New Orleans Streetcars

After riding on streetcars in San Francisco a few weekends ago, this past week I was in New Orleans and had the opportunity to ride on that city's historic streetcars.

Streetcar on Canal Street headed for the cemeteries. This has an old time look but it is a modern streetcar. Note the faux clerestory on top, which is used to house air conditioning equipment.

Like many cities New Orleans had an extensive streetcar network (about 200 miles) in the late 19th and early 20th century. And just like what happened in most of those cities, the individual streetcar lines merged over time, eventually came under public ownership, and then were shut down one by one in favor of buses. Conversion of streetcars to buses in New Orleans started in 1924 and by 1964 all of the lines were shut down with the exception of the St. Charles Line.

Today the St. Charles Line operates using 35 green and crimson Perley Thomas streetcars built in North Carolina in 1923 and 1924. They are double-ended and have front and rear doors on both sides of the car. The reversible mahogany seats and exposed incandescent bulbs immediately take the rider back in time.

The St. Charles Line shares the roadway with vehicles downtown, as you can see here at the corner of Carondolet and Canal streets. Once the line moves out of downtown, it mostly runs along a grass meridian down the center of St. Charles street.

An outbound St. Charles Line car passing the entrance to Loyola University.

The origins of the St. Charles Line go all the way back to 1835. The line was steam powered at first, then horse powered, then electrified in 1893. The route was adjusted a few times during the 19th century, but has remained mostly unchanged since 1893. Due to its longevity and historical significance, the St. Charles Line was granted national historic landmark status in 2014.

The Riverfront Line opened in 1988 and today runs along the Mississippi river for a little over a mile, with the convention center at one end and the French Market at the other. The cars that run along this line are nearly identical to the Perley cars on the St. Charles line, but were manufactured recently. All streetcars in New Orleans, regardless of age, have a similar style and dimensions, allowing any equipment to move between lines when needed, as happened following Hurricane Katrina.

A northbound Riverfront Line car, about to head underneath the Four Seasons Hotel. The two pairs of tracks on the left are for southbound and northbound streetcars. The tracks on the right are a freight line, the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad (NOPB), the local switching railroad that provides service to industries along the waterfront.

The other lines are more modern additions -- the Canal street lines (two lines, or one line with two branches, depending on how you look at it) began running in 2004, 40 years after the streetcar service along Canal Street had stopped. These lines use modern equipment, but they are built in the same style as the historic Perley cars. The best thing about these cars—air conditioning!

The latest line is the Rampart-St. Claude streetcar which just opened in 2013 and then extended in 2015. This was the only line I didn't get a chance to ride.

Outbound car at the end of the line on Canal Street. In preparation for heading back the other way, the streetcar operator is raising the trailing trolley pole.

A reminder for drivers at the end of each line to check their poles before reversing direction.

Interior view of one end of a car operating along Canal Street. As the cars are reversible the same operational and fare equipment is installed at each end.

End of the line for the City Park line, where two cars are waiting to head back on a return trip to Canal Street. Just ahead is a very short stretch—less than a hundred feet—where there is single track running, necessitating signals and manual switch throwing by the streetcar operators.

Tucked away in a corner of the New Orleans Botanical Garden is the Historic New Orleans Train Garden.

While I got to see the layout, trains weren't running the day I visited. If I had planned better I would have made sure to visit on day they were running trains! The layout has over 1,300 feet of track and has buildings representative of different neighborhoods in New Orleans.

Yet one more thing I didn't have the chance to enjoy was a miniature train ride. The approximately two-foot gauge track winds its way through part of the park and over a bridge.