Text by Patrick Bell.
The only street car I recall riding was the tourist type in San Francisco, and that was over fifty years ago. Preparing for this was very educational for me, so if these images trigger some memories please take a few minutes and share them with us.
We begin in Michigan City, Indiana, at the 11st Street stop in 1964. The Chicago, South Shore and South Bend Railroad (CSS & SB) operated in this fashion until 2022. A new facility has been constructed and all that remains from this image is the grey house on the right. Along the left side was a row of unloved cars of the era beginning with a 1961 Plymouth Fury 2 door hardtop with a crunched fender, followed by a green 1961 or 1962 Rambler Classic, and a black 1959 or 1960 Studebaker Lark. On the right was a brown 1960 Chevrolet Bel Air, and on the used car lot a bronze 1957 Buick and a blue 1958-1960 Ford Thunderbird Hardtop.
Here we are in Los Angeles, at the corner of South Broadway and West 10th Street (now known as West Olympic Boulevard), in the mid 1950’s. A pair of Los Angeles Railway street cars were passing, while “Dorn’s House of Miracles” was to the right, with a full line of fancy gadgets. The white over blue 1951 Pontiac De Luxe Catalina is the only one I can fully ID, while the black car to the right may have been a 1942-1948 Ford, and the white car behind it an early 1950’s Oldsmobile, and the nose on the right edge may have been a late 1930’s Ford product.
Let’s head back to the Midwest and check out this street car on Main Street close to the corner of 31st Street in Kansas City, Missouri. The image was dated 6-19-57, a couple of weeks before the street cars ceased operation. The Kaufman and Ward buildings remain today. In the foreground a 1955 Packard Clipper 4 door sedan was whizzing on by, while a blue 1951 or 1952 Dodge 4 door sedan was heading the other way. On the left the black car looks like a 1949 Ford, and the other two are too blurry to ID.
Hammond, Indiana was another stop on the CSS & SB as seen in this image dated 1-27-64. General Motors cars were the order of the day with a black 1955 Buick Super 4 door sedan in the foreground. It was following a dirty 1958 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Holiday Coupe, while a 1960 Oldsmobile Holiday Scenicoupe was parked at the curb. On the far left edge looks like the tail end of a 1962 Buick.
And another CSS & SB unit, this one in South Bend, Indiana, also in the winter of 1964. The closest car was a 1958 Oldsmobile facing this way. It is hard to imagine a street car dominating a residential, or any street in today’s world. Talk about road rage…
We are back in Michigan City, at the same location as the first image, only a year earlier in 1963. In the foreground was a six cylinder powered 1959 Chevrolet Parkwood (6 passenger) or Kingswood (9 passenger) wagon, while further back in the driving lane was a blue 1963 Ford F-series. On the right was a Triumph TR4, and in the used car lot I can see two 1956 Oldsmobiles (a pink looking color and a light green) and further down was a red 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible.
Now we are in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the noon run of the Chicago, North Side and Milwaukee Railroad was underway on North 6th Street at Saint Paul Avenue in January of 1963, a few weeks before it ceased operations. The Hotel Schroeder (now Milwaukee Hilton) complex and the tall building to the left remain, but most everything else has changed since Interstate 794 now runs through this area. It was another General Motors day with a 1962 Pontiac Bonneville convertible in the center, plus three Oldsmobiles. A brown 1960 Dynamic 88 or Super 88 Holiday Sedan was behind the Bonneville, a black and grey 1957 Super 88 Holiday Sedan on the other side, and on the far left a 1962 model at the intersection. Behind it was a 1960 Ford F-series, and further back was a 1960 Ford full size heading this way. I will leave the red truck on the far right for our truck gurus.
We haven’t been on the Eastern side of the country so let’s go to the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to this scene on Broadway Avenue with the Hampshire Avenue cross street just behind us from the photo’s perspective. The image was dated 1969 and was showing a Pittsburgh Railways street car at work. Much has changed yet much is the same in the neighborhood. In the left foreground was a 1966 Buick Special or Skylark with a red 1961 or 1962 Ford F-series behind it, and further back maybe a Grumman? step van. In the middle of the street was a rear view of a 1968 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 Town Sedan and to the right of the street car were two well worn units; a 1961 Ford Ranch Wagon or Country Sedan, and a 1955 Buick.
Downtown South Bend was the location here, in another image shot on 1-27-64 showing the CSS & SB at work. Parked at the curb began with a white 1960 Pontiac Bonneville Sports Coupe, then a 1957 Studebaker Silver Hawk (of course, it’s South Bend), a 1950 Pontiac Chieftain De Luxe 4 door sedan, and two college types hitchhiking. Driving past were a 1963 Rambler Classic 550 Cross Country wagon, a two tone 1956 Ford Customline Fordor sedan, 1964 Rambler American wagon, and a 1951-1953 Dodge Job-Rated truck. On the right side the rear corner of a red 1960 or 1961 Ford Falcon Ranchero, and above it the quarter panel of a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air.
Heading over to Ohio, we are in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland in a 1971 image. This was a Shaker Heights Rapid Transit (SHRT) unit that appears to me was leaving the Shaker Square station. There were two white Fords in this view; a 1967 Custom 500 4 door sedan in the foreground, and a 1964 Galaxie 500 or 500/XL 2 door hardtop in the background.
We are going back to the West Coast to San Francisco, where a San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI) street car was passing by in an image dated 9-10-77. At the curb from the left were a 1969 Ford Mustang with a vinyl roof, a battered 1964 Mercury Montclair 4 door Breezeway Sedan, and a 1973 or 1974 Chevrolet Nova 4 door sedan, while in the driving lane was a 1957 Chevrolet One-Fifty Handyman wagon. In the background were two Ford F-100s; a green 1971 or 1972 model on the left, and a blue 1968 or 1969 model on the cross street to the right.
And another San Francisco MUNI in an undated image, likely around the same time. On the left a 1967-1972 Mercedes-Benz W108, probably a 280S or SE as they were the most popular. The valet license plate read “HYWAY”, perhaps indicating it was a good road car. Behind it was a 1972 or 1973 Dodge D series pickup with a camper shell, and a 1973 Mercury Capri was about to pass. Heading the other way in the center was a 1960-1962 Ford Falcon Tudor, and parked way down was a Volkswagen Thing. And parked to the right of the street car was the tail end of a 1967 Ford Country Squire with Dual-Facing rear seats.
We are back in Pittsburgh in the 600 block of Grant Street with a modern Pittsburgh Railways street car in a 1978 image. The police car was a 1977 or 1978 Plymouth Fury, the Checker cab was in its last years as a manufacturer, and this one looked close to new. Behind it was a 1972 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight, and in the street was a white 1975-1978 Cadillac Eldorado Coupe. Heading the other way was a blue 1972 Plymouth Fury I or II 4 door sedan and a black GM van from the 1970’s with an aftermarket side window.
Let’s take one more swing through Michigan City, this time at least 15 years later and showing a more modern CSS & SB unit. This is the 11th Street stop again, but across the street from the views in images #1 and #6, where you could see this building on the left side of the photo. Showing here were two of the most popular personal luxury cars of the era; a 1977 or 1978 Ford Thunderbird, and a 1976 or 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass Colonnade Hardtop Coupe.
For our final image we are making another trip to Pittsburgh, this time on Smithfield Street looking from the end of the bridge over the Monongahela River. The “Blue Cross” and some of the surrounding buildings are still there, but the intersection has been entirely reconfigured with no overhead wires or tracks. A different style of street car was making the bend to the bridge to head out of downtown in this image dated 10-18-78. To the left was a 1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with aftermarket bumper guards. Up ahead perhaps a white 1974-1976 Ford Elite, orange GM van, and a black 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Colonnade Hardtop Coupe. And on the far right one of those GM buses that helped push the street cars out.
Thanks for riding along and good day to all!
Note: If you wish to see your vintage photos featured at Curbside Classic, send them to us at [email protected].
Here’s a PCC streetcar on the Queensway in Toronto in front of the Roncesvalles Carhouse, and next door to St. Joseph’s Hospital. A Ford Maverick may have wandered errantly in to the car yard. The back end of an early 70s Cutlass is to the right.
with traffic, Keele and Bloor St., Toronto
63 ford falcon convertible on right?
Many of the PCC street cars in Toronto were bought from Cleveland in 1954 when Cleveland abandoned street cars for buses.
Great photos and descriptions, as always. I rode a streetcar in San Francisco in 2015, memorable experience. And our local rail museum has a streetcar they run up and down their track on weekends; did that a couple of times with my kid. But I have many memories of my dad talking about taking the interurbans all around northeast Ohio. He described them, and showed me tracks when we visited my grandmother. Wish he was still here to ask about them.
Loved seeing all of the South Shore images; they are ones I’ve not seen before. I’m from South Bend and have ridden that line many times, including once just before the old orange cars were finally put out to pasture. Man those things were in rough condition in the 80s.
Yeah, I rode the South Shore a few times in the 80’s, from Chicago Grant Park station to Michigan City, and I remember those old cars…
The onetime Chicago South Shore and South Bend no longer goes into South Bend itself, since 1970 when tracks were removed from the streets in the city. The line was cut short and terminated near the Bendix plant on the west side of the city.
At the formation of Amtrak in 1971, the CSS&SB refused to join. Its independent operation continued under subsidy of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD).
In 1992 the South Shore Line was extended through a 90 degree bend to the north, terminating at the South Bend Airport.
In a more recent South Shore Line development, street running in MIchigan City ended in 2022, with new trackage alongside the street instead.
A new extension to the western segment of the South Shore Line between Hammond and Dyer is slated to open very soon.
A winter scene in 56th Street in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Earlene Frederick photo.
`Great photos, Rich! I love streetcars. The City of Watertown, Massachusetts still runs tractor-trolleys, no tracks, but overhead wires. The units are modern.
The term is “trackless trolley” (not “tractor trolley”), they were run by the MBTA (not the City of Watertown), and, sadly, they are not still running (replaced by ordinary buses in 2022).
I _really_ miss riding those PCC street cars, yes they were miserable in the hot and sticky Summers but back then AC wasn’t very common anywhere .
I love the brick street in Pittsburgh but they’re incredibly slippery when any amount of oil, coolant, water or snow hits them 8=^ .
Streetcars didn’t cause any road rage back then, you either got the hell out of their way or were crippled / killed if you misjudged .
? Does anyone hitch hike anymore ? . I used to travel almost everywhere by thumb in the 60’s .
-Nate
I still hitchhike occasionally, when I take my kayak on a solo whitewater trip down the McKenzie River. I have to get back to my car somehow, and I always get picked up very quickly.
And I still pick up hitchhikers, usually on the way to and from Port Orford on the south coast. There’s no public transport for most of that region and there’s a lot of folks living on limited means. And I’ve picked up someone that was hiking sections of the Pacific Coast Trail, which is not always continuous.
Thanks for this, Patrick, beautifully written as always. I grew up in San Francisco, when those cream and green PCC streetcars were part of daily life. The green Nova in the first SF photo could very well be my Mom’s car! She had one exactly like it back then. The second photo is of a PCC on the L line, heading down Taraval Street in the Sunset District. I rode those cars on the L line every day going back and forth to Herbert Hoover Junior High School!
Thanks for those memories!
Thanks for the kind words, Ronald. I am glad you enjoyed it.
Interurban railroads were once such an important part of the transportation system in the US. In the 1900s, it was seen as a great business opportunity to build regional electric lines separate from the mainline steam railroads. The South Shore Line is the best example of a survivor of that era.
There was an Oregon Electric Railway built between Eugene and Portland, serving the many towns along the way in the heart of the Willamette Valley. Passenger service ended in 1933; freight in 1945. Some parts of the right of way have been abandoned.
The South Shore was owned by the C and O railroad to get access to the large US Steel works in Gary . It is probably why it survived as long as it has.
There are 32 PCC Streetcars in San Francisco running the F Market line which goes from the Castro down to Fisherman’s Wharf. I just rode three of them two weekends ago with my son. They are painted up in different liveries of past PCC lines throughout the country. The F Market came back in 1995 and was supposedly a weekend thing part of the year. Well, now, the F Market is running everyday, all year round, along with the Cable Cars. I intend to shoot everyone of them over the next few months and then do a picture story of them for here.
The shot below was taken in 1995 just as the line started. It is now #1061, a PCC painted in the colors of Pacific Electric (The Big Red Cars) cars, seen in Los Angeles circa early 1950s. In 1955 all 30 of the PE’s were sold to Buenas Aires. This particular PCC was originally Muni #1052. From what I see, with my eyes, is that mainly locals ride the F Market between Embarcader to the Castro.The cars are packed between Embarcader and Fisherman’s Wharf with a mix of locals and tourists. The Cable Cars are all tourists with Powell and Market packed to the gills. For most who don’t know much of Muni’s rail lines are still in existence, like the J, K, L, M, N, and T, using the Siemens LRV4 (S200 SF).
https://www.streetcar.org/san-franciscos-historic-streetcars/
Yes, the South Shore Line is still in business. Does anyone know if there are any other true interurbans running? The Frisco streetcars are now running in heritage schemes from various defunct streetcar lines.
Ah, it is San Francisco. Just sayin’…
Like the “Pgh”, pics. Had forgotten “B/C” was at the end of “Smithfield” for a fair time.
What, nothing from Boston, MA? Maybe because the MBTA’s Green lIne is still operating, so there’s little interest in lines that still exist! The “T” as it’s known to generations of Bostonians and Boston-based college students, has five lines, with the T’s Green Line as one of two “light rail” service among the lines, and the only one which runs both on the surface and underground in tunnels. The Mattapan-Ashmont Line, which runs through Cedar Grove Cemetery in the Dorchester section of Boston, and still uses Presidential Car Commission (PCC) cars that date from the 1940’s, that have been long retired elsewhere on the T. The Blue, Orange and Red lines are all heavy rail services that run in dedicated rights-of-way, both in tunnels or on the surface for part of their respective routes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattapan_Line
I believe that the car facing us in the S Bend picture is a ’58 Pontiac, I had a ’58 Olds Super 88 and though somewhat similar the Olds had headlight chrome that wrapped around to the side of the fender, it it looked even meaner.
Yes, I noticed that as well. It’s definitely a 1958 Pontiac facing us in the South Bend pic. I wondered if anyone else was going to correct that. I always enjoy viewing the old photos on this site. Really makes my day!
You both are correct, thanks for pointing it out. I think I had a moment of dimwittedness.
In 1969 we lived in Hudson Lake, IN. There was a South Shore stop there. My wife rode the SS into South Bend to work. The first morning she went to the station and waited for the train, it sailed right by! Then it stopped and backed up! The conductor told her that Hudson Lake was a ‘signal stop’ and she had to wave as the train approached so they could stop!
I live in the Philadelphia metro area. The Media/Sharon Hill trolleys stop two blocks from my house. They run private right of way for most of the route with on street sections in Clifton Heights and Media. In Philadelphia there are 5 streetcar lines which feed into a tunnel running from the Penn campus in West Philadelphia to City Hall in the heart of Center City. There are other street only lines in the city, most of which been “temporarily” running busses for years. Most of the rolling stock is from the last few decades, but there are some restored PCC cars running.
And I almost forgot about the Norristown high speed line, which is an interurban depending on your definition.
Thanks for the photos. They bring back memories from my childhood.
Nice post – great pics. The PCC car deserves a place in the mass-transit Hall of Fame.
Wonderful pictures. I will make repeat visits to this posting.
There was a well corroborated story that General Motors had street car lines in Los Angeles discontinued to be replaced by GM buses.
I recall riding the old orange SS cars from South Bend to Chicago in the late 70s or early 80s, not long before the new equipment came online. I remember seats were covered in a scratchy, smelly upholstery that resembled burlap. My parents referred to the train as “the Rattler.” Great photos!
The Pittsburgh PCCs were bought by Pittsburgh Railways Co., but by the time the pictures of the Pittsurgh cars were taken, they were operated by Port Authority Transit, an Allegheny County agency that had taken over Pittsburgh Railways by Eminent Domain condemnation, and bought out a number of suburban bus operators in Allegheny County in 1964.
As soon as I saw the Foodland store I knew it was Pittsburgh, even though the livery on the PCC car was dated even for that period. Nitpicking a bit but the transit agency is PAT, or Port Authority Transit, not Pittsburgh railway. The last Pittsburgh shot was how I remember the city looking when I lived there. I rode way too many of the buses as a kid, teen and student.
The McKinney Avenue Trolley (M-Line) is still running a fleet of cars uptown to downtown Dallas, every day, 7 days a week.
The picture of San Francisco Muni PCC 1151 was taken at 35th Avenue and Taraval Street. The Mercedes 280SE on the left, with the vanity license plate “HYWAY,” was owned by my late boss, Roger Puta, a co-owner of a San Francisco tour/charter bus company named Scenic Hyway Tours. Roger was an avid photographer and railfan. Over the years, I drove this Mercedes numerous times. It was a great car
There are street car lines once again on Main Street at 31st in Kansas City, with a minor 75-year intermission when they weren’t. It’s mostly a touristy thing now, but if they keep adding track maybe it’ll hit critical mass for commuters and residents along the route.
That turreted building (Kaufman’s) just behind the street car is just barely hanging on as well – it has been the subject of a decades long preservation battle, where the local historical society got it listed against the owner’s wishes on the National Historic Register and to spite them he evicted all the tenants and stopped maintaining the building. It was only just settled by court-mandated sale to a new owner who are really suffering undoing all the ravages inflicted upon it by the previous owners neglect but there is still a commitment to bring it back, I hope so.