Trains.com

Baltimore Streetcars

13203 views
68 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, August 15, 2024 6:17 AM

Fort Howard Shuttle carback at Sparrows Point  with two-car Sparrows Point train in the background:

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, August 8, 2024 6:57 AM

Fort Howard, shuttle from Sparrows Point

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, July 30, 2024 3:25 AM

The 26 Sparrows  Point Line had a downtown loop. and John Stern, Bill Watson, annd I boarded the front car of the two-car train at Baltimore and Greene Streets just a stiop before Fayette and Pearl Streets, shown as the destination downtown.  Previous posts on this thread give a a good idea of the line.  1947 photos.  The curves onto Greene Street  were used by the 18 Pennsylvania Avenue Line, I think, already bus at the time of our visit.

 

5767 Key Avenue Shuttle,  is between Arlington. the junction with the 25 Mt. Washington Line, and the line's Mt.Washington Bridge.

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, July 24, 2024 5:39 AM

The 7117 photo:

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, July 24, 2024 5:05 AM

All Baltimore streetcar photos of mine must require me to credit John Stern for time, location, and angle.  The Baltimore and Washington trips were in 1947 and 1948, and I was 15 and 16, and John treated me like a younger brother  

Some location information from Richard Allman.

s:
5687-end of Lakeside Shuttle @ Lakeside looking south
7117-North Avenue @ St. Paul Street-looking west
7420 at the same location.
7129-leaving Walbrook Junction-looking SW
5735 turning from N. Eutaw Street onto W. Saratoga Street with Bromo Seltzer Tower in background.  Photo from the late long-time friend, Ed Miller, Capitol Transit streetcar ooerator.
7078 looking east on Lexington and turning north onto Park Avenue. Keith's Theatre marquee on left. Much of this area was demolished for construction of the Charles Center.


 

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, July 24, 2024 2:59 AM

Your opinion of the Third Avenue home-made Peter Witt lightweight is certainly of interest.  Meanwhile, more Baltimore,  bit this time not Peter Witts:

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Monday, July 22, 2024 5:47 AM

But for non-PCC Peter Witts, my all time favorite streetcar will always be the Third Avenue Trabsit Broadway-42nd  Street "Huffliner." Built in Manhattan 1937-1938.

 

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Monday, July 22, 2024 5:31 AM

Found the edit on one  PCC photo incompleter andcompleted it, and have added two more, one on the last paint sheme.

 

 

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, July 21, 2024 7:45 AM

I put the Cleveland Witt as good looking as the Baltimore, but no better.  Toronto tops both, in my opnion.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Friday, July 19, 2024 7:17 PM

daveklepper
And I rest mine.

Which non-PCC Peter Witt do you think looks better?  Even name several?

And here are  two more Baltimore PCC photos:

Never saw the Baltimore PCC cars in that livery.  The livery when I viewed them at the intersection of Frederick Road and Ingleside Avenue as I was walking to and from Catonsville Elementary School - the livery I witnessed was a bright yellow below the window line and a white/cream above the window line.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 1,530 posts
Posted by NKP guy on Thursday, July 18, 2024 7:05 AM

 

Well, my favorite Peter Witt comes from his hometown, Cleveland, which had several types of these cars. Shown below is one taken in front of the Windermere car barns on Euclid Avenue in East Cleveland. As a boy, I enjoyed sitting on the stoop of the Windermere Hardware store (shown in photo) and looking for minutes on end at the fascinating scene unfolding just across the street from me. Also, note the Raymond Lowey design for the cars' paint scheme. 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoTBH3C5NyWjwBoKyX5M2WZEVGvSCRfBGlX-u6tMvrL63j7ZSVmuP8iPr89yu5i0B65jFs7FGNuDU95Xpi7U67K11BHWjLbpXUbgy0GuJYPbP6xt-lKx0k84IrLQcuoj9QeVgoyDi3VrM/s1600/Cleveland+Ohio+streetcar+1950ish.jpg

I also think Toronto had some good-looking examples of this design type of streetcar.

ttc peter witt - side view.jpg

 

Mr. Witt:

 https://www.ebay.com/itm/195067565232

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, July 18, 2024 4:52 AM

And I rest mine.

Which non-PCC Peter Witt do you think looks better?  Even name several?

And here are  two more Baltimore PCC photos:

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 1,530 posts
Posted by NKP guy on Tuesday, July 16, 2024 2:34 PM

daveklepper

A Jack May photo at the Baltimore Trolley Museum:

 

 

I rest my case.          (wink!)

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, July 16, 2024 8:47 AM

A Jack May photo at the Baltimore Trolley Museum:

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, July 16, 2024 4:09 AM

And I disagree,  To me, they are the best looking non-PCC Peter Witts except for the double-end Third Avenue  Broadway-42nd Street "Huffliners" (which were built in 1938 after PCC's were introduced in 1935-36).    The Baltimore Peter-Wiits had  automatic acceleration, like the most modern rapid-transit MUs of the period.  I'd be happy to read others' opinions, one way or the other.

 

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 1,530 posts
Posted by NKP guy on Monday, July 15, 2024 10:18 AM

Maybe it's the dreary day and the b/w photography, maybe it's what one is used to, but in my opinion Baltimore's Brill Peter Witts are some of the most unattractive streetcars I've ever seen, despite my late friend Kenneth Morse's introducing them to me (via his photos) in 1964.

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Monday, July 15, 2024 5:43 AM

photos of the Baltimore Brill Peter-Witts.  Anyone wish to supply

ljocations?

 

 

 

The last is just outside the B&O Camden Station

 

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, July 4, 2024 5:42 AM

Mount Washington Line just above the junction with the Key Avenue Shuttle (see the Shuttle car  through the  trees on the right) and, below, the Shuttle's outer terminal,   And Happy 4th!:

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Monday, May 24, 2021 9:00 AM

Fort Howard Shuttle at Sparrows Point:

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Friday, May 21, 2021 10:07 AM

Also at Sparrows Point:

At the end of the Rolling Rad line (PCC in background) ,wirh the shuttle to Elicott City:

 

 

Brill Peterr-Witt on the Mt. Washington Line, downtown:

 

 

 

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, May 9, 2021 4:12 AM

At Sparrows Point:

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, April 29, 2021 10:48 PM

26, Sparrows Point Line, ;Spring, 1947, outbound car photographed  from a front window of an inbound car:

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, May 26, 2020 1:12 AM

Also on the 25, Mt. Washington line, previous postings of bridge photos did not include this one:

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Monday, May 25, 2020 10:12 AM

Can anyone identify this exact location, near or in the Downtown area on the 25 Mt. Washington Line?

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, May 17, 2020 6:58 PM

Falls Road, with the front of a Mount Wshington Line Brill Peter Witt. looking dwn Union Avenue and the track of the Union Avenue shuttle, 1947, taken at age 15:

 

From Richard Allman:

The Woodberry Station on the Central Light Rail Line is at the foot of the hill on Union Avenue just across the creek.
Took these photos in April 2008 when Jack May, Bob Dietrich, Fred Sauerberger and I were out photographing the light rail-transit police hassled us for what they described as “illegal activity”. Later MTA (Maryland Transportation Administration) got nailed in a law suit for enforcement of this illegal policy (only forbidden photography is military installations, nuclear facilities and private businesses where trade secrets can might be disclosed without permission), none of which applies to publicly owned and supported transit facilities. MTA was also reprimanded from the bench by the judge because its security employees were so ill-informed. DSC-31-9 is looking south-I was standing on Union Avenue. DSC-34-9 shows the Union Avenue grade crossing in the foreground. Shot facing north.
 

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 7:18 AM

Can someone provide the location?

  • Member since
    April 2018
  • 1,618 posts
Posted by Jones1945 on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 4:15 AM

daveklepper

Two views of PCC 7111 on Catonsville - Towson:

Their cheery livery reminds me of buses in Macau 40 years ago:

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,292 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Monday, January 20, 2020 3:43 PM

daveklepper
o views of PCC 7111 on Catonsville - Towson:

 

We lived in Catonsville.  One of my Aunt's lived in Towson, her daughter wanted to take me to a Orioles doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox.  Driving between Towson and Catonsville was a mounmental undertaking in the days before the Baltimore Beltway.  I boarded the #8 trolley at Ingleside Ave in 'downtown' Catonsville and proceeded to ride it to Overbrook Road a little South of 'downtown' Towson on a Sunday morning.  As I recall the trip consumed a little over two hours; had it been a work day the trip likely would have taken considerably more time account traffic in downtown Baltimore.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Monday, January 20, 2020 1:58 PM

Two views of PCC 7111 on Catonsville - Towson:

SUBSCRIBER & MEMBER LOGIN

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

FREE NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

Get the Classic Trains twice-monthly newsletter