Marck1957
132 posts
Jul 23, 2011
11:48 AM
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What were the differences between trolleys, streetcars, and interurbans? They all were electric (after horses), and they all traveled on tracks. Could all of them travel on the same rails in the road?
Do any of you members have any memories to share of any of them?
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AllenN71
262 posts
Jul 23, 2011
2:25 PM
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Dayton still has electric buses operating off overhead wires. At Brown St. and Far Hills Ave. there is a "Y" arrangement of overhead wires that looks strangely archaic and yet somehow not ugly. The overhead connecting arms on the buses still cause arcs as they jump from one track of wires to the other.
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rodat6
184 posts
Jul 23, 2011
5:49 PM
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Mischievous kids would run up behind a bus and grab the guy cords and yank the contacts from the electric wires causing the bus to go dead. I have never pulled one off but have been in buses that had theirs pulled.
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Riverdale Ghost
214 posts
Jul 23, 2011
5:58 PM
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OFF TOPIC:
donw,
How did you get the hyperlink in there? When I tried, it wouldn't take.
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 Honest Communications Is The Foundation of Civilizations.
Last Edited by on Jul 23, 2011 5:58 PM
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driver62
374 posts
Jul 24, 2011
6:30 AM
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Does Dayton still have the electric buses? I live just off Salem and haven't seen one in ages. The wires are still there but no buses.
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Riverdale Ghost
215 posts
Jul 24, 2011
6:52 AM
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Thanks, donw!
I know I didn't include any greater or lesser signs, so maybe that's why mine didn't post. Have copied your directions and will try it when I can get in here again for a reasonable period of time.
AND, NOW BACK TO THE ORIGINAL TOPIC....
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Honest Communications Is The Foundation of Civilizations.
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Marck1957
133 posts
Jul 24, 2011
1:07 PM
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donw: Thanks for the info, but trolleys did run on rails in Dayton for many years. I think the last one was taken out of service in the 1940s. What we have now, "electric trolleys", are really just buses, I think.
So, I'm still looking for info. Were streetcars, trolley cars, and interurbans all the same vehicle? If they were different kinds of vehicles, what were the differences?
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Riverdale Ghost
216 posts
Jul 24, 2011
3:04 PM
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What ran on rails (in the city) was streetcars. I was very small. It seems like they were rather like railroad train cars only smaller. I have a rather vivid memory of well-polished wooden seats.
trolley buses are those things with rubber tires, poles and wires (and better seats). There were several companies before the transit authority and there was little beyond the city limits.
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Honest Communications Is The Foundation of Civilizations.
Last Edited by on Jul 24, 2011 3:05 PM
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CurtT
14 posts
Jul 24, 2011
6:44 PM
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Wayne Ave is being rebuilt where it used to be one lane north and south at Wilminton Ave. It is being made into two lanes south and north at Wayne Ave and Wilmington Ave. Where they are tearing up Wayne Ave. in front of the old state hospital, now 10 Wilmington Place you can see where a rail road track in the old red brick road. I was really amazed when I witness this. There must've been an old tolly car that ran up Wayne Ave at one time back in the day.
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Marck1957
134 posts
Jul 25, 2011
8:01 AM
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Thanks Ol'Roy! That is just the info I was looking for. The images on the first link are fascinating! It seems that many companies had their fingers in the pie of Dayton transportation. And no, you're not long winded. I could talk about this stuff all day and don't always know where to search for things. People like you fill the pieces of the puzzle, as many do on DaytonHistoryBooks.
Does anyone have any memories of street cars or interurbans, for those of us that never saw or rode in one?
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AllenN71
264 posts
Jul 25, 2011
11:44 AM
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Funny we have a guy here with the handle "olRoy" who knows so much about public transit. Because until the Metro Transit Authority took over, bus sevice in the DC area was mostly handled by D.C. Transit, a company owned by a lawyer named O. Roy Chalk. No kidding. If he isn't deceased, last I heard he had his law offices in the Georgetown trolley car storage barn (The "Car Barn" as it's now called )
Metro transit was harshly critical of Mr. Chalk, but I'll say one thing for him: He ran the buses and made a profit, which is more than I can say for the WMATA.
So, O'l Roy; is that you, Mr. Chalk, behind those Finster Glints?
(NOTE for youngsters, "Finster Glints" is a spoof name used by MAD magazine to satirize the Foster Grant company's ad campaign "who's behind those Foster Grants". Some may not remember this and be baffled by it.)
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Ol'Roy
5 posts
Jul 25, 2011
1:40 PM
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AllenN71,
Nope, Ol'Roy is not Mr. Chalk behind those Finster Glints. He died in 1995. I'm still going strong. On most days, anyway.
There are people around Dayton who know more about the history of public transit here than I will ever know. But I have always found the subject interesting.
Ol'Roy
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etbetb
24 posts
Jul 26, 2011
9:01 PM
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Lots to write about. Ol'Roy -- thanx for the plug. For more info on the interurbans in Dayton ... go here:
Dayton Interurbans 1889-1941
@donw
The last vestiges of the interurbans in Dayton went away in 1941. The last of the streetcars went away in Oct 1947. The rails you talk about were from the Dayton&Xenia, which were last used in 1940.
Most of the rails were pulled from Dayton streets as WPA projects in the late 1930s, or during WWII. Interestingly, they pulled the rails ... but they didn't pull the ties. This is why when you roll on Riverview Ave between Main and Forest, and on Wayne just east of the intersection with Wilmington, the road has a washboard effect ... the ties have deteriorated, and the road has settled around the ties. When Oakwood redid Oakwood Ave two years ago ... they found the ties under the bricks, and removed them. Not much rail remains in the streets today, although it appears from time to time. At Patterson and Watervliet, near the north/east curb, when they repaved several years ago, they dug the asphalt down so that you could see the D&X rails and roadbed in the
bricks.
Oakwood was not a streetcar suburb -- it was a horsecar suburb, the horsecar on Brown arriving in 1875.
@driver62 -- lots of construction, and operating trolleys would be just too difficult, with a load of off-wire ops on every route.
Why no trolleys
@Marck1957 -- there were five different companies, but when you looked at the corporate leadership and officers for three of them ... you found the names Winters (as in "Valentine") and Ferneding.
C'ya
Tom
Webmaster
Dayton Trolleys
Tom's Trolleybus Pix
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Marck1957
135 posts
Jul 29, 2011
7:04 AM
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Thanks for the info Perry! A couple of memories that came to mind while reading your post:
I worked in the Oregon District in the late 70s. The city did expose the rails then, and I recall cars hitting the tracks and setting the cars into a skid. The rails were slick. I'm thinking that there were some accidents because of this, so they took out the rails and restored it into a handsome, but bumpy, brick surface.
Also, I delivered the Journal Herald newspaper in the early hours of morning as a kid. Occasionally there would be ice on the trolley wires, and whenever the poles from the bus hit ice on the overhead wires, it created a large bright blue flash that you could see from miles away. When the first buses of the day ran, you could see them coming out of downtown, creating flashes all the way. As a kid, I thought that was so cool!
For those who may not know, there is a restored old yellow City Transit (a Marmon?)bus at Carillon Park, as well as an open air trolley car. Seeing them is like stepping back in time! If you haven't seen them, you really ought to go there and do so (as well as many many other exhibits).
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trolleyfan
16 posts
Aug 07, 2011
8:09 PM
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I have been posting on Dayton History Books for a while now, but just found this thread tonight. I'm a big fan of Trackless Trolleys, as well as Trains, Inter-urbans, regular trolleys ect. Ol Roy posted some great Links for this subject. Harvey Hylton is the Guru on this subject, and a very nice guy. He will help you if you have a real interst in this subject. There is a video out, although I don't know if it is still in print or not, from Neff Productions out of Fairborn, called Trackless Trolleys of Dayton Ohio. Harvey Hylton narrates most of it and gives extremely valuble information. Of course there is plenty of videos of the Trolley Buses including a few of the old Pullmans, and the Marmon Harringtons. I have a phone Number from Neff Video Productions, which is 937-878-7173.
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