STORY OF THE STREETCARS - CHAPTER 2.2

STORY OF THE STREETCARS
Chapter 2.2 - Some Basic Streetcar History

I won’t go into the technical developments too much, other than to mention that streetcars first developed as horse-drawn vehicles, later to be powered by  steam, some were cable-hauled (and still are), some were “hybrids,” then later they were powered by electricity (trolley cars). There have also been gas trams; and there have been other power sources. My main interest, of course, is the electric trolley car or streetcar with one trolley, running on rails.

Nor will I go into design too much, except to describe and show photos of some different designs, probably in a later chapter. There have been, and are, streetcars with a “low floor,” some that are “articulated,” there are “double deckers” (most common in England), there is the tram-train, there are cargo trams, there is the hearse-tram (mentioned in Chapter 1), the “dog car,” there are contractors' mobile offices, and then there are those that belong in the “other” category. I don’t think this article\chapter has room for all of these. I’m not sure the entire E-Book project does, either!

Why is a train called a train? And don’t tell me this has nothing to do with streetcars (this is not like the story of the toilet being invented by a fellow named Thomas Crapper). Here’s the story: George Francis Train (March 24, 1829 – January 5, 1904) was a businessman, author, and an eccentric figure in American and Australian history.

 
Train was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1829. At the age of four he was orphaned in New Orleans after a yellow fever plague killed his family. He was raised by his strict Methodist grandparents in Boston, who hoped he would become a minister.

Throughout his life, Train was engaged in the mercantile business in Boston and in Australia, then he went to England in 1860 and undertook to form horse-tramway companies in Birkenhead and London, where he soon met opposition. He was also involved in the construction of a short-lived horse tramway in Cork, Ireland. Although his trams were popular with passengers, his designs had rails that stood above the road surface and obstructed other traffic. In 1861, Train was arrested and tried for "breaking and injuring" a London street.

Train was involved in the formation of the Union Pacific Railroad during the Civil War, but left for England in 1864, after having helped others set up the Credit Mobilier of America company. Referring to himself as "Citizen Train," he became a shipping magnate, a prolific writer, a minor presidential candidate, and a confidant of French and Australian revolutionaries. He claimed to have been offered the presidency of a proposed Australian republic, but declined.

During the American Civil War he gave numerous speeches in England in favor of the Union and denouncing the Confederacy. Train's trip around the globe in 1870 was probably the inspiration for Jules Verne's “Around the World in Eighty Days,” and it’s protagonist Phileas Fogg. In 1890, he managed to accomplish his third circumnavigation of the earth in 67 days. A plaque in Tacoma, Washington commemorates the point at which the 1890 trip began and ended. Train was accompanied on many of his travels by a long-suffering cousin and private secretary named George Pickering Bemis, who later became mayor of Omaha, Nebraska.

While in Europe after his 1870 trip, Train met with the Grand Duke Constantine. During that period he also persuaded the Queen of Spain to back the construction of a railway in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. This was the beginning of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. He also promoted and built new tramways in Britain after some opposition, which was eventually overcome by offering to run the rails level with the street.

On his return to the U. S., Train's popularity and reputation soared. He began promoting the great Union Pacific Railroad which he had been involved with for several years, despite the advice of Vanderbilt, who told him it would never work. Forming a finance company called Credit Foncier of America, Train made a fortune from real estate when the great railway running from coast to coast opened up huge swathes of western America, including large amounts of land in Omaha, Council Bluffs, Iowa and Columbus, Nebraska. He was responsible for building the Cozzens Hotel and founding Train Town in pioneer Omaha.

Along with Credit Foncier, Train's most famous creation was Credit Mobilier, which he started specifically to sell construction supplies for the Union Pacific. That venture was torn asunder by scandals that rocked the nation.

 
Train ran for President of the United States of America as an independent candidate in 1872. He was a staunch supporter of the temperance movement, and was jailed on obscenity charges while defending Victoria Woodhull. He was the primary financier of the newspaper “The Revolution,” which was dedicated to women's rights, and published by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

As he aged, Train became more eccentric; in 1873 he was arrested and threatened with being sent to an insane asylum. He stood for the position of Dictator of the United States, charged admission fees to his campaign rallies, and drew record crowds. He became a vegetarian and adopted various fads in succession. Instead of shaking hands with other people, he shook hands with himself, the manner of greeting he had seen in China. He spent his final days on park benches in New York City's Madison Square Park, handing out dimes and refusing to speak to anyone but children and animals.

He became ill with smallpox at the residence of his daughter, Susan M. Train Gulager, in Stamford, Connecticut in 1903. He died in New York and was buried at a small private ceremony at Green-Wood Cemetery. On his death The Thirteen Club, of which he was a member, passed a resolution that he was one of the few sane men in "a mad, mad world."

    "The story of a remarkable and adventurous life. Mr. Train was at one time one of the best known Americans on the face of the globe. He organized the clipper ship line that sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco; he organized the Credit Mobilier and the Union Pacific Railroad; he was one of the organizers of the French Commune; he built the first street-railway in England; he has been the business partner of queens, emperors, and grand dukes, and the familiar friend of some of the greatest people in the world. His story up to the present is one long romance."
    — Publisher's Weekly, Weekly Record of Publications (1902).

So, that’s why a train is called a train!

Next: Chapter 2.3 continuing with Some Basic Streetcar History (Horse-drawn Vehicle, later operated by Steam), followed by:

Chapter 3. Various Manufacturers and their Designs.

Chapter 4. “The Great American Streetcar Scandal.”

Chapter 5. Many Large City Streetcar Systems that “went broke,” the Reasons, and the “General Motors (or some of it’s Companies) Impact” on this.

Chapter 6. Variations of the Original Streetcar Design, some with Doors in different places.

Chapter 7. Streetcars that were Built for Different Purposes, including Funerals.

Chapter 8. The Streetcar is making\has made a “Comeback.”

Chapter 9. List of Most of the (Larger) Streetcar Systems in the U.S. and Canada (List of North American Cities with Examples of Different Streetcars of the Present and the Past).

Chapter 10. The Streetcar in Other Countries, mainly Europe, but also Asia, Australia, and elsewhere.

Chapter 11. Various Foreign Manufacturers and their Own Designs.

Chapter 12. Munich and Other Large Streetcar Systems in Europe.

Chapter 13. New Orleans (Pre-Katrina, Closing One Line, Later Expansion),

Chapter 14. Toronto (Large Enough for it’s own Chapter, too).

Chapter 15. The First New Streetcar to be MADE IN THE U.S.A. And the First Streetcar Manufacturing Company in the U.S. since the 1950's or so.

Chapter 16. Prologue: The Politics of it all; Political and Economic Decisions at all Levels of Government that did impact the Streetcar in the past and that will impact it in the future. Where are we headed? Do we have the Good Sense to Re-develop a Cheap and Reliable Ground Transportation System that will Move People in Large Quantities both Into and Out Of Our Downtown Areas, Without Having to Continue to Rely on Foreign Oil and Without Having To Build More Freeways? Is This Proposition Affordable? Or Do We Have Any Other Choice? (Stay tuned for the weather at 6 and 10, but first, here’s a message from our sponsors)!
 

   
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