St. Louis Streetcars: Hodiamont and Wellston Lines

[@dianahohimer1107]

Omg. My dad lived on this street as a child. His house was still there, last time I checked. He's 86, now. I can't wait to show him this. Thank you!

[@jamie49868]

Wellston was jumping. I walk the old Hodiamont line on occasion...I hear they are going to make an official trail. Seems like yesterday, if you are still alive to remember.

[@farmhand6524]

Many familiar sites, amazing how comforting to relive

[@Howard2006]

I remember as a child going on the streetcar to the University City Loop where the streetcar would turnaround and return to the City.

[@billyalonzo406]

I remember i got to ride on one of the trolley cars back in the early 60 It was something i will never forget Don't know where i was going Are where i wound up at I remember the sounds of the wheels going down the tracks

[@kentonkloos3490]

Thanks for sharing! I was about 6 years old when my mom & grandma found out the streetcars were going belly up, I they took me down to ride it, since I loved anything on rails. I especially like the footage from the cab! Perhaps if it wouldn't be too difficult, add narration to identify the more obscure locations. Great job! Love to see footage of the Creve Coeur Lake and Kirkwood lines if you know if any film exists.. thanx again.

[@cliffsaxton2101]

Unfortunately, I was too young to photograph the Creve Coeur and Kirkwood lines, although I recall as a child riding out to Creve Coeur aboard a "Peter Witt" car shortly before the line was abandoned.

[@kentonkloos3490]

@Cliff Saxton oh how cool! Abandoned 73 years ago. Im guessing you too have the Andrew Young streetcar book , I just finished it. The CC line was a favorite for most. My friend Gary n I hiked the old Mo Pac Creve Couer line back in 1995 over 3 days. They're still some bridge culverts remaining N of Litzinger Road and west of Lindbergh. Love to see some old photos of that line if you know anyone that has em. Email me back if you do, or want to get together and do some streetcar line archeology on some of the lines, Ill drive.Kk

[@virginialpinon748]

I remember. I used to love it. Thru bk alleys and yards

[@vancepomerening4794]

Tres cool! Thanks for the Wes Montgomery, almost makes me want to pick up the guitar again.

[@lewlewis8970]

My father took me to ride on the last streetcar on the last day of service. I wore my boy scout uniform and I got to ride free. My dad had to pay LOL. But this was it. In WW2, my mother used to work right down there in a coffee shop and took this streetcar everyday. I went back there this past October 2021 and checked it all out. So different.

[@stephenrichie4646]

I did not know the Hodiamont line was the last to go, and thought they were all gone by ‘63. I remember the Hodiamont right of way very well. My dad worked that line as a motorman in the 1940s.

[@mrtweedy705]

I rode on that type of streetcar when I was about 4 in 1957 with my mom. We lived in Alton Illinois but has friends in St. Louis. Don't know what line it was that we rode. There were streetcars in Alton but I don't know if this is the type or if I ever rode one there. But I remember these type because they basically looked just like a bus but had only one light.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

It really does look like you're going down an alley with two sets of rails on the Hodiamont line. Nice footage of St Louis period streetcars. Thanks for sharing!

[@midwestgrammar2941]

The west side looks so different back them. Everything looks so nice

[@virginialpinon748]

I lived on Hodiamontline. We joked bout it going thru back alleys etc

[@kennethjosephson134]

People called it “the back alley way.” 😎

[@luislaplume8261]

The 1600 series of these trolleys were built in 1941 and was the first fleet to have Oval standee windows above the regular side windows.

[@Test-vl1ib]

Cool to look at this compared to Google Street View today. It was once a living breathing city. Now it seems largely abandoned in the same places. Too bad.

[@sharonw2475]

I remember riding in those street cars back in the mid/late 1950's, and I always thought they were rough riding. Lived at 4529 North Market, right across the street from a large Catholic Church, (or Cathedral), sorry but I don't remember the name as I'm 80 now.

[@williamlovely450]

before wellston was lost looks like its on its way

[@Ponchoed]

The Hodiamont in 1966 must have been among the last streetcar lines to shut down in the US. Just Pittsburgh, El Paso and Philadelphia after?

[@cliffsaxton2101]

I'm fairly sure streetcars were also still operating in cities that included Newark, San Francisco, Cleveland, and Boston into the late 1960s and beyond. Boston still has one 2-mile line served by the same basic type of "PCC" streetcars St. Louis had.

[@Ponchoed]

@@cliffsaxton2101 Sorry I should have clarified, I was referring to streetcar lines that would shut down... Pittsburgh lost a bunch of surface lines in the 60s, El Paso shut down its one line in 1974 and Philly shuttered a handful of lines up to 1992 including the 15 and 23. Yes, there were a small handful of cities that retained streetcars through the dark ages but some of these systems still retracted as mentioned above. Anyhow what I was getting at is that this line was kind of at the tail end of the closures, most of the damage was done in the 1940s and 1950s. Maybe if it could have made it a bit longer it might have still been with us today, then again these neighborhoods adjacent did go into a tailspin.

[@DougVarble]

No sound🎉

[@chriscarroll8223]

That stations still there on the Rock rd and Jennings station. You can get anything you want right there from buttons to crack.....