Cool Chromes -- Traction Action

Cool Chromes is a recurring feature of slides that have passed through the scanner recently.

Newark City Subway; Newark, N.J.; April 21, 1985

In this edition of Cool Chromes we're going to look at some traction -- electric-powered streetcars and subways. Our first shot above takes us back to April 21, 1985. The Newark City Subway (operated by New Jersey Transit) was having an anniversary of some sort (I can't remember exactly what!) and brought out one of its work cars for display at the Franklin Loop at the north end of the line. Today the PCC streetcar, the work car and even the loop are all gone.

MBTA; Riverside Carhouse, Newton, Mass.; July 1986

Next we have a line-up of Boeing-built Light Rail Vehicles (LRV) for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) at the company's Riverside carhouse in Newton (I think; I wasn't the greatest at taking notes). This view was made possible thanks to a tour operated for the joint convention of the National Railway Historical Society and National Model Railroad Association in July 1986. Once again, all these Boeing-built cars are gone to retirement.

SEPTA; Hunting Park, Penn.; January 28, 1995

Here's a Peter Witt streetcar operating in charter service for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). The Philadelphia transit agency used to maintain a small fleet of historic cars, but has since dispersed its collection. The Peter Witt now resides at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton. This shot was taken on January 28, 1995, during a Super Saturday Streetcar Special operated by the Wilmington Chapter NRHS.

PATH; Kearny, N.J.

We finish this edition of Cool Chromes with a shot of the Port Authority Trans Hudson (PATH) system. A work train is out on the line at Kearny, N.J., using retired cars and a flat car. One of the curses of slides is the processor didn't always stamp the processing date on the mount (especially after Kodak gave up doing its own processing) so this slide is, for the moment, undated (I may have mentioned I was bad at taking notes). However, I would guess it was taken during a boat trip on the Hackensack River either during or right around the time of the 1988 NRHS Convention in New Jersey in July 1988.