Posted June 23, 200915 yr A fellow rail enthusiast from Michigan found these three segments on YouTube, that make up the entire 1935 Detroit Street Railways film, "Getting About." Pretty amazing!
June 23, 200915 yr 1.2 million riders on Detroit Street Railways? That's almost three times as many riders on the Cleveland Transit System at its peak in 1946. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
June 23, 200915 yr I never realized they had such a heavy-repair backshop operation. Wheel lathes were pretty common for street railways, but rebuilding wheel flanges and axles and hot-forging new parts was something that smaller systems usually contracted out. When you're running that many cars, though, and running them hard, I guess it makes sense. I wouldn't be surprised if they did that sort of work on a contract basis for systems in smaller nearby cities, too. I truly missed my era by about twenty or thirty years. Working in a shop like that would have been my dream job.
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