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| For the Tuscarora Almanac - January 27, 1962 - The Book Of Last Runs (1336086) | |||
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For the Tuscarora Almanac - January 27, 1962 - The Book Of Last Runs |
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Posted by milantram on Tue Jan 27 10:08:23 2015 On this date in 1962, streetcar service ended in the nation's capital, Washington, DC.The last lines were those on 14th Street and U Street, serving Union Station, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Navy Yard, and Colorado Avenue, and other destinations. Since 1956, DC's streetcars were on a course to be replaced by buses because of an edict passed by Congress requiring the new operator, O. Roy Chalk, who bought the system from Capital Transit Co. (at that time controlled by Louis Wolfson, whose system suffered a 7-week strike in 1956), to carry out replacement by 1963/64 (accounts vary). Despite Chalk's efforts to keep streetcars running, the edict was final, and the last cars, deck-roof 766, PCC 1101 (the first one), and pre-PCC 1053, pulled in to Navy Yard carouse during the wee hours of the following day. Washington's streetcars were the last in the nation to use underground conduit for power collection. A plow (removable when streetcars exited the city limits) collected the current. Many PCCs went on to further careers in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, Barcelona, Spain, and even Fort Worth, Texas. 766 and 1101, the first PCC, are preserved at the National Capital Trolley Museum, So were 1512, the Silver Sightseer, and pre-PCC 1053, but they were later lost in fires. Source: 100 Years Of Capital Traction, by Leroy O. King, Jr.; The Time Of The Trolley, by William D. Middleton; PCC from Coast To Coast, by Schneider and Carlson; and many other sources. Milantram (Peter Ehrlich) |
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