The Gulf Coast was reeling from soggy, stormy spring weather, but it was dry and partly sunny when we set out to meet an outbound St. Charles car at Carondelet & Julia. The weekday morning schedule calls for 10-minute headways, but we waited nearly 20 minutes before a car came into view. Frustratingly, car 968 (as seen in the video) sped past without stopping and the car that followed did likewise. Several minutes later, car 911 stopped to board passengers.
We settled on a wooden walkover seat. The brakes hissed, the ancient Brill trucks groaned, and we were instantly transported back in time some 90 years. The wheel flanges squealed around Lee Circle and soon the quaint architecture of the Garden District came into view. Only the lens of our diminutive PickleVision cam protruded through the wide-open window; not head or arms.
As the car crossed Louisiana Ave., the reason for the delay and bunching became obvious. Car 948 was stalled up ahead, tying up the track. Outbound traffic had to cross over to the inbound track to get past the bad-order car until it could be towed to Carrollton Shops. The video documents this maneuver.
Our trip was delayed again briefly by a landscape worker who parked his truck between the tracks, but eventually we reached the end of the line at Carrollton & Claiborne. Evidently, the task of pulling 948 off the line had delayed arrival of the next car. We finally began our return trip a half-hour later aboard car 965.
The return trip was most pleasant. The three pocket windows at the front end were down all the way; it was tantamount to riding an open car. Ahhhh. The personable motorman greeted many riders by first name and at one stop he got off to assist a lady with a heavy suitcase. It was easy to imagine that this was the 1920s and we were riding a streetcar in Chicago. Oh, if only ....
We had hoped to explore the Canal Street line and one or more of its branches, but it was late and we had to meet our group at the French Market. So, we rode a Canal car to the Riverfront line and transferred to another car which brought us to the French Market stop (end of the line). The red cars are not as compelling as the historic Perley Thomas cars, but they are still far superior to those fake rubber-tire trolleys, or "folleys."
