street cars silent 1955

Streetcar History, , , , ,


street cars silent 1955

Originally uploaded by buflyer200

Headline news, Sept 20 1955, Winnipeg Tribune.  “Street Cars Silent after 73 Years of Noisy History”

If you have wondered, like I have, why a Streetcar was never preserved, I found a few answers.  There was a ‘suggestion’ to put one of the last Streetcars at Assiniboine Park as a display, and it came from the Winnipeg Tribune.  There are several references to a display Streetcar in other parks as well, and it was mentioned it would be something you visit with ‘your grandchildren”.

It seems the decision was with the city ‘Parks and Recreation” dept at the time, so I’m wondering if there are minutes etc at City Hall somewhere of these meetings in 1955.  There was a also a comment about the Streetcar being of wood and perhaps not lasting long as a display, and I have a feeling that’s what may have happened.  Stay tuned!

January 27, 1891 WSR opening

Streetcar History, , , , ,


1892 opening WER

Originally uploaded by buflyer200

I thought it would be appropriate to mention with this ongoing cold spell, the first test of the Winnipeg Street Railway (WSR) with electric cars was January 27th, 1891 (118 yrs ago!) at 7.30pm. This test occurred on River Ave, or the “bush of Fort Rouge” as city council was fearful of electric wires overhanging the streets.  This was the first electric commercial streetcar operation in Canada. Until then, the Streetcars where pulled by horses on the rails. I have yet to find pictures of this event, however we do have a despriction, from John Bakers book “Winnipeg’s Electric Transit” p. 15.  I wonder how cold it was in that first Streetcar…..

“Punctually at 7:30pm, Acting Mayor Taylor raised the trolley pole to the wire and the car was brilliantly illuminated by the five incandescent lights mounted in the ceiling. Some of the awestruck crowd surged forward to give closer inspection to the interior. Austin explained the operation of the signal bells and the electric heater to his guests and then gave the order to proceed”.

This picture is for the new entrant, authorized by  city council, and their opening Sept 5, 1892, for the “Winnipeg Electric Street Railway” in front of City Hall. The 2 firms did merge eventually in 1894 after some ‘fierce’ competition for fares and customers. Older pictures from this time actually show 4 separate sets of railway lines, 2 for each company, per City Council orders.

Fall/Winter Update

Streetcar History, , ,

My apologies for no news for awhile, however during the fall/winter, the Streetcar committee is focusing on grant and proposal writing.  WEC T-shirt sales are progressing very well, and many thanks to the Manitoba Heritage Transit Association for ordering shirts, and Winnipeg Transit employees for their support.

We are also working on research for the Streetcar in obtaining parts and resources for materials.  A valuable contact has been made with the Minneapolis Heritage streetcar group at www.trolleyride.org (Minnesota Streetcar Museum) and we hope to see some volunteers come up in the spring to offer advice and recommendations to 356.  Winnipeg did actually order 20 Streetcars from Minneapolis after a carbarn fire in 1920, and they were used in service until the early 1950’s.

There is a great local website of history information at www.manitobia.ca with many scans of press clippings from the late 1880’s to the 1950’s.  I’ve gone through the scans and found a few interesting articles on Streetcars.  Of course most of the clippings and pictures are of accidents, but there are a few which indicate the social aspect of life in Winnipeg.  I’ll post them from time to time, here’s the first one from the Winnipeg Evening Tribune. However, note the date is April 1st, 1942, true or not?

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