move
your cursor over the red ball ( )
beside the text of the question you want answered. A window will open with the
appropriate information.
How does the M-Line make money?
The
M-Line's operating expenses are underwritten by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit
Authority, and the Uptown and Downtown Public Improvement Districts. Other income
comes from gift shop retail sales, advertising on the trolleys, endowments, individual
donations from the public, and membership fees. We also rent out our trolleys
as special charters for children's birthday parties, dinner parties, company parties
and private parties. Close
Answer Window |
What is a trolley?
Who invented the trolley?
What's the difference between a trolley car and a cable car?
What are P.C.C. streetcars?
What is an interurban?
Our
proposed dining car is an old interurban (See FAQ "What is an interurban?")
that we are restoring. When finished it will resemble an classic railroad dining
car. It will seat dinner for 30 and will have a bar, a galley and a rest room
The car will be available for a reservation-only dinner three nights a week, and
for private charters the rest of the time.
A "hidden" door on
one side will let us load and unload tables and chairs to set up interior configurations
to match the dining and charter requirements. We named the car "The Morning
Star." Close
Answer Window |
When did trolleys first come to Dallas?
Why were the
last Dallas streetcar lines abandoned in 1956?
What is the
M-Line dining car all about?
|
A
trolley car (or streetcar) is similar to a railroad passenger car. Like a train,
a streetcar runs on a set of rails. Streetcar tracks are usually in or alongside
city streets. An electric streetcar is sometimes referred to as a "trolley",
because it has a special pole that extends from the roof of the car to an electrified
overhead wire, similar to a telephone or utility cable. The trolley pole collects
power from this overhead cable and sends it to the motors located underneath the
streetcar. The operator "drives" the streetcar with a controller. All
of our currently operating streetcars can be operated from both ends and, with
the exception of car 122, have two trolley poles. When the operator switches the
pole, he or she is, in effect, "changing ends," instead of having to
physically turn the car around to go in the opposite direction. Close
Answer Window |
|