Rails To Rubber: 1940 Seattle Streetcar and Trolley Bus Film

The industrial/promotional film "Rails To Rubber" (ca. 1940) is about the now dubious transition in Seattle from streetcars to trackless electric trolley buses. The film features rare and delightful color footage of the city (along with music and narration), including shots of a racially diverse downtown (on the brink of U.S. entry into World War II) and interesting sojourns with priceless tableaux of Seattle neighborhoods including Ballard, Fremont and West Seattle. It's a fascinating portrait of Seattle on the eve of an era of major changes brought about during the city's bustling homefront years.

[@d.martin7692]

My philandering grandfather Frank Edsell, was a Seattle cable car operator. He met a young woman on the job and left my grandmother. He moved to St.Louis with her and I only met him one time when he came back to see the Seattle World's Fair in 1962. My mother still continued to call him "daddy."

[@AdmiralNelson1000]

Wow.

[@norahwillett]

West Seattle Trestle may have been unsightly and expensive, but it probably meant that people riding the streetcar could avoid traffic jams and get to and from work more quickly than people in cars. We'll have that again when we get light rail in 14 or so years (which will be approximately 91 years after the streetcars were removed.

[@cme98]

West Seattle aint getten shit! Trust me Sound Transit has done nothing but lies since day-1. Its what they do best. Look at how much they spent just to steal the floating bridge & place 320,000 lbs of train plus passengers on a floating bridge designed for no more than a semi truck of 80,000 lbs. its a disaster waiting to happen and Sound Transit spent billions to fix. But how do you fix what hasnt happened? Yet?

[@rossbleakney3575]

When the West Seattle bridge was out, buses could use the short bridge, but cars couldn't. That is probably one of the very few times around here when transit was faster than driving. Right now the buses travel in their own lane, so when traffic is heavy, it is faster than driving. When light rail gets to West Seattle it will be similar, but the vast majority of riders will have to transfer, negating the savings. In other words, for a lot of people, a transit trip will take longer than it does today.

[@curbozerboomer1773]

Back in the mid 1960s...Seattle tried to get its citizens to vote for a "Forward Thrust" bond, that would have financed a new city transportation system, similar to BART in San Francisco. But the citizens were too tight-fisted, so Seattle has had to plod ever since in the mediocre traffic ever since!...We had our chance!

[@bodybait]

That is truly a rare gem. This is Seattle before I5 . It looks so great.

[@curbozerboomer1773]

This is Seattle, in 1940...my Dad was 17, ready to graduate from Franklin High...my mom would have been 13 here, attending Holy Names Academy. In early 1941, my dad and his best buddy decided to join the Army...less than a year later, he was fighting in Europe and also N. Africa!...After he was discharged, he met my mom when he returned to Seattle, and was visiting his parents, who lived in Yesler Terrace...my mom lived with her mom, in a next-door apartment!...It was love at first sight, and they married in early 1946..I showed up in December of 1946! Mom and Dad had over 60 years together...they bought a home in the N. Greenlake area, in 1950--for $7000dollars!...They lived there for their 60 years together. Dad died at 82, my mom is still living at age 96...I am going to show her this amazing "time capsule" film...she will be amazed, and nostalgic I am sure, as she loves talking about how nice Seattle was to live and work in! Before meeting Dad, she had lived for awhile in W. Seattle, and rode that "trestle" many times! I am so proud of my family "Seattle Roots"...My mom's grandpa moved to Seattle in the late 1890s. Dad's family moved to Seattle in the early 1920s.

[@curbozerboomer1773]

I also must note, that one of my best neighborhood friends had a daddy named Frank Falsini....Frank drove btrolly/buses for Seattle Transit, for over 50 years, and was likely the most senior driver when he retired...He loved his job so much!

[@chiparoo222]

a priceless piece of visual historical film

[@tramjohnny]

Wow ! That film is a real treasure. Thank you for posting it.

[@gregduck7455]

Wow, this is one great piece of spin! So cool that Seattle has actual cable car lines operating in 1940. Too bad the SEA cable cars were never saved, as happened in San Francisco.

[@hebneh]

Right away you can see one of the major problems with the original streetcar lines - running in the middle of the roads required passengers to get on and off in the midst of moving cars and trucks. Many an injury and death resulted, particularly in the early years of cars becoming common, when riders weren't paying attention where and when they walked, and drivers suddenly were confronted by unexpected people in front of them.

[@ralphwatzke304]

Nice streetcars and trolley buses - I grew up in Edmonton which had trolley buses till 2009, and still operates two separate heritage streetcar lines! Also noticed the Divco milk delivery truck - there is a near-identical 1958 version still operating in Regina SK today; an Edmonton dairy NADP saved one of theirs too.

[@ricardomr.reporterNTVKenyachan]

Nice streetcars and trolley buses - I grew up in Edmonton which had trolley buses till 2009, and still operates two separate heritage streetcar lines! Also noticed the Divco milk delivery truck - there is a near-identical 1958 version still operating in Regina SK today; an Edmonton dairy NADP saved one of theirs too

[@crankiefrankie1]

how sad we as a people across America threw these systems away only to pay to put them all back in some form or another now.......lets hope that when the next best "thing" comes a long we act smartly instead of rashly for some companies profit and back room deals. This is especially true in Seattle today.

[@552mustang]

Frank Leonzal They were slow, useless, poorly maintained, loud, and antiquated method of transportation as this video clearly emphasizes.

[@bthemedia]

As always, maintenance is required for transportation... that would include quieting them. Major traffic routes benefit more for dedicated streetcars with reliability and well defined paths, whereas negotiating bus routes is generally incomprehensible except for defined commutes. Only need to look at the successful integration of u-bahn and s-bahn trains with bus routes in any major and densely populated German city.

[@s.sestric9929]

Transit systems of the era were private companies and by the end of the 1950s they couldn't raise enough money from fares to maintain and upgrade their systems. The film shows the condition of the tracks; also wooden cars and cable cars were obsolete even at the start of the 1940s. Also, Seattle is VERY hilly, and rail vehicles don't do well with grades of 3% or more, unless they are cable cars, and that's 19th century technology. Trolley buses powered by the new hydroelectric dams at Grand Coulee and Bonneville were a good upgrade; Seattle still uses them. There's also an elevated and underground light rail system that's used a lot; especially since the population has about doubled in the last 20 years.

[@PanosSkarp]

@@552mustang but they could be renewed. They could buy new ones like todays trams smooth rides 60mph max speed and comfort and bigger than any bus. These things on the video are tin cans with wheels. As seen in the video the system was made to be that shitty. It looks like it was abandoned many years ago even when the video was made. Take any bus diesel bus. Run it for 15 years and you'll see time and time again that after 15 years it will be garbage. Imagine running it for 30 years. Ive seen busses disassembling while on the move! It's half the job to design and execute the plans for a transportation system and the other half to maintain it to standards of your company and your competition, in my opinion of course

[@brushcreek42]

@@552mustang Looks like this system was deliberately ruined by little or no maintenance. Those 30 year old streetcars could have been replaced with modern 1940 PCC streetcars. They were both quiet and fast. The tracks could have been replaced. This is a propaganda film by GE & Twin Coach ( a maker of trolley buses), so they made the streetcar system look hopelessly useless and junky.

[@bthemedia]

Thank you for uploading! Surely some maintenance and updates were needed to the old streetcars, though getting rid of them completely for busses was a bad plan IMHO. Every major and densely populated city should take an example from Europe (eg Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart with U-bahn and S-bahn lines) to complement busses, like we have in NYC and partially in Washington DC.

[@hebneh]

The soundtrack of actual machinery noise sometimes makes these things sound like a bunch of fireworks going off, or explosions. They may have been noisy but they weren't THAT bad.

[@brushcreek42]

They make them sound and look as junky as possible.

[@rene29200]

Thank you very much for sharing this amazing video 😎

[@kevinkiso9330]

If you watch the streets you can see lots of footage - from Downtown and Capital Hill.

[@curbozerboomer1773]

At age 77, I relish seeing glimpses of many of the downtown stores and movie theaters, which I frequented as a kid, back in the 1950s and early 60s. Such innocent times, compared to now!

[@jemdude22]

Still, Seattle should have kept some of its streetcar lines and now it is trying to re-introduce streetcars after seeing the streetcar success in Portland.

[@anthonybanchero3072]

Should have kept the barn at 14:38 , would have been great to build a modern car barn, but Metro was consolidating facilities within the city, and sold the property to Seattle University.

[@MokuToddMorrisSteve]

Very interesting piece of history.

[@furripupau]

Interesting that Seattle took the rails out in 1940. Most U.S. cities dismantled their streetcar systems immediately after WWII. The inability to obtain sufficient supply of new rail, wires, etc. during the war meant many systems were so worn out by 1945 that it was cheaper to scrap everything and start over (with buses or trolley buses) than to try and fix everything.

[@JustClaude13]

Trolley buses are better on hills than streetcars or diesels. But the trolleys are cheaper to maintain if you include road wear caused by bus traffic.

[@ricardomr.reporterNTVKenyachan]

Trolley buses are better on hills than streetcars or diesels. But the trolleys are cheaper to maintain if you include road wear caused by bus traffic.

[@NickRatnieks]

SPECIAL INSTRUCTION TO NEW TROLLEY COACH DRIVERS: "Don't forget you have to steer this thing. That's what that big old wheel is there for. If you've got that - you're ready to roll."

[@oldwarrant4]

Guess what? Streetcars are back! With limited private right of way they are the best way to carry people in a city.

[@oldwarrant4]

Seattle made a huge mistake in letting its streetcar system die on the vine, so to speak. The city is now putting streetcars back in and trying to eradicate some fo the damage the clowns in 3 piece suits did back in 1941 when they took the streetcars out.

[@anthonybanchero3072]

Read a recent book, some tried to save it, even add some mileage by making one last move to purchase Seattle and Rainier Valley Interurban. A study was done on a bare bones purchase, just the tracks and power substation, existing SMSR rolling stock and car barns would be used.

[@MrVienna1020]

This is an unbelievably interesting document for creating of streetcar hate. This movie is critizing the streetcars for being noisy, being slow, causing congestions and so on - but what happens between 5:25 and 6:50? Which kind of terrible things did the streetcars during this gap? Please reload this masterpiece of propaganda so we can enjoy all the bad things the old Seattle streetcars did.

[@ricardomr.reporterNTVKenyachan]

This is an unbelievably interesting document for creating of streetcar hate. This movie is critizing the streetcars for being noisy, being slow, causing congestions and so on - but what happens between 5:25 and 6:50? Which kind of terrible things did the streetcars during this gap? Please reload this masterpiece of propaganda so we can enjoy all the bad things the old Seattle streetcars did.

[@Alternatevil]

A few days ago I saw a few people who said they were going to a "trolleybus convention" in Seattle. I called BS on that until I actually saw one wearing a trolleybus t-shirt... Shame our city ran out of money to fund busses for now.

[@JakeRoot]

3:28 Jesus that thing's going to come off the rails!

[@Lurker1979]

Thanks for the upload!

[@davidtosh7200]

It is Metro transit busses which serve Seattle and the suburbs in King County in Washington state.

[@552mustang]

David Tosh Metro and Sound Transit both serve King County

[@tdickensheets]

We wish they kept some these. Update the road

[@MrWolfTickets]

Fbw, it looks like we didn't keep All of them, as there aren't trolley lines on the Ballard bridge today.

[@rm2kmidi]

They also removed the line out to Madison Park, but it probably became less necessary after the ferry shut down. They added the route across NE 45th from the u district to Ballard though.

[@StevenBradford]

This is great, but I wonder what happened to the next reel?

[@AdmiralNelson1000]

Yes. There 😮has to be additional footage, as shown on Channel 9 when they closed out the broadcast day...

[@s.sestric9929]

The Counterbalance at 19:16

[@MrWolfTickets]

My great grandfather drove a streetcar in Fremont. He would dress as Santa every December. Street cars were kind of cool, but trolly buses are so much better with less capital expense and zero noise.

[@jordanmoch2529]

Wait, Did he just said for the people and the ENVIROMENT (11:55)? I thought people didn't know what it was then.

[@RonCobb-co6dr]

That was a great depiction of the people that lived and worked back in the war years. Notice how healthy they were ? Not a fatty in the bunch. And they all were real Americans too. The streets weren't filled with border jumpers like today. Thanks O'bummer.

[@DohDoh108]

Shameless propaganda for GM/Goodyear/Standard Oil but a wonderful look at the great old Seattle transit system that was sacrificed on the altar of corporate profits. Far better to have kept it, maintained it and modernized it, and much cheaper and better for the environment in the long run, but - as Churchill noted - Americans can be counted on to do the right thing only after they have exhausted all the other options.

[@AdmiralNelson1000]

Interesting. And thank you...food for thought.

[@consv]

Rockin and rollin ;)

[@edavenport93]

@1:18 Kalakala!

[@curbozerboomer1773]

also known as "The Silver Slug"!...the name was an Indian name, meaning "flying bird". It was sleek, but kinda slow, not a large capacity ferry, and would shudder when turning!..The vissel had been built upon a refurbished deck, that had been the underside of another vessel that had burned up!...It is interesting, that despite the Kalakala being such a Seattle icon, no private person was really able to salvage it, or refurbish it. Our society does not venerate it's past!

[@gotnoshoes99]

Kansas City also got rid of it's streetcars and is now spending millions to resurrect them if only they had kept one or two of the busier lines.

[@troyp9485]

I wish Portland had electric overhead wire busses like Seattle and SF

[@bthemedia]

Troy P electric = yes, overhead wires = no. The overhead wires in streets are so ugly and distracting.

[@curbozerboomer1773]

@@bthemedia I remember, that many a trolley driver had to step out of his drivers seat, and re-connect those funky leads to the overhead wires--they would frequently lose grip on the wires when the vehicle was turning. What a hassle!

[@davidolenick2280]

I wish they would say more about the video .The exact date or nearly the date . why the video was made etc.

[@AdmiralNelson1000]

Promotion for the new "track less trolleys" replacing the old streetcars in ca.1940.

[@workingclassdudeallmylife1372]

Amazing how they knew in the forties that rail transportation was inefficient do to a lack of flexibility to meet traffic needs and for the last twenty years we have been blindly going back to it at unbelievable expense. Oh how history can repeat itself when you forget the lessons learned !

[@MH-up1xe]

those breaks are loud.

[@شموخرجل-ع6ب]

I live in Seattle Washington

[@jkae206]

I like turtles 🐢

[@شموخرجل-ع6ب]

@@jkae206 yes so I'm

[@rorogonzo7867]

Move out

[@شموخرجل-ع6ب]

@@jkae206 yes

[@MrWolfTickets]

Imho, fixed rails are bad. The slu trolley got stuck behind a large truck on the side Westlake, because it lacked the ability to drive around an obstacle.

[@brushcreek42]

That one thing doesn't make trolleys bad.

[@MrWolfTickets]

@@brushcreek42 how about the enormous capital cost to build them? The inherent inability to alter routes over time? The danger of rails to bicyclers? The only pro rail arguments put feelings over facts and transportation isn't an art installation. We need results.

[@brushcreek42]

@@MrWolfTickets The whole idea is to get people out of their cars and take public transportation. People would much rather ride modern fast, smooth, quiet streetcars than buses. I commuted on a bus in Chicago for a year and hated every pothole bouncing minute of it. If someone doesn't have the ability to ride a bike over a streetcar track they shouldn't be riding a bike. Every major city should have a blend of streetcars, rapid transit and buses.

[@MrWolfTickets]

@@brushcreek42 the whole idea is to move the most people for the least cost. Period. Streetcars aren't fast and they cost way too much. Just look at cost per passenger mile and go from there. If you think cost doesn't matter, you really don't have an argument to make.

[@antonsb]

Actually Seattle is getting brand new trolleys in 2014 - far from taking the trolley system out!

[@semtesfalem2374]

My daughter is sick of 1940

[@ipswichdaddy1]

Only in America and America Junior (Canada) are Trams called Streetcars and Trolleybuses called Trolley Coaches, but in every video i see of TRAMS in these two countries that are so copied, i mean original design, that they look stupid.....

[@argopunk]

I wish we were America junior. We're now a socialist state.

[@QuadMochaMatti]

Canada is a grand country with fine people, that should not be called "America Junior". We here in the Disunited States of America are the infants... Or at least our pea-brained politicians are.

[@jemdude22]

trolleybuses are the best for the city

[@mdlclassworker3384]

In twenty years we will once again get rid of trolleys and street cars as they are as inefficient today as they were then, buses are flexible can be rerouted as need be. Trains are great for moving people between cities as long as you're work schedule meets the train schedule, myself I need to commute from South King county to Tacoma every morning but the train doesn't go that direction, it's a complete waist of money and resources

[@brushcreek42]

Buses may be flexible but who wants to ride them?

[@curbozerboomer1773]

@@brushcreek42 The problem, for years now, is that the ridership is mostly riff-raff people, mental cases and potentially violent criminals! Our society does not deserve a good transportation system anymore.