[PRCo] Re: Not Pittsburgh Related, But....

[John Swindler]

>Ken asked:
>
>Look at this:
>http://www.davesrailpix.com/stp/htm/tampa125.htm
>
>I know I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but why would Tampa have a 
>sweeper????
>
>K.
>


Maybe because its not a sweeper, Ken.

Apparently the person who posted the picture never bothered to read the June 
6, 1993 issue of the St. Petersburg Times.   <gg>

(don't you just love it when someone asks the right question at the right 
time - great timing Ken)

In November 2003, this car body was sitting adjacent to the Tampa trolley 
right of way between the car barn and the CSX crossing.  I thought it was a 
freight motor.  Maybe it was last used as a line car.  Just guessing, which 
is apparently what the photographer did.

Anyway...  Copy follows: (see fifth paragraph)


ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
June 6, 1993

TROLLEYS MAY ROLL AGAIN

Just after midnight Aug. 4, 1946, the last electric trolley car rolled into 
the car barn and Tampa's street cars were gone for good.

Or are they?

Nickel fares probably will remain a memory. But trolleys might be on the way 
back, if a private group working to restore a few of them is any indication.

The Tampa & Ybor City Street Railway Society Inc. is a non-profit group 
doing more than talking about trolleys.

Since 1991, members have been restoring a 1926 Birney single-truck trolley 
that once clanked along the streets of Tampa. The Railway Society also owns 
a double-truck Birney car and a wooden track-maintenance car from St. 
Petersburg.

The "truck" in the name of the cars refers to how many sets of wheels each 
had. Double-truck cars were longer and carried more passengers than 
single-truck cars.
Steve McGee, a 42-year-old business administrator, is in charge of restoring 
the single-truck Birney. McGee is too young to have ridden trolleys. But you 
can tell by the way he talks he has the trolley bug.
"It's going to be gorgeous," he said of the Birney, now little more than a 
termite-eaten shell on a new steel frame.
People old enough to remember Tampa's trolleys may not have had such kind 
words for them. Steel wheels rolling on steel tracks made for a rough ride. 
But fares were only a nickel, and riders could cover the city.
Tampa's first trolley, a wood-burning locomotive pulling two cars, went into 
service April 8, 1886. When Tampa Electric Co. pulled the plug in 1946, it 
took about 100 cars off 53 miles of track.
A fleet of 60 buses replaced the trolleys, and many of the motormen swapped 
voltage regulators for accelerator pedals and became bus drivers. TECO took 
out a full-page ad in the Aug. 3, 1946, edition of the Tampa Daily Times to 
say goodbye to its riders.
"During all these years we did our best to supply you with street railway 
service, but economics have cut us down," the ad read.
McGee can empathize. The Birney, named for its designer, needs more than 
paint and elbow grease before it rolls again.
"Normally in a restoration you try to use as much of the original as you 
can," he said. "This car is pretty much going to be a remake."
For 40 years, the car sat on the ground in the back yard of a Sulphur 
Springs home. Its owner had converted it into a summer cottage complete with 
indoor plumbing. Contact with the ground rusted the car's steel frame, and 
termites ate its wooden roof and window frames.

There is no precedent for work like this, McGee said. Most restorations are 
cosmetic and not meant to run. But this one will be in working order, as 
good as new.
"We will take it apart piece by piece and replicate each piece," he said. 
"It's a major work of art, let's say. Most guys will put a little Bondo on 
and go from there."
Volunteers provide the labor, while fund-raisers and donations provide the 
materials. To date, the group has spent about $25,000, he said.
"It will cost $90,000 by the time it's done. We don't have all the money 
yet. We are looking for support," McGee said.
Michael English, president of the Railway Society and an urban planner, said 
tracks cost between $2-million and $10-million per mile to install. English 
would like to see a line connecting Ybor City and downtown or a line between 
Ybor City and the convention center.
He said ridership alone will not repay the kind of investment needed to 
build tracks, but there are other reasons why trolleys make sense.
"You have to look at it on the basis of sex appeal," he said. "Appeal to the 
residents of the area who haven't been downtown in 25 years."
- 30 -

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