https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-shit-i-post-on-facebook_0405326112.html#more
Saturday, June 11, 2022
Steam log hauler made by Phoenix Manufacturing Company of Eau Claire, pulling loaded skids through snow. Rice Lake lumber camp
https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM5820
How about that guy sitting out front steering it? !
locomotives have an edge on cool photography, they're both steampunk, dieselpunk, AND black and white. Yeah, take that pitiful diesel electrics!
This guy, Willbert Kendall, had a job for 11 years as a railroad employee "crossing watchman" to stop traffic at the crossing at Hoover Ave ... he was the last one in Ann Arbor, and finally retired, replaced by the machinery and flashing lights, in Dec 1940
https://aadl.org/N017_1210_001 describes the situation
1945 subway car used until the late 1980s, that's been restored and is in the Rockhill Trolley Museum, Pennsylvania was part of a New Jersey city scam, as what else have NJ politicians ever done?
the president of TCRT, as well as another company official and the owner of a local scrap firm all were later convicted in federal court on fraud and associated charges related to the rapid dismantling of the TCRT streetcar system, in order to replace streetcars with buses.
New management took over TCRT in 1949, and was successful in finding buyers for its virtually new PCCs, selling the cars at bargain prices.
Mexico City took the lion’s share, while Cleveland’s Shaker Heights Rapid Transit bought 20. Public Service Coordinated Transport, predecessor of New Jersey Transit, bought 30 cars for the Newark City Subway.
a young Swedish sailor jumped ship in New York Harbor in 1918, joined the U.S. Army, fought in Europe during World War I, returned to New Jersey to settle down, and in 1938, managed to purchase a decommissioned trolley for $1, and bought land in an undeveloped town for $14. His great grandkids are THRILLED!
The biggest challenge, of course, was how to transport the trolley to the remote spec of land. Ingenuity prevailed again. For $300, Ed Sr. had the trolley shipped on a flatbed truck.
It took several years for Ed Sr., a bus driver and his wife worked for the phone company, and his Scandinavian friends to secure the trolley and build a cottage around it. The Sjonells lived in a two-family home in Elizabeth, and the trolley was their rustic weekend home
It took several years for Ed Sr., a bus driver and his wife worked for the phone company, and his Scandinavian friends to secure the trolley and build a cottage around it. The Sjonells lived in a two-family home in Elizabeth, and the trolley was their rustic weekend home
Eventually, the trolley structure boasted a kitchen and two bedrooms, all fashioned inside the original passenger car; the living room and front porch were built as add-ons.
Ed Jr says they made the trek to Point Pleasant just about every weekend. “We’d drive down Route 34,” says Sjonell. “Every third or fourth trip, we’d get a flat tire.” The family would stop off at an ice house on their way to the Shore. “We’d get a hunk of ice for a quarter and put it in the icebox on the back porch,” he recalls. “We had a pump for water. We had an outhouse. You could say it was very rustic.”
Days were spent fishing, crabbing and swimming in the nearby Manasquan River. “We’d go fishing all the time,” says Sjonell. “We caught eels in the bay, and my father would fry them.” Weekends were a special time. Life was carefree; the trolley home sat on what was then a sandy, dead-end street.
Soon enough, Sjonell, Kathy and their three children took over the trolley house, and the fun times continued with a new generation enjoying the house. (The family’s full-time residence is in Scotch Plains, where Sjonell retired as a guidance counselor.) “It stayed basically the same for the next 60 years,” says Kathy. “We only decided to expand when our six grandchildren began to appear.” In 2002, the couple decided to tear down the tiny house while leaving the trolley intact, a project easier said than done.
Eventually, they stumbled upon David Feldman of Feldman & Feldman Architects in Wall Township. “He shared our love of the old car,” says Kathy. When Feldman sketched a two-story home that resembled a trolley car pulling into a station, the Sjonells knew they had found their architect. “That was it,” adds Sjonell. “Feldman was the man.” Adds Kathy, “He maintained the integrity.”
Soon enough, Sjonell, Kathy and their three children took over the trolley house, and the fun times continued with a new generation enjoying the house. (The family’s full-time residence is in Scotch Plains, where Sjonell retired as a guidance counselor.) “It stayed basically the same for the next 60 years,” says Kathy. “We only decided to expand when our six grandchildren began to appear.” In 2002, the couple decided to tear down the tiny house while leaving the trolley intact, a project easier said than done.
Eventually, they stumbled upon David Feldman of Feldman & Feldman Architects in Wall Township. “He shared our love of the old car,” says Kathy. When Feldman sketched a two-story home that resembled a trolley car pulling into a station, the Sjonells knew they had found their architect. “That was it,” adds Sjonell. “Feldman was the man.” Adds Kathy, “He maintained the integrity.”
and this beauty of a home and trolley car, will be the family weekend get-a-way, long after that sailor is forgotten. Some of our actions can have long lasting effects, but very few, and usually, only if our families treasure them. So, if you want to be remembered for centuries to come, you must build or create something that will last, AND be treasured.
A home in Hamilton NJ was built around an 1914 trolley car, #288
A house had been built around a trolley car, obtained in the 1930s, soon after the Trenton trolley line stopped running, to make a house
Over the years, additions were made to the home, creating rooms off the trolley to expand the living space. Eventually, the trolley car was surrounded by a traditional house, located in a traditional neighborhood
see https://www.hopewellvalleyhistory.org/uploads/1/2/5/5/125504560/trenton_288_presentation_-_jr_may_-_final.pdfh for the full series of photos
It had been manufactured in Philadelphia by the J.G. Brill Trolley Company in 1914, and made its way to New Jersey, where it was part of the once-extensive trolley system operated by the Trenton & Mercer County Traction Company
The plot of land that held the home had been purchased for a dollar by John Guthrie, a local typesetter, in the early 1900s. After his brother William traveled around the United States and came home broke, Guthrie and two of his siblings pooled their funds to purchase an old trolley to house him so he could get back on his feet.
William expanded #288 into a proper house with the trolley at its heart, and it was eventually passed on to his nephew, John Breece, the elder Guthrie’s grandson, in 1952. He inherited the house and at that time it had an outhouse and a pump in the kitchen.
Liberty Historic Railway, an organization that supports transportation preservation projects, bought the trolley and is funding most of its restoration relying on donations and grant money to fund the rest of the restoration, which will cost nearly $1 million.
Contractors will restore the trolley at its new Farmingdale location by repairing weather damage and alterations from when it was inside the house, Strohmeyer said.
“What was amazing was just how remarkably intact it was, and because it was inside a house, structurally what’s left was actually very solid,” he said.
Contractors will restore the trolley at its new Farmingdale location by repairing weather damage and alterations from when it was inside the house, Strohmeyer said.
“What was amazing was just how remarkably intact it was, and because it was inside a house, structurally what’s left was actually very solid,” he said.
the shades have never been removed
the non-profit Liberty Historic Railway and the Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Maine, are working together to raise funds for the first part of the restoration process. The non-profit and museum have launched a GoFundMe campaign to offset the cost of re-creating blueprints and restoring the trolley car, which is currently in Southampton.
The museum has commissioned a new set of construction drawings for the trolley. Funds raised through the campaign will go toward offsetting the cost of producing the documents and materials needed to restore the missing ends of the car.
“It’s one of a kind and its the only surviving trolley car from the state capital,” said William McKelvey, director of Liberty Historic Railway Inc. “So we felt it was imperative to save it for future generations.”
as rare as it is to discover a street car, trolley, or caboose used as a home that is no longer recognizeable, it does happen near the big cities that had extensive street car / trolley lines
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