Fantastic Ride on World's Oldest Streetcar Line in New Orleans, Louisiana

[@suepete]

Heading there in 2 wks. Definitely doing this with my 89 year old mom. Thanks for this video!

[@swissclimber1]

You're welcome. Enjoy the ride.....

[@georgegong6813]

Honest riding the St Charles Streetcars is one of my biggest reasons for coming to New Orleans. I've visited it 3 times before myself. One of my favorite cities to visit.

[@rickybee]

I went there in 66 and 91 for the same reason! In 1966 they still had trolley buses too. AND, took the Illinois Central 'City of New Orleans' down from Chicago.

[@georgegong6813]

@@rickybee Wow does any x NOLA trolleybuses preserved awaiting restoration today? Isn't there one @ the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, Georgia?

[@rickybee]

@@georgegong6813 I googled the museum. The only TB they have listed is from Atlanta. The newest New Orleans TBs were sold to Mexico city in 1967. They were 16 years old at that time.

[@georgegong6813]

@@rickybee They recently restored a St Louis Car Company trolley bus it was displayed @ the Atlanta APTA Expor several years ago. From memory there were a few other non restored St Louis Car Company bodies out in the back I thought one of them was perhaps x NORTA

[@karonhamilton7314]

Great video! We cant wait to ride this trolly looks like fun

[@swissclimber1]

Yes....Forget Bourbon St! The streetcar shows you the real NOLA

[@ThatsTheWayWeRoll]

We were also there recently. You have to love those streetcars! They are an inexpensive way to get around town. $3.00 for an all day pass!

[@danielthoman7324]

It looks like a lot of fun riding on one of those streetcars. 😁

[@swissclimber1]

For me, this, and the dining experience in a few establishments was the NOLA highlight. Not Bourbon St. I’d pay $25 for the Streetcar ride it was that great a value to me

[@dennisrankin325]

Got a chuckle out of your 'gear shift' term. The Operator was notching it up. Enjoyed thank you.

[@swissclimber1]

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for clarification on Notching it up. I assume you notch down, too?

[@dennisrankin325]

@@swissclimber1 Normal practice would see a steady step up, notching, when accelerating, but normally too, one would not notch down but just plain return the control handle to off position to either precede braking or to resume acceleration depending on traffic conditions.

[@carawang2883]

great coverage of the city on the street car

[@swissclimber1]

Thanks. Did you enjoy the ride?

[@firstpres2002]

2:38-2:44 As a runner, I appreciate you using the term runner instead of the dreaded j-word that us runners find offensive.

[@swissclimber1]

Great comment, there was no specific mode to use the R word vs. J. But I'm glad I got it right

[@guikirsch9758]

Nice video. You got Loyola and Tulane universities backwards. Loyola is the red brick one. One more thing. There is hardly anything a local will cringe harder at than when someone calls the streetcar a "trolley." But thanks for titling the video right.

[@lilhersheyma3869]

Gui Kirsch that's good to know, I've been calling them trolleys

[@TrainMike2013]

We rode both streetcar lines last time we were in N-O. Great way to see the city and get around!

[@suepete]

Hoping you see this. Heading there in 2 weeks with my 89 year old mom. If you could only pick one of the two streetcar lines to ride, which one would you choose?

[@chipsaunt]

I remember going on one of these streetcars, great Experience!

[@dougmontgomery1868]

I have ridden the PCC streetcars in San Francisco; no way to compare with these in New Orleans. My grandfather was born here.

[@drdewott9154]

Now that's what I call a good streetcar system. The wagons are pleasing to look at and listen to and The system is practical too by having the streetcars in the middle of the road in the grass area Thy can avoid Traffic jams by ease. US City planners look at this as a prime example for a functional streetcar / lightrail

[@swissclimber1]

You should see the Cleveland system. It was designed in the 1920's. Same concept. I will make a video of this in the near future. Thanks for comments.

[@idkjustchangingmyname7343]

I was born in Nola and while that meant I did have a car or a parent to drive me around most of my life the times I have used the streetcars have been nothing but pleasant. Much, much better then the bus. I’d much rather take the street car down st. Charles and walk a few blocks then take the bus and get dropped off half a block away. They’re also the reason for one of my favorite memories ever. My dad driving our car a little bit onto the neutral ground to high five some folks hanging out the window of a street car coming home from the nfc championship game in 2009. Dangerous and stupid? Yes. Awesome and fun? Also yes. Was everyone else doing the same? Also, also yes!

[@carab1965]

Good view of the city streets.

[@stephenvannattan]

As a kid I rode a street car from Huntington Park to Los Angeles downtown with my Mom. To me it was a fantastic adventure because the area between LA and the suburbs was all sage brush and desert back then. LA still has a law on the books forbidding you from shooting rabbits from a street car.

[@swissclimber1]

Thanks. Did you ride the new team between LA and long Beach?

[@stephenvannattan]

I did not know it existed. We live in Texas now, and I have become a bit narrower in my world view. :-) In 1976 my wife and I rode all around Amsterdam on their trams which prove they are very practical. We Americans are addicted to our cars, so trams usually are a financial failure.

[@JGFuller]

One nit to pick -- electric streetcars don't "shift gears" - the handle to the left of the motorman is the Controller, which controls the speed of the car. Brake handle is to the right. No pedals - all done with hands. Latest technology in 1926, when these cars were built!

[@nolantherailfan5048]

Jack Fuller W

[@SnickasBah]

Can you tell me what the noise is when the streetcar isn't moving? Sometimes it's quiet, sometimes not.

[@shortliner68]

It's probably an air compressor which cycles on and off to maintain proper air pressure for the braking system. The doors may also be pneumatic though I've never been to NO to ride them and know for sure. Even the newer PCC streetcars we had in Baltimore had that sound of air compressor running on a cycle.

[@jeffreymichel5774]

It's the brake compressor. I rode to school every day on the St. Charles line. In those days, there was a conductor at the rear who collected tickets, issued bus transfers on a long paper strip, and pulled a handle dangling from a cord to ring a bell twice at the front of the car, which signaled for a start. One ring meant stop, which was logical from the viewpoint of safety. It always seemed cooler than in an air conditioned bus with the windows pushed all the way down while sitting on wooden slatted seats. The ride cost seven cents, and phone calls were still a nickel.

[@markolesnicki416]

You are correct. Because steel wheels on steel rails have so little friction, it just takes a few seconds of power (controller clicked clockwise) to maintain speed, then back around to coast for a while.

[@jonathanmiller776]

Was just there yesterdaystsued on canal and tode the streetcars

[@swissclimber1]

Great! How much was the streetcar ride now? Please let me know if you enjoyed it and if you found my video reflective of the experience. Thank you

[@masteristscalerailroadmodels]

3:12 - not the gear but rheostat position changes. Old DC motors are resistor-controlled. Rail equipment is too heavy to use gears like cars do. Any slippage in clutch would result in catastrophic metal burnout via grinding and such gearbox wouldn't serve a month. There's single gear ratio between motor and wheels that is constant and always engaged, in other words even if motor is not powered up but car is coasting motor will still spin.

[@swissclimber1]

Thanks for mechanical insight !

[@tnhl77]

1:12 I used to live at the top of that bar

[@swissclimber1]

Cool! Was it loud with lots of drunks at the end of the night. Any good stories to share?

[@dewdecsysabz5323]

Is this trolley goin to Tahiti

[@swissclimber1]

It sure looks like it is in paradise from the picture. Thanks for watching

[@anandwwjd]

Great ride! A trivia - the university names are interchanged in the captions

[@swissclimber1]

Thanks for the insight. GULP - did I get the University names mixed up?

[@donkraeft3053]

The one time fare is $1.25 each time you get on. You can also but a one day pass for $3

[@swissclimber1]

Thanks for the comments. If that is the current price that's a great deal just for the transportation aspect. For the history, the view, the train ride itself, I would have paid $20 (as a tourist)

[@michelp.vanwelkenhuyzen2623]

The "clic - clic - clic" sound is not the gear change, but the electric rheostat, to accelerate the engin. This sound was also very familiar in the Brussels streetcars when I was a child in the '60s and 70s...

[@swissclimber1]

Thanks for the heads-up. How about visiting New Orleans and coming for a ride!

[@jimspangenberg4976]

How much distance between stops? We would like to get off several times and take photos and explore the city then get back on for a ride back to the French Quarter.

[@swissclimber1]

Hello. Some are a couple of hundred yards in the city and then get larger, say 500 yards. I think once you board you get off you will have to buy another ticket to get on. You can buy a pass to avoid this. On the St. Charles line I don't think anything was worth a stop to explore except maybe the university and some nice homes. The nearer the city the more stops the more waiting time. Good websitewww.neworleansonline.com/tools/transportation/gettingaround/streetcars.html

[@denali9449]

@@swissclimber1 Maybe Audubon Park? The Garden District is beautiful and the adventurous should get off at Willow, walk a block over to Dublin and get a tour of the car barn where the cars are built and maintained. Not to mention all the bistros and corner taps. Otherwise there is nothing to see.

[@Shuturulsdad]

Does this trolly go to tahiti?

[@swissclimber1]

Tahiti in the South Pacific ?

[@Shuturulsdad]

@@swissclimber1 yeah where there are endless mango farms

[@Thomas1980]

Top!!!! Gutes Video

[@mercedesweller3945]

How long does a round trip from canal and back take?

[@swissclimber1]

Hello! Figure a good hour each way. You'll have a slight wait at the suburban end point but nothing much longer than 20 minutes

[@mercedesweller3945]

@@swissclimber1 thanks!

[@andywood5699]

Are those Peter Witt cars?

[@swissclimber1]

I checked Wikipedia and I think the answer is NO

[@royreynolds108]

The old ones are Perley Thomas. There are some new ones built from the same plans.

[@YTispropaganda]

You left out the Riverbend neighborhood.

[@swissclimber1]

I need to go back now!

[@patribbing6756]

Come along and ride on the

[@tweston315]

Definitely not a trolley. This isn't San Francisco, it's New Orleans, therefore it's a street car.

[@Rudenbehr]

T Weston They're the same thing. Just one is fucking older.

[@larryphilby4918]

T Weston It can be called a trolley, although in New Orleans they prefer the term streetcar. San Francisco has several types of streetcars, including the famous cable cars, which are definitely not trolleys. Trolleys are run by electricity, like the St. Charles cars and the ones in Market Street in San Francisco. Cable cars have no motors, but operate by gripping the steel cable moving in the slot in the street. They are the last cable-operated streetcars left in the world.

[@jamespuglisi5525]

san fran.. cars are call cable cars.. not trolley a trolley by def. is those cars the run on rails.. by electric lines above.. that is the def on trolley... also the duh fact. that it trots along the ground...

[@NozomuYume]

A "trolley" is a an electrical contact where a stick holds a wheel aloft that runs along an electrical cable. Most old streetcars used trolley pickups, as do modern electric trolleybuses that take power from overhead wires. The classic streetcars in New Orleans do indeed use trolley pickups for their power. Modern streetcars do not use trolleys -- they use a "pantograph" which is a solid metal bar raised on a framework that slides along the power line. If New Orleans replaces their cars with modern variants, they will use pantographs instead of trolleys. Regarding San Francisco, the municipal trains in San Francisco are a mixture. There are two classic cable car lines that use traction cables under the street to haul them up steep hills. In addition there are a couple of historic streetcar lines like in New Orleans that use trolley pickups. The majority of municipal trains in San Francisco, however use pantographs. (This is not counting BART -- the regional metro -- which uses third-rail.) An interesting note - the "San Diego Trolley" is not really a trolley at all as they all use modern pantograph-equipped vehicles. Also, many towns have a "trolley" service which is in fact just a plain old gasoline bus done up to look like a classic streetcar. =P

[@John-58]

Named Desire?

[@cheeseysponge944]

YOOOOO ITS ST DENIS lol

[@swissclimber1]

GULP. Thanks for clarification.

[@thomaspinto1111]

A streetcar does not downshift and change gears !!!!!!

[@swissclimber1]

OK. It sort of seems like it for a non-engineer like me. Good point though

[@ckildegaard]

@@swissclimber1 It does kind of sound like it, but it's really just the car accelerating :)

[@swissclimber1]

@@ckildegaard Thanks for the heads-up!

[@royreynolds108]

@@swissclimber1 Because the gears between the motorshafts(small gear) and the axles(large gears) are always meshed, the faster they turn, the louder and higher-pitched the sound becomes even if the motorman cuts off the power to the motors. The noises are carried through the body of the car as there is little or no dampening devices on these cars. The controller(handle on the left) is connected with the motors through decreasing resistances at each step in the controller handle as the handle is moved in an arc clockwise from stop to full. There is a box on the wall just below the roof line at the front of the car that has a handle out the bottom of it-this is a circuit breaker that will need to be reset if the control handle is advanced too far at a time and the amperage demand from the motors exceeds a set amount. The motorman would then need to stop, reach up and reset the circuit breaker, and then restart the car with the controller not quite so fast. That is the story a motorman told me many years age while I was riding on St. Charles. The thumping sound is the electric motor-powered air compressor for the brakes and doors. I also remember when in the 50s there were many lines that ran down Canal St. before the St. Charles line was the only one until around 2000 or so.

[@tweston315]

Why do you keep posting the words "trolley and "tram" on your video? Dude, there has never been, nor will there ever be, a trolley or a tram in New Orleans! Damn!

[@swissclimber1]

simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tram I will allow you to review Wikipedia’s definition of trolley and tram. It appears I am indeed correct to call it those

[@donkraeft3053]

@@swissclimber1 Could be but no one in New Orleans calls them anything but streetcars.

[@royreynolds108]

The word "trolley" is from the small wheeled device that rode on the power wires to collect the power to the car and people just transferred the name to the car. The titles "streetcar", "tram", & "trolley" or "trolley car" are for all intents and purposes describe the same vehicle but depends on what part of the world you happen to be in. The use of "tram" can also be applied to a lightly built rail line to haul minerals or logs(in certain parts of the country). I will agree that New Orleanians would only use streetcar as far as know that is the only term used there except by tourists.

[@ОфелияНочной]

Pour les Français, le tram ne s'appelle pas "désir" ...